Welcome to The Buzz, a new feature where we look at what the Internet is saying about brand new restaurants. It's too early for a review, but when has that ever stopped anyone? This week we're taking a look at Gaslight, which opened last Thursday.

Judging by this blog's statistics, Gaslight is Boston's most anticipated restaurant in quite some time. It's no wonder, really. The Aquitaine Group is one of the city's most successful restaurant groups and bistros have always been what they do best. The prices are reasonable (entrees top out at $19.50) and the space is both gorgeous and conveniently positioned on Harrison Ave, which, if you believe the hype, is totally the next Washington Street. The internet is going nuts about Gaslight. Let's see what they're saying, shall we?

The Good: Chowhounder hsquare2southend, who has the distinction of being the first person to weigh in on Gaslight, gave it an almost-rave: "The menu has nice variety, and is perfect for all-day and late-night dining, with several sandwich items (burger, croque-monsieur) that looked yummy. ... The steak frites is the priciest entree on the menu, at $19.50. I am not even a regular fan of steak frites, but this one was delicious. It can be ordered with butter or bernaise sauce. I chose the latter, which was out of this world." 'Hounder litchick was inclined to agree: "Overall impression: I loved it. The aesthetic is great ... It feels like a fancier place than the prices would have you expect, which is really quite a nice way to dine -- you feel like you're really getting a deal. The price point is a welcome addition to the neighborhood and the Boston dining scene in general, and if they hold steady without raising the rates, I can see this place being packed all the time. They were full to the gills last night, but the din was minimal, which I appreciated. I feel like this can be a great neighborhood joint, and I expect to go back often." Perhaps our favorite rave comes from Yelp's Deepa C.: "You know those girls, 8 feet tall, with long blond hair, perfect make up, Manolo's and that pencil skirt from Turtle you know you could never afford nor fit into. It took a lot of time to look like that, money, research and intuition. And inherent class. All that is embodied into Gaslight."

The Bad: Although reception has been overwhelmingly positive overall, Gaslight does have some detractors. The Missus of On Common Ground reported a lot of first week jitters that she hopes will improve: "The sound in the place was AWFUL ...I have to question the "freshness" of some of the food. I ordered the beet salad as a starter. The beets tasted "tinny" and old. As though they had maybe been prepped and roasted the day before... Which, quite frankly, is unacceptable." Many are less than pleased with the entirely en Français menu. Blogger pahkcah02 advises diners: "Better brush up on your Francais if you're planning to dine here. While some of the menu offerings are pretty simple to figure out (eg: Poulet Rotisserie), it would be a lot more helpful if they described the meals in English." Finally, in what might be a sign of trouble for the restaurant in a few months, the Globe's Devra First wrote a post on Dishing calling Gaslight "a mash-up of just about every French cliche there is" and complaining of onion soup with a giant lump of cheese floating beneath the bread, threatening to choke a diner with its chewy strands; duck confit that was dry and suspiciously way-too-hot (microwave?); frites that were good in that they looked and tasted exactly like McDonald's; skate in gloppy sauce that resembled airplane food."

The Balthazar Comparisons: When we're in New York, we have breakfast at Balthazar fairly frequently. Although many of Balthazar's patrons are now tourists, it was not too long ago one of New York's hottest restaurants and played a major role in making American takes on French brasseries so incredibly popular. Take a second. Check out Balthazar's website. Now look at the site for Gaslight. Eerie, right? It's no surprise that Gaslight has been getting its fair share of Balthazar comparisons. Yelper JC remarks that "If you have been to Balthazar in NYC, you will love Gaslight a lot. ... Gaslight is a Balthazar of Boston." Chowhounder jpeso is a bit more skeptical: "The place looks nice. But doesnt it look like a complete replica of Pastis, Balthazar, Schillers? It does to me down to the uniforms too. I know that those place are mere replicas of parisian classics as well, but perhaps a slightly new take on it."

Gaslight [MenuPages]
Gaslight [Official Site]

Yesterday, we received word that the Columbus Ave branch of small plate and wine emporium Piattini will be closing after Saturday. Few details were offered in the email, which simply states that the proprietors were "unexpectedly approached by someone interested in taking over the space." Owner Josephine Oliviero is not dismayed: "I’ve been so busy with our new projects that it made sense. This will allow me to concentrate on the expansion of the Newbury Street Piattini concept." The email further offers that new locations, as well as specialty food and import items are in the works.

