Restaurant shines like diamonds> The Rose Garden gains high honors from AAA

If you think the only service AAA, the auto association, can provide is some juice to your stalled junker and a discount on traveler’s checks for that trip north of the border, think again. Take, for example, The Rose Garden, a Bar Harbor restaurant which won the AAA four-diamond rating last year and, by virtue of its listing in the 1997 Tourbook put out by AAA, ranks with some of North America’s finest eateries.

Most generally for the consumer, that diamond system means creative cuisine, excellent service and elegant surroundings. But for the big brownie points, a four-diamond restaurant also should have fresh flowers on the table, gentility at every turn, a smartly attired and mentally alert staff, nice china, an array of appropriate silver, variable glassware, and a certain je ne sais quoi.

At The Rose Garden, which is located at the Bar Harbor Inn on Eden Street (right across from College of the Atlantic, an esteemed food service center in its own collegiate right), that very extra special touch comes most unexpectedly in the restroom. A discreet host drops fresh rose petals into the toilet bowls (for both men and women — we checked) after every use. Yes, simply decadent — in a disarmingly aromatic way, mind you.

So it’s flowers, flowers everywhere with this upscale joint of ultimate manners, where the host shakes out your napkin and places it on your lap and responds to every request with the optimistic exegesis “It’s my pleasure.” Indeed, fresh blossoms and flickering candles adorn every table. Elsewhere, plants — real and otherwise — fancifully decorate the dining room and offer a courtly privacy for diners. Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons” and the occasional jazz tune reinforce the mood audibly.

Your mind might swirl at the expert if not overwhelming wine list. So we confidently recommend a bottle of the 1995 Conundrum, a white table wine by California’s Caymus vineyards. Here’s hoping it leaves you in a delighted state of flavor puzzlement over such lofty vinic issues as complexity and aroma.

The menu, like the wine list, is filled with tempting choices designed by executive chef Adeena Cohen. Each table gets a complimentary sample of smoked salmon mousse with capers and dill on a cracker. After that you’re on your own to winnow through the tres chic cuisine. With our blessings, choose the peppery Maine crab cakes in a tarragon cream sauce, or wild mushroom risotto with dried cranberries and Shaved parmesan cheese.

For the main course, there’s the fashionable farm-raised lobster, salmon en papillote with citrus butter, grilled duck breast with Asian spices, pan-seared veal chop, a roast rack of lamb, and the ever-popular American favorite, filet mignon. The vegetable strudel, a puff pastry with creamy goat cheese and vine-ripened tomato coulis, has a heavenly, deliquescent quality. Nightly specials may include perfectly cooked top round of lamb in a rum raisin and dried cranberry sauce and the beloved mashed potatoes with rosemary.

Unlike the unfortunate aftermath of supping at many upper-crust restaurants, you may find yourself too sated for dessert. Go the extra mile anyway. The flourless chocolate cake divides nicely between two friendly people. Or, for out-and-out gluttony, order your own warm apple crisp, cheesecake with three-nut crust, fresh berries or creme caramel.

The whole evening will cost you upward of $75 for two, with menu items that range from $5.50 to $24.95. If you order wine, plan on more. And although you may grow weary of the amusing hypercourtesy of the staff, you won’t want to miss the choreography of their food delivery. They have a buddy system — a postively balletic approach to delivering entrees in graceful and symmetric unison. A four-diamond shtick, no doubt. The only thing we’d still like to know is which of the following it would take to give this restaurant a five-diamond rating: silk papier du toilet or rubies in the water glasses?

For those who want to indulge in this beguiling brush with culinary urbanity, The Rose Garden, which is run by Ed and Judy Hemmingsen, closes Oct. 12 for the season.