I wrote a little story for the business section on Saturday about trends I noticed at this year's Florida Restaurant & Lodging Show at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando. One that got cut from the story was my pick for coolest new taste. I wrote, "Koppert Cress USA’s booth was thronged with chefs, and for good reason. The company offers tiny, tiny cresses and micro-vegetables, each living plant still rooted in its medium until a chef snips off a serving -- Tahoon cress that tastes like the forest floor, Dijon mustard cress with an assertive, almost wasabi-like flavor. But none were nearly as cool as the showstopper: Szechwan buttons that, when crushed on the tongue, release an oil that seems electric, like a live current is zinging around the mouth. Its applications—cocktails, sorbets—certainly excited the imaginations of the gathered chefs."

This is part of a broader trends toward playfulness in the kitchen--the whimsy and ironic goofing of Thomas Keller's dishes at the French Laundry, plus all the kooky molecular gastronomy going on thanks to visionaries like Ferran Adrià and Wylie Dufresne, then add in our newfound enthusiasm for stunt foods like miracle fruit. Bottom line, there's a lot of fun stuff going on in this country's restaurants, but not a whole lot of it has made it here yet.

Enter MJ's Martini, Jazz and Tapas Lounge, my new favorite place. The chef is Domenica Macchia, formerly of Redwoods in St. Petersburg. And she's doing New American small plates that will absolutely knock your socks off.

Like this:

Two gorgeous, perfectly pan-seared diver scallops on a plate with a little tangle of greens, a drizzle of intense avocado sauce and applewood-smoked bacon brittle.

Yes, you read that right. Brittle. Like as in peanut brittle, only flavored with bacon. The sweet of the brittle echoing the sweet of the scallop, the smokiness of the bacon adding incredible depth, the textural contrasts--it's all genius. MJ's (445 99th Ave N, one block south of Gandy Blvd., St. Petersburg, 727-329-6600) has been open less than two weeks, so I can't review it yet, but I'm thrilled. It's a lovely place, great vibe, wonderful dinnertime pianist and live jazz later in the evening, and some of the most exciting spins on homey American dishes I've had in ages. There's skirt steak and slow-braised lamb spareribs, brined and deep-fried turkey, meatloaf and mashed potatoes (using Peruvian blues makes the mash opalescent purple).

I tell you, run, don't walk.