The restaurant famous for its gothic-like ambience, extravagant candlelight and charitable involvement in the GLBT community has suddenly vanished. What was formerly The Abbey on west University Avenue recently gave way to the new Talus Café, where silent black-and-white films and gay-loved movie classics play out on a very cool screen amid globally inspired dishes that change daily.

The new proprietor, Richard Wood, hails from the Los Angeles dining scene. He set his sights on San Diego for opening his first venture, snatching up the bungalow-type structure and beating out Razor’s barber shop next door for the lease, which lusted after the space with the hopes of expanding. Personally, I’ll take Wood’s fleeting menu creations, some of them daring, over yet another Hillcrest clippery serving up buzz cuts and talcum powder.

Evenly dispersed parlor lamps, airier wall colors and vibrant art appoint the revamped interior. Dozens of flickering tea lights still remain, including a bastion of candles adorning the patio where new outdoor furniture was installed along with a movie screen set in ornate, custom framing. The frame strikes a brilliant match to the old flicks shown after sunset – voiceless Spanish classics with occasional favorites starring Joan Crawford or Judy Garland thrown into the mix.

Changing the food menu every day “is easy,” says Wood. It allows him to fully utilize seasonal ingredients while experimenting with a litany of dishes that jump continents within any given night. The goal is to keep guests on their toes, even if it means stepping on the feet of staid diners whose idea of culinary adventure equates to seared ahi tuna and green tea ice cream.

My dining companion and I stumbled across neither on the evening’s menu, encountering only a few “trials” and many “tribulations”

From the fleeting appetizer list, I’d venture to guess that the Spicy Sausage appetizer swamped in red wine fig compote would sell in scads if Wood kept it on the menu through the approaching winter months. The andouille pork sausage met its undiscovered match with apple slices, carrots and the figs – a memorable masterpiece filled with sturdy flavors and soft textures from extended cooking.

A thick piece of bread turned pink from roasted red pepper-tomato sauce set the stage for some pure-tasting Sautéed Calamari. The piled seafood rings revealed a lemony undertone and all the right spices to qualify it as coastal Italian.

We came on an evening heated by Santa Ana temperatures; the butter served with our bread was joyfully soft, but my initial wine choice, a glass of 14 Hands Merlot, soared well above the ideal 57 degrees. An ice bucket parked promptly near our table became the antidote for a bottle of French pinot noir we chose afterwards – oddly the only pinot on the wine list.

Among the soups of the day, a Roasted Garlic and Eggplant fell short of the main ingredients. Made with a chicken stock base, it was overly flavored with allspice and cinnamon. “This tastes like a pureed gingerbread house,” I said to my companion, who chuckled without disagreeing. A salad of mixed greens with Stilton bleu cheese and candied walnuts rose much better to the occasion.

When my companion learned that a blackening pan is used for making the Cajun-style halibut, he ordered it without further ado. Though flaky and judiciously blackened, the filet was a smidgen dry around the edges yet seemed to recover with a plop of spunky sweet pepper and tomato salsa on the side. Garlic “smashed” potatoes on the plate boasted a fine consistency and proved that less garlic works better in this ubiquitous application.

My entrée turned out to be an extraordinary flavor bomb: a boneless, skinless chicken breast seething with sweet sun-dried tomatoes and warm Gorgonzola cheese. Its outer surfaces took on a generous treatment of sage and rosemary, which, all combined, hitched superbly to our chilled-down pinot noir.

Wood’s menu philosophy is commendable in that he displays the necessary confidence and experience to create entirely new dishes every day, thus entering into a culinary playground of freewheeling flavors with international bent. We glanced upon dishes such as Roasted Eggplant Terrine, Portobello Mushroom Steak stuffed with vegetable ratatouille and goat cheese, Thai Salmon with red curry and coconut jasmine rice, and Herb Crusted Loin of Pork with kalamata olive compote.

Our waiter was knowledgeable and friendly, and managed to successfully take on the entire café working solo. But as Talus grows in popularity, which seems highly probable, more help will be needed to service the dining room and main patio, plus additional outdoor tables in the front.

Desserts are outsourced by St. Tropez Bakery & Bistro, a reliable pastry vendor – but we’d been there, done that. We instead left with some original flavors on our tongues that Wood cleverly crafted with verve and style in only his first semester of owning a restaurant.