We know what you're probably thinking. "What about Class in a Glass, Piattini's Monday wine tasting series that currently takes place at the Columbus Ave location?" Good question. At the moment, all Class in a Glass information has been taken off of the official site. When we called to ask, we were told that nothing would be decided until next week. For the sake of Boston oenophiles, we hope they continue the series. In the meantime, we guess we'll have to nibble on our carpaccio while staring at Newbury Street fashionistas instead of the South End baby brigade.

Piattini [MenuPages]
Piattini [Official Site]

Hey, remember how J P Licks is offering free iced coffee anytime the temperature reaches 81 this summer? Sadly, that's not going to happen today, since the projected high is 80. (Also, there's a 30% chance of rain, so we hope you brought your umbrella.) However! Enthusiasts of iced coffee and free stuff need not fret! In celebration of the first day of summer, Bruegger's Bagels will be offering free iced coffee from 2pm-4pm this afternoon. Free! Iced coffee! 16 ounces worth! From Vermont's Green Mountain Coffee Roasters! Mmm. Caffeine-y.

Bruegger's Bagels [Official Site]
Bruegger's Bagels [MenuPages]

The ever-prolific Frank McClelland recently added another feather to his rapidly expanding cap with the launch of Au Soleil Catering. To quickly recap: McClelland is the Beard Award winning chef of the soon-to-move-to-bigger-digs L'Espalier, a partner in Sel De La Terre, which plans to add at least two new locations in the next year, and now a partner in Au Soleil Catering. We've said it before and we'll say it again: this is a mighty big expansion. Does Chef McClelland have ambitions that exceed the Boston food scene or is he just committed to logical extensions of the L'Espalier/SDLT brand?

Whatever McClelland's rationale may be, the inarguable truth is that Au Soleil's offerings look spectacular. Cherry tomato, basil and Parmesan arancini? Sounds lovely! Torchon of foie gras with fig and Vidalia onion jam? Yes, please! The entire Sel De La Terre French Countryside Luncheon? Singlehandedly solving the problem of bad wedding food. If this is empire-building, we'll take it.

Au Soleil Catering [Official Site]
L'Espalier [Official Site]
Sel De La Terre [Official Site]

While perusing Flickr today, we came across one of the loveliest series of food photographs we've seen in quite some time. Flickrite (flickrer?) elroar photographed a series of pristine courses during a family lunch at No. 9 Park. All the photos are beautiful, but we're particularly drawn to this beauty: Vermont quail roulade resting on a potato and ramp puree, topped with morels and pea greens. We're willing to bet that, especially at this time of year, it tastes at least twice as good as it looks.

No. 9 Park offers a $26 prix fixe lunch every weekday. What are you waiting for?

Family Lunch at No. 9 Park [Flickr: elroar]
Vermont Quail Roulade [Flickr: elroar]
No. 9 Park [MenuPages]
No. 9 Park [Official Site]

Remember back in April when we told you that Gabriel Bremer of Cambridge's Salts had been named on of the Best New Chefs of 2007 by Food & Wine Magazine? Well, the issue acclaiming Chef Bremer, along with nine other chefs from across the country, is finally on newsstands and online. Readers can learn how to make Bremer's chilled peaches with arborio rice pudding and cinnamon churros and read a very nice profile of the chef.

Bremer's entire profile is great reading, but we were most intrigued by his fascination with the immersion circulator. An immersion circulator, for those of you who don't obsessively follow trends in kitchen gadgetry, is a device that keeps water swirling at a modestly warm temperature, enabling the chef to cook food very slowly in the liquid. "But wait!" you say. "Wouldn't the food fall apart in all that water?" Oh you, so clever! The food doesn't fall apart in the water because it's (wait for it) vacuum-sealed in plastic bags in a technique called sous-vide (in a moment of proof that everything sounds better in French, the term simply means "vacuum-packed").

Food cooked sous-vide emerges from its warm bath flavorful and, as Slate's Sara Dickerman puts it, "uncannily tender." Since immersion circulators are wildly expensive, it's a difficult technique for home cooks to master, but fortunately, we have chef sous-vide devotees like Bremer to create dishes for us.

