Harry Stone and his wife, Janine Stone, celebrate their 21st anniversary together at the bar at Low Stakes Lodge in Portland. Brianna Soukup/Portland Press Herald

When they launched Low Stakes Lodge last June, co-owners Peter Bissell, Andy Gerry and Baxter Key — who also own The Highroller Lobster Co. next door on Exchange Street — didn’t want their new steakhouse to take itself too seriously. They’d modeled Low Stakes in part after the former Bugaboo Creek, their favorite family steakhouse chain as kids. This nostalgic homage plays out in the antler chandeliers and stuffed woodland creatures that hang around the room, and the animatronic moose head mounted on the wall.

But this is Bugaboo Creek seen through the Highroller lens, so there’s no shortage of playful, irreverent riffs: A stuffed raccoon above the bar wears shades and holds a hand of cards and a cigarette, while the mounted moose has flashing red eyes, breathes smoke and is named “Moosifer” — the counterpart to Highroller’s “Bony Rigatoni” skeleton mascot.

The Low Stakes vibe is also part western saloon, with bright red leather banquettes, booths and barstools and country music playing prominently in the background. And it’s part hipster dive bar, where a vintage Schlitz clock by the bar is perma-set to 4:20, and Dice Shooters (you literally roll dice to determine what shot you’ll be served, $3 each) are one of the most popular drinks. And it’s another part Maine hunting lodge, featuring a bar-length mural by local artist Spenser Macleod that depicts a kind of Anytown, Maine, with old-timey ships in a harbor, a logging operation and trains.

It’s intentionally a little busy, but Low Stakes hangs together in a loose way that underscores the venue’s light-hearted spirit. “There’s something cool to look at no matter where you sit, which makes it a fun place to be in,” Gerry explained.

I arrived on time for a 7:30 p.m. reservation on a recent Friday, though nobody was manning the host station by the door, and no staffers behind the bar or elsewhere greeted me. But I was waiting for a friend to arrive anyway, so I took a menu from the host station and found the folksy introduction printed inside: “Howdy partner! Grab a seat, loosen that belt buckle and dig into some hearty fixin’s made with good ol’ fashioned flavor.”

My friend soon showed, we were seated shortly after, and the initial inattention proved to be an anomaly from our prompt, pleasant and helpful (though perhaps fittingly, also somehow laid-back) service the rest of evening.

The house cocktail list, crafted by beverage director and co-general manager Colin Mulcunry, features a dozen drinks meant to pair with both the ambience and the meaty menu. Some of the drinks and dishes bear gold stars on the menu denoting them as house favorites, and the Ring of Fire ($14) cocktail amply earns the designation.

The Ring of Fire cocktail at Low Stakes Lodge in Portland. Brianna Soukup/Portland Press Herald

“We wanted it to be a top performer, and it’s kind of lived up to that,” Mulcunry said of the drink, which blends smoky Leyendas mezcal and bittersweet pineapple-infused campari. Juice from charred pineapple lends deeply caramelized, complex fruitiness, while a few drops of habanero tincture add compelling background heat. Garnished with a charred slice of pineapple and a maple syrup and bourbon-macerated Luxardo maraschino cherry, the Ring of Fire makes a fine mood-setter and palate-prepper for a Low Stakes meal.

Some of the restaurant’s starters tend toward the family-friendly Bugaboo offerings, like wings or a blooming onion. Others are steakhouse classics, like French Onion Soup and the Wedge Salad (each $12). Served in a traditional white French crock, the soup is topped with a well-toasted slice of baguette that holds its crispness even as it absorbs the savory beef broth, along with plenty of gooey broiled Gruyère, some fragrant fresh thyme and a scattering of crispy butter-fried shallots, which add a little more crunch and another layer of oniony flavor.

French Onion Soup at Low Stakes Lodge, topped with butter-fried shallots. Brianna Soukup/Portland Press Herald

The enormous Wedge Salad (which uses two cored quarters of an iceberg lettuce head and is most certainly a shareable app) is topped with blue cheese dressing, finely chopped crisp bacon and halved grape tomatoes, all in amounts proportionate to the lettuce. But the serviceable dressing isn’t made in-house. When a dish has so few ingredients, the quality of those ingredients makes all the difference. It would be worth any added time and expense to prepare their own dressing — maybe also sprinkle additional blue cheese crumbles over the dish — to really make that salad sing.

Getting to the meat of the matter, Low Stakes Lodge sources their beef from national purveyor Allen Brothers, which also supplies steakhouses like the respected Gallaghers in New York City. I’d tried the prime-grade ribeye ($62) on a visit to Low Stakes last summer, and knew that the kitchen was fully capable of doing justice to a premium cut of steak: It was cooked precisely to medium-rare (how they do it unless you tell your server otherwise), with a flavorful crust and all the juicy, deckle-enriched deliciousness you’d expect from well-marbled ribeye.

