t Queen and Shaw, directly across from the Candy Factory, people crowd into an understated Italian restaurant. The sleek space is Bar One and each evening it's SRO with well-heeled drinkers.

This crowd tends toward model-worshippers and Eurotrash. A scenester zoo at night, few realize this cool lounge serves first-class brunches seven days a week. Loud and crowded, it's quintessential candy factory life.

This is not a big place: four banquettes, five or six tables, and one very long, two-sided bar that is right out of Wallpaper*. Owner Marcello Barone’s family hails from Bar Italia and the now defunct Ellipsis. You'll immediately recognize the recurring theme at Bar One. This is a minimalist, goldfish bowl place, complete with one of the sexiest exhibitionist, restaurant-length bars around. Tables lined up against one wall like dominos, facing the long, sleek bar, often filled with sharp-looking black-clad locals.

Chris Cruz (Ellipsis) is in the kitchen serving up linguine gorgonzola & sugar snap peas; grilled chicken salad on arugula with toasted pinenuts, shaved Asiago and fennel julienne with lemon rosemary dressing; antipasti; and a nice take on the tuna steak sandwich. Many of these dishes share a kind of elemental richness, which seems to work better in small doses. On some of the more elaborate dinner entrees you can sense the chef furrowing a brow, grasping for combinations that will make a big splash.

Bar One remains a great place for gourmet pizza and cocktails, but don't go too hungry as the menu is limited. Have the Bagna Cauda salad to start, and stick to one of the thin-crusted pizzas with hot Italian sausage, onion and blue cheese; other items are a bit inconsistent. Nonetheless, the place is a hopping scene.