The story starts when Read was 8, and working at his family's diner, Darito's, in Narragansett. That sparked a life-long interest in food and cooking, and he bopped in and out of many South County restaurants, most notably as general manager of Arturo Joe's in Narragansett. At Celestial Cafe, he is in partnership with his aunt, Cheryl Zanella, who is no stranger to the business, either, with nearly 20 years of waitressing and managing experience. Along the way, Read and Zanella hooked up with William Milner, a 23-year-old Johnson & Wales University graduate who returned to Rhode Island from Louisiana to work as Celestial Cafe's executive chef. Milner was sous chef at Robert De Niro's Marigny Brasserie in New Orleans. Read likes to cook, but not professionally. He leaves that task to Milner. Both share an eclectic taste that culls ingredients and cooking styles from a grab bag of global influence -- amid Mediterranean-inspired entrees are soy-ginger glazes and Danish brie. And Milner brought a lot of New Orleans with him to his Rhode Island menu. It's not unusual, for instance, to see Read's Italian-Portuguese background mixed with Milner's love of Creole and Cajun. Just beneath chicken saltimbocca on the menu is a Creole-inspired jambalaya. Crawfish shows up in a hodgepodge of scallops and lobster. Tilapia fillets are pan-fried Creole style, too. Fresh berries in winter Berries -- strawberries, blackberries, blueberries -- are used in everything from salad to chutney. Seeing them in the menu notes sent a red flag to my tastebuds: How good is a blackberry going to be in mid-January? But apparently Milner gets his out-of-season goodies from a reliable source. As much as I wanted to pooh-pooh the whole idea, everything I tasted that included a berry was stellar. For instance, a small round of Danish brie, warm and nearly melting, is served triumphantly with a cooked chutney studded with blackberries, cranberries and nuts. For a little crunch, there are house-made chips. For something softer, there is earthy wheat bread. Spread with a little of the mild tanginess of the brie and the sweet-and-sour flavor of the chutney (plus a little butter spiced up with fresh rosemary), this combination is vying to replace any pre-existing ranking I held for my "dishes I will find in heaven" list. Move over, Krispy Kremes and Mom's chicken-fried steak. Celestial Cafe's baked brie with chutney is now number one. Berries are the star of a spinach salad, too, although they get a lot of competition from a supporting cast of crunchy spiced pecans and crumblings of tangy blue cheese. But it is the combination of tawny-yet-plucky Balsamic vinegar and a fresh strawberry reduction that makes your mouth sing. It's sweet. It's tart. It's just a little salty. In short, it's perfect, and hard to stop eating, even when you've resorted to dragging a finger around the empty plate. Two fresh takes on fried calamari are on Milner's menu. One is flavored with Mediterranean tidbits such as Kalamata olives and artichokes. The other, an Asian-inspired combination of soy-ginger sauce, peapods, sliced mushrooms and chopped scallions, was full of salty, ginger-laced flavor, but suffered from an acute case of mushiness. The only needed crispiness came from the crunch of the peapods. An eggplant dish, "eggplant DiMartino," almost suffered a similar fate, but was rescued by its crackly, pan-fried edges and the astoundingly bright flavor of roasted tomatoes. Sauteed spinach was also there to lend a flavorful hand, in a creamy Parmesan sauce with a smart finish of Balsamic vinegar. I'm not sure why the dish needed pumpkin gnocchi, though. The dumplings were a little too gummy and seemed out of place. Besides, everything was perfect without them. Texture is an issue with the jambalaya, too. It's teeming with sage-y andouille sausage and bits of juicy chicken in a rich tomato sauce spiced up with bell peppers and onion flavor. A drizzling of chipotle-flavored aioli kicks things up a notch. But the whole of it is just too gluey. Underneath, Asian rice noodles stretch the East-meets-West fusion thing a bit too far -- I'd rather have the rice that normally accompanies this "Creole paella." Sleek blue minimalism Celestial Cafe's atmosphere is subtly sophisticated, with sleek, minimalist attitude. One dining room is bathed in hues of blue that Read accomplishes with subtle lighting. Large geometric shapes in light-to-dark tones of more blue and aquamarine are painted on one wall. There is a tendency toward Oriental design patterns -- the chairs are backed with slotted bamboo, and perky green bamboo shoots adorn each table. There is a deliberate sense of the elements -- the bar and kitchen counter are polished granite; stone and steel are used to highlight different areas. And the restaurant almost serves as a gallery for the stark, moving images of South County photographer Dan Dunn. An acquaintance of Read's and the chief photographer for the South County Independent, Dunn was given three criteria for the restaurant's walls -- the shots were to be of nature, to be abstract and to come only from Exeter. The result is stirring and thought-provoking, adding to the already sleek look of the rest of the decor. They are certainly something to ponder while also thinking about dessert. I have to admit that the moment I ordered the apple crisp with pumpkin ice cream, I wished I had ordered the two specials instead -- a frozen Mississippi mud pie and a molten chocolate cake, both made in-house. They were whisked to a table nearby just as our waitress finished taking our order, and they looked as intriguing as Dunn's photographs -- in a dessert sort of way. The only flaw I could charge the waitress with would be not telling me that the pumpkin ice cream was all gone. Boo hoo. I made do with vanilla, and it was rich and dreamy as it started to melt under a mantle of tart apples laced with butter and cinnamon. Beyond that one little mishap, she was perfect. With small exceptions, I'm tempted to say the same for Celestial Cafe.