DAMA’s food menu lists an intriguing variety of “Small Plates” and a much shorter catalog (i.e., five dishes only) of “Large Plates.” It almost seems like customers are being subtly pushed toward selecting from the former list and ignoring the latter. In fact, that is what Charlie and I decided to do; to make it a tapas-style dinner by filling up on the “Small Plates” exclusively. Future historians will have to determine whether we saved any money by doing that, or whether we ended up spending even more than we would’ve had we ordered an entrée each. At any rate, our dinner of four appetizers and four cocktails (two each) came to over $200; so, the prices here are not for the faint of heart. But—what aromas, what flavors, what textures we got for our money! We had a dozen raw oysters on the half shell, the Crispy Potato, the Crispy Squash Flowers, and the simply labeled, “Bread.” DO NOT let the humble name of this last appetizer fool you into overlooking this dish. It’s a plate of thick-cut French bread topped with cherry tomatoes and seasoning and positively drenched in olive oil (as in, the oil was literally overflowing from the plate and dripping onto our table), and it was my second favorite dish of the meal. My favorite dish, however, would have to be the squash flowers. This golden, deep-fried delicacy has a crispy skin, but bite into one and you will be astonished by the soft, airy, cheese filling; altogether, crispy skin plus delicate filling created an effect that was quite delightful. Our dishes were all flavorful; even the oysters (the one dish that is perhaps nothing to blog about; I mean, as long as it’s fresh, you can’t go wrong with raw oysters, even if a few of the ones on our platter were decidedly puny) were served with an assortment of condiments (besides just the usual cocktail sauce), including a ramekin of fresh horseradish, which tasted surprisingly mild (isn’t horseradish supposed to be very pungent?).