There was a time when I was much too impatient for food.

In those days, food was an afterthought. Breakfasts were coffee and cigarettes, maybe a buttered roll; lunches were skipped; dinners were eaten with plastic forks.

I couldn't be bothered with cooking. I was too lazy to care about what was organically grown, or what was allowed to run free with no injected hormones or antibiotics. I did not follow chefs' careers, or memorize sauces, or clip articles from Saveur. I wasn't a regular at the farmers market; I never fantasized about butchers.

Things are different now.

I plan my next meal as I'm eating the one in front of me. I will spend an entire afternoon on a good stock or a roast; I make my own ice cream, and refuse to buy bottled salad dressing. I am currently two-timing my butcher with the bratwurst lady at Bavarian Meats. And I can now appreciate a place like Fira, the latest addition to the diverse culinary strip on Queen Anne Avenue.

I would never have understood Fira during my Takeout Era. This elegant, ambitious restaurant, with its pan-Mediterranean leanings--the name "Fira" comes from the Greek island of Santorini--and menu that borrows liberally from France, Greece, Italy, Spain, and Tunisia, would've intimidated me once upon a time. I would have deemed the food too complicated, too fussy. I might have implored the chef, Sean Maxey, to loosen up and pare it down, to leave things alone. Well, that was then.

Today, I support Fira in its adventures. I'm excited about being able to find whole roasted squab ($26) or a Moroccan lamb rack ($25) or a classic tapas plate ($6.50) in a sedate neighborhood more accustomed to pastas and pan-Asian. I love that Maxey's menu drops more names than a tabloid gossip column: Cabrales cheese, Niman Ranch pork, Gaeta olives, English peas, Yukon gold potatoes, Middle Eastern dips, saffron-poached garlic... flavors here are elaborate, layered, unexpected, exhilarating.

Signs of flourish show up early on with appetizers. Crab and asparagus salad ($9) stands tall and proud, a sea-and-garden sculpture that tastes as good as it looks: A silken garlic-and-shallot tartlette provides the backdrop for fresh crabmeat flavors and sweet/tart heirloom tomatoes, which are then punctuated with robust hazelnuts and splotches of cognac-mustard emulsion. Another salad of grilled tender artichoke hearts and shaved fennel ($7.50)--already two distinct, stand-alone items--is adorned to the hilt with pea shoots, crisp pancetta, Parmigiano crisps, and champagne-laurel vinaigrette. Even the decidedly simpler citrus salad ($6.50) with grapefruit and blood oranges gets luxurious extras like fried capers, sorrel, oil-cured olives, and a cleansing finish from watercress leaves.

Interesting meats are plentiful--besides squab and Moroccan lamb, you'll also find Portuguese grilled chicken ($21), beef tenderloin ($26), local salmon ($22), and free-range veal ($23)--but vegetarians also have sexier options than the usual boring, butter-soaked portobello entrée scenario. Curried fava beans ($18) with chickpea fries, or roasted chanterelle risotto ($18) with mascarpone, basil, preserved lemon, and dandelion-green pesto, are proof of the kitchen's devotion to innovative combinations, even without flesh.

I almost ordered out of character and tried that risotto, but I just couldn't. Why? Three words: BACON-WRAPPED VEAL. You know what I mean?! How does one walk away from rosy veal tenderloin, brimming with juices, wrapped in thick New Zealand bacon, and hovering protectively over a dark stew of roasted tomatoes, fennel, scarlet runner beans, chard, and chanterelle Marsala sauce? One doesn't. Christ, that veal was amazing.

When I saw my escolar special ($22; escolar is moist and delicate, with the durable texture of swordfish or mako shark), I almost didn't want to ruin the artful and meticulous tower by eating it. I wish my life could be as gorgeously arranged as that entrée was--delicious, perfectly grilled fish perched atop paper-thin zucchini slices and a firm potato galette, with a tomato-and-herb salad--everything in its place, every component serving a purpose. I ate, and paused, and stared.

Fine, so I'm swooning. But I LIKE pretty food.

Fira 2232 Queen Anne Ave N, 284-3472. Tues-Sun 5-10 pm; (Fri-Sat 11 pm); closed Mondays.