It's never easy to strike a perfect balance. To find the right mix of heat and flavor in spicy food, or of locally produced foods and exotic delicacies. Or to smoothly blend bright colors and tropical decor with the kind of atmosphere that can compete with other high-end and higher-priced restaurants.

Sweetwater's Tropic Zone manages to pull it off - mostly.

The "tropical" restaurant - heavy on Caribbean with some south Asian flair and a few detours around the equator - replaced Milky Way Downtown and arrived with a pedigree: owners Sue and Joe Zimmerman ran the Sweetwater Jam House in Portland for almost nine years. And you can tell - the food and the feel of the place already is sophisticated and cohesive.

The pineapple curry seafood stew ($20, dinner only) is both delicate and rich, and the broth perfectly captures the mussels, clams, shrimp and fish.

The curried avocado with jasmine rice ($5.75 side, $12 dinner) was rightfully exalted by our server and would make a nice meal - especially with fried plantains (sweet or green). Or you could pair it with the marriage of bar food and high cuisine that is the habanero popper (called the Some like it hot! Habanero!, $1.50 for half, which is enough, or $2 whole). My wife braved one before dinner and barely regained her taste buds in time to enjoy the rest. It's a fun dare, and earns both exclamation points in its name.

Sweetwater's has many choices for vegans and vegetarians of all stripes, but meat eaters have reason to celebrate, too.

The Trinidadian curried goat ($15 dinner, $14 lunch) falls off the bone, and if you've never been brave enough to try the most widely consumed meat in the world, now's your chance. (Though Sue Zimmerman says Boiseans may not need the prodding: the goat has been among the top five best-sellers since the restaurant opened this summer.)

The most fun and unique dish is the alligator chili ($12 lunch and dinner), served with thin-sliced fresh jalapenos, a healthy dollop of sour cream and the option of a fried egg on top. The alligator comes from right here in Idaho - thanks to a geothermal hot spring that gives Hagerman its own tropic zone - and, paired with local Kurobuta pork chorizo from Canyon County's Snake River Farms, it makes the chile a distinctly Idaho concoction.

Oh, and it tastes pretty good, too.

In fact, just about everything I tried tasted good. And unlike some tiki-oriented places that wander aimlessly from the Caribbean to South America to Asia and back, Sweetwater's seems to have purpose to its spices and fusion.

Of course, it's still a new restaurant in a new town, and there are bound to be kinks. While we never ran into an unfriendly or bungling member of the staff, the service was spotty at lunch. The server was attentive - he kept my 2-year-old lunchmate well stocked with raisins - but he forgot to deliver our conch fritters.

On the flip side, our server at dinner slipped me a small dish of the black beans I was craving to entice me to order the curried avocado as one of the side dishes included with the jerk chicken. That kind of attention brings people back.

And as you maybe have figured out from the prices I've listed, Sweetwater's is a relatively expensive restaurant for Boise, and that's even more pronounced at lunch. Though you can get a few sandwiches for between $7.50 and $11, lunch entrees and entree salads are all in the double-digits, with several at $14 or more. Even Downtown, that's spendy - a price point Zimmerman attributes to ingredients as local and humanely produced as she can find.

The Milky Way helped usher Boise into an era of smart food and modern design, and I miss it - and winced this summer to know that the clean lines and subtle colors of the place were becoming, well, a tropic zone. But the overall feel remains: The open kitchen and bar are still cool and welcoming, and the high ceilings mean you don't have to look at the pink flamingos if you don't want to. The food more than makes up for it. And even modernists can enjoy some fun every once in a while.

Gregory Hahn: 377-6425