Why would a restaurateur change a concept that is a proven money maker?

In the case of Dojo — formerly Boken, now Cobalt — it was simply that owner Justin Cook was ready for a change.

“He decided to do something that would make him happy,” said Scott Cook, Justin’s older brother and now his partner in Cobalt.

Cooking good food was the happy place. Running a nightclub was not.

So in early April, Justin closed Dojo to reopen three weeks later with a new name and concept. And while Dojo (and its predecessor, Boken) were very good restaurants, Cobalt is even better.

A concise and creative menu of locally sourced small plates is the foundation, as prepared by veteran chef Nate Johnson. It’s complemented by a quirky list of designer cocktails with names (Shiso Swank, Previous Dates and Thymes) that are as playful as their ingredients.

Former patrons of Dojo won’t notice many changes in the appearance of the restaurant, located beside the Brooks Street breezeway in downtown Bend. It remains the sum of multiple parts: a main dining room, an understated bar, an open-air porch and music room with a garage door that opens or closes seasonally, and a casual patio that surrounds a fire pit. The color scheme is not cobalt blue, as one might anticipate, but more of a slate gray, the actual color of the 27th element on the periodic table.

Science of cooking

That number, 27, appears on Cobalt’s logo, on its menu and on its welcome sign. That was done consciously, Scott Cook said, to emphasize the science that goes into a good restaurant. “We went back to the science of cooking, to the science of crafting cocktails,” he said. That includes making all of their own mixes and infusions.

The Cook brothers were raised in Santa Cruz, California.

Justin Cook has been a part of the Bend restaurant scene for well over a decade, having founded the Kanpai Japanese restaurant on Newport Avenue in 2005. Scott Cook, who said he has worked in the hospitality industry, mainly in California, for 33 years, moved to Oregon in April.

“Justin and I have been talking for the last decade about doing a restaurant together,” said Scott, who serves as Cobalt’s general manager.

The younger Cook’s decision to rebrand Dojo offered that opportunity.

“When Justin went into Dojo,” Scott said, “the idea was to have a dinner crowd and an extensive, Asian-style menu that took things outside the box. In the evening, he wanted to capitalize on the late-night crowd.

“What ended up happening was, the dinner crowd started disappearing due to the later crowd. Dojo’s reputation in town started to become that of a nightclub rather than a restaurant. After a little more than a year of that, Justin wondered, ‘Why am I not happy?’”

Scott said he and Justin share the same restaurant philosophy.

“The happiest people share their food and talk while they’re eating,” he said. “So we want to offer small, sharable plates that come out of the kitchen when they’re ready. And with the weekly farmers’ market right here in front of us, our chef can buy directly from farmers and post specials based directly upon that.”

Multiple plates

The “when they’re ready” concept doesn’t always work to my satisfaction. On my first visit to Cobalt with my dining companion, dishes trickled out one at a time, with a grilled baguette and spread — a plate that we anticipated would be so quick to prepare, we would have it as a starter — not arriving until at least 10 minutes after cooked vegetables. And we weren’t informed until after delivery of our second plate that one of our orders was not available.

Yet when we returned several days later, with the restaurant less busy than it had been on that first visit, all four of our orders arrived at our table almost simultaneously.

The one constant was the quality of food. Of 18 dishes on the menu, we tried eight:

A grilled Sparrow Bakery baguette ($5) is offered with a choice of four different dips or spreads. We chose an edamame hummus with extra virgin olive oil and a generous sprinkle of smoked paprika. This wasn’t one of my favorites; I think chickpeas make a much better paste than soybeans.

• Fried Brussels sprouts ($6): A peppery seasoning and a side of ancho chili aioli overcame any suggestion of bitterness.

• Fried cauliflower ($6): Seasoned with cracked Malