There are diners who profess not to care much for desserts. But if you do care, and if you're going to splurge, it seems a shame to waste such abandon on a merely desultory sweetness.

Graziano Tecchio, the chef at Downtown Cafe in Kingston, understands this impulse. His cakes and pastries sprawl across their plates, unapologetically enhanced with fresh-made sauces and fluffy cream. All desserts here are made fresh daily with whatever ingredients happen to inspire the chef. Hi ever-changing array, displayed on carts in the dining room, is so eye-popping you may be tempted to skip the rest of the meal and go right to the crowning moment.

Which is exactly what dessert should be. A tiramisu at Downtown bears little resemblance to the square-cut block that now tops dessert lists across the country. Mr. Tecchio's version is a joyfully formless mound of genoise, subsumed in liqueur, dark chocolate and fresh cream with his wild, free hand shaking cocoa over it all.

But he can show refinement, too. Mr. Tecchio's currant and pineapple tart is a rectangular slab of perfect puff pastry, approximately the dimesions of a business envelope, piled with glossy, tangy fruit. A raspberry cheesecake was light and fresh, and the chocolate truffle torte with wild berries was so intense it stopped conversation.

CLAUDIA ROWE