Salts [MenuPages]
Salts [Official Site]
Best New Chefs 2007: Gabriel Bremer [Food & Wine]
Thermal Immersion Circulator [Wikipedia]
The Joy of Cooking with Plastic Bags [Slate]

We just checked out Dunkin' Donuts brand-new D Stop section on their website. D Stop is a collection of Dunkie's-based videos, games, quizzes and screensavers. Some highlights:

•Both storytelling videos (It Goes Without Saying and The Legend of the Niknuds) are fairly cute and entertaining, certainly more so than the Rachael Ray ad for the company that's been polluting the airwaves (after reading a recent profile of Ray in People Magazine (we are very lame sometimes), we were surprised to realize that she seems like kind of an awesome person, but her food persona still bugs).
•The other video section, Meg's Minute, is a bit of a hot mess. Meg seems very helpful, but the line delivery ranges from stilted to unintentionally hilarious.
•For reasons unknown, the Dunkin' Diagnosis game wasn't working properly when we tried to play.
•The funniest part of the site hands-down? The entertainingly silly FAQs.

Overall, the site may or may not be helpful for selling donuts (we did think quite a bit about how we want a chocolate cruller (which, by the way, we absolutely refuse to call a chocolate stick on the grounds that it sounds like the basis for an R. Kelly song about bakeries), but that's pretty much always what we're thinking about), but it's definitely good for some procrastination.

D Stop [Dunkin' Donuts]

Chowhound is all agog over the news that L'Espalier is planning to trade its signature townhouse on Gloucestor Street for a flash new place in the Mandarin Oriental Boston. The announcement comes hot on the heels of L'Espalier chef Frank McClelland's Best Chef: Northeast win at the Beard awards and many 'Hounders speculate that the move is part of a larger bid by McClelland to become a food celebrity a la Todd English. This rumor is further fueled by the sudden and vast expansion of the McClelland-owned Sel De La Terre, which has two new branches slated to open in the next year: one alongside L'Espalier in the Mandarin Oriental and one in the "Natick Collection" (by the way: is that really what we're calling the Natick Mall these days?).

Predictably, opinion about L'Espalier's move is decidedly mixed. While many lament the loss of the Back Bay townhouse and the singular dining experience it provided, others are excited to see what happens when McClelland and company spread their culinary wings in a larger space. While L'Espalier's food has always been near-perfect, it's certainly no secret that seating in the current spot is tight and kitchen space is cramped to say the least. Aside from their obscenely well-priced lunch, L'Espalier has always been more than a little bit our of our price range, so we're mostly just curious about what will take its spot on Gloucester Street. No rumors are flying yet, but we're willing to bet that we'll start hearing some within the next month or so. In the meantime, if you want to enjoy one last McClelland meal in the townhouse, you have approximately a year. L'Espalier moves to Boylston next summer.

L'Espalier [Chowhound]
L'Espalier Set For Entree on Boylston [Boston Globe]
L'Espalier [Official Site]
Sel De La Terre [Official Site]

We've long suspected that one's relationship to news about Harvard depends on a variety of factors including but not limited to how long you've lived in the Boston area, your security (or lack thereof) about your own educational background, and whether or not you've ever worked in Harvard Square. Whatever your feelings on Harvard, however, the revelation that the school has just opened a pub on campus is bound to inspire deep feelings of envy. The Cambridge Queen's Head, located in Memorial Hall, is named after an English pub John Harvard left to the University. The pub serves up bar food favorites like fried calamari and mozzarella sticks to Harvard students drunk on the pub's signature beer, Harpoon 1636. Campus pubs are nothing new (when we studied abroad in London, our not-terribly huge university had no less than four bars and pubs on central campus, not counting the ones in each dorm), but they've been slow to catch on (at least in university-owned buildings) in the United States. Although we certainly did enough imbibing in our college years, we must confess that we're more than a little jealous of Harvard's new addition.