Economic times being what they are, this time I tried the menu’s least expensive steak cut, the bavette ($32, graded choice, just below prime), which comes from the bottom sirloin’s flap meat. Because flap is relatively lean and fibrous, it can be dry, tough and chewy if overcooked or not sliced carefully against the grain.

But the bavette came to our table textbook medium-rare and cross-cut into succulent, tender slices (it’s the only steak the restaurant pre-slices for customers) with deeply beefy flavor and subtle mineral complexity. If you’re not familiar with bavette steak, you may find it a budget-friendly revelation.

For $2 each, you can add house-made sauces like chipotle ketchup, Moxie BBQ and honey Dijon. But the steak is already topped with a scoop of “cowboy butter,” a compound butter including herbs, garlic, Dijon and cayenne. It suits the steak nicely, but came to the table a little too cold to melt and coat the steak slices over time as it should.

The Bavette steak with mashed potatoes and green beans at Low Stakes Lodge in Portland. Brianna Soukup/Portland Press Herald

Steaks here all come with a choice of two sides, and I opted for Baxter’s mashed potatoes and green beans. For the beans, Low Stakes uses slightly more elegant and slender haricots verts, cooked tender with a little bite left, and coated with lemon-parsley butter and lightly browned garlic — a scrumptious simple side.

Co-owner Baxter Key conceived the menu’s dishes, and his outstanding namesake spuds in particular. His recipe calls for passing intrinsically buttery boiled Yukon Gold potatoes through a food mill for uniformly smooth texture before blending in plenty of butter and heavy cream. Key said he was inspired by renowned chef Thomas Keller’s pommes puree, which uses potatoes and butter in a roughly 3:1 ratio (the legendary version from French chef Joel Robuchon weighs in at 2:1).

Key dials the butter back just a little, which allows the glistening potatoes to loosely mound on the plate, where they’re topped with crispy fried shallots and chopped parsley. Like the beans, Baxter’s lush mashers demonstrate how to elevate traditional fare without unnecessary fuss or reimagining.

The potatoes were assertively salted, but in a good way. The Chicken Supreme ($24, and another house favorite), though, was oversalted. Not to the point of being inedible, but it detracted from an otherwise flavorful dish with loads of retro, midcentury appeal.

The recipe comes from Key’s grandmother, herself inspired by an old Julia Child recipe. It’s essentially chicken breast in a cream sauce fortified with chicken stock, mirepoix and deglazed fond from the sautéed chicken, served over slightly sticky Jasmine rice, all the better for soaking up the delectably rich sauce. With the exception of this dish, the seasoning had been consistently good on both my visits to Low Stakes, so I feel confident it’s just a hiccup from the crew overseen by Adam Heath, who took the helm of the kitchen this year.

If you have any room left, do try one of the rotating selection of cakes ($8/slice) baked daily by Gerry’s mom, Jacky (and displayed under glass on the bartop). The double-layer Fudge Oreo was moist and seriously chocolatey with satisfying sweetness, a properly indulgent capper for a hearty, old-school meal. Just loosen that belt buckle, partner.

A raccoon known as “Cigarette Jim” sits behind the bar at Low Stakes Lodge in Portland. Brianna Soukup/Portland Press Herald

RATING: ***1/2
WHERE: 106 Exchange St., Portland, 207-345-6200, lowstakeslodge.com
SERVING: 3-9 p.m. Wednesday-Monday
PRICE RANGE: Snacks and starters: $3-$15, Entrées: $15-$62
NOISE LEVEL: Moderate
VEGETARIAN: Some dishes
RESERVATIONS: Yes
BAR: Beer, wine and cocktails
WHEELCHAIR ACCESS: Yes

BOTTOM LINE: Like its sister restaurant, the adjacent Highroller Lobster Co., Low Stakes Lodge avoids self-seriousness and aims to make quality food feel fun. The western saloon/Maine hunting lodge/hipster dive bar vibe hangs together loosely as a playful homage to the former family steakhouse chain Bugaboo Creek. The kitchen delivers strong takes on classic steakhouse comforters like French Onion Soup, and simple sides like green beans and mashed potatoes — mere afterthoughts at lesser operations — are executed here with thought and care. The chefs can also be counted on to serve your steak to textbook medium rare. If you’re splurging, the prime-grade ribeye is a must, while the more budget-friendly bavette steak fully satisfies at about half the price. Leave room for baker Jacky Gerry’s rotating selection of layer cakes.

Ratings follow this scale and take into consideration food, atmosphere, service, value and type of restaurant (a casual bistro will be judged as a casual bistro, an expensive upscale restaurant as such):
* Poor
** Fair
*** Good
**** Excellent
***** Extraordinary

The Maine Sunday Telegram visits each restaurant once; if the first meal was unsatisfactory, the reviewer returns for a second. The reviewer never accepts free food or drink.