The Cambridge Queen's Head Pub [Harvard]

The chips and guacamole at La Verdad are stirring up a fair bit on controversy over on Chowhound. Are the chips cut too thick? Is the guacamole refreshingly delicious as is or does it need a chile kick? Opinions are divided but one thing seems to be constant among both the Chowhounders and patrons we've witnessed: people are impressed by the cheese sprinkled atop the dish. Well, impressed and possibly a little bit baffled. Our own dining companion thought it was parmesan and was very confused. What is this puzzlingly tasty cheese?

The mystery cheese is none other than queso Cotija, a Mexican semi-hard cow's milk cheese with a flavor somewhere between feta and parmesan. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the cheese comes from the town of Cotija de la Paz in the Mexican state of Michoacan, along the Pacific coastline. Queso Cotija is quite granular, which makes it ideal for grating. Its super-salty flavor makes it an ideal accompaniment to dishes in need of a little kick. If you're keen to buy some for home use, try looking at La Internacional Foods in Somerville.

La Internacional Foods, 318 Somerville Ave, Somerville, (617) 776-8855

La Verdad [MenuPages]
La Verdad: 3 out of 4 is pretty damn good [Chowhound]
Cotija Cheese [Wikipedia]
Cotija Puts The Accent On Mexican Foods [San Francisco Chronicle]
Cotija Cheese [Official Site]

Rocca, the long-awaited new Italian spot from not-so-evil geniuses Karen Haskell, Michela Larson, and Gary Sullivan opens tonight. Rocca (pronounced ROQUE-ah, which yes, makes our post title nonsensical, but really, just be glad we didn't go with our original instinct and call it Mo' Rocca) is the first major fine-dining restaurant to open on Harrison Ave, where it will soon be joined by Seth Harris and company's Gaslight Brasserie Du Coin. Rocca's appealingly-priced menu (entrees top out at $25 and most pastas go for $10-14) takes its inspiration from Italy's Liguria region. Liguria is nestled into the northwest corner of Italy, where it is surrounded by Tuscany, Piedmont, and the French Riviera. Like so much of the world's great food, Ligurian cuisine evolved from what was available in the region: stellar anchovies, great olives, and excellent basil (pesto is a Ligurian specialty). To that end, the menu at Rocca is filled with dishes such as a pizetta with San Remo tomatoes, olives, anchovies, capers and fresh herbs; pasta with green beans, potato and pesto; and marinated sardines with radish and mint. We're already salivating over the corzetti with braised rabbit in a red wine sauce. Run on down to Harrison Avenue tonight and toast the newest addition to the South End's dining scene.

Rocca [MenuPages]
Rocca [Official Site]
Rocca Your World [Daily Candy]

Wherein we highlight one of the past week's notable openings.

According to its website, the Bulfinch Boston Hotel is located in "Boston's historic Bulfinch Triangle neighborhood". We've never heard of such a hood, but it seems to be located in between Mass General Hospital and the Boston Garden Fleet Center TD BankNorth Garden, an area which, historically, is something of a culinary wasteland. The Bulfinch Hotel's brand-new dining offering, the Flat Iron Tapas Bar aims to change that by offering small plates in a gorgeous space. The tapas are slightly more experimental than those at Dalí or Tapeo, with offerings like Clam Chowder with Bacon Foam. Mmm. Bacon Foam.

Flat Iron Tapas Bar, 107 Merrimac Street, (617) 624-0202

Flat Iron Tapas Bar [MenuPages]
Flat Iron Tapas Bar [Official Site]
Dalí [Official Site]
Tapeo [MenuPages]

A reader writes in:"Went out on Monday to this great new Indian place on Brighton Ave right between Harvard ave and Shaws. Super super good. I think it opened just under 3 months ago. Excellent quality, great price and really authentic atmosphere and food. Only downside was the giant flat screen playing Indian music videos... kind of hypnotic in a really creepy sort of way. Anyway, it was pretty deserted and for the life of me I couldn't figure out why. So far it's the best Indian I've had in the city."

Over on Chowhound, folks are similarly enthusiastic, saying "Punjab Palace's version [of fish biryani] was possibly the best I've ever had" and suggesting that it might be the "best all around" Indian food in the area. Punjab Palace is owned by the same folks as India Quality and the buzz seems to indicate that it's living up to its pedigree.

Punjab Palace (Allston) [Chowhound]
India Quality [MenuPages]
Punjab Palace [MenuPages]
Punjab Palace [Official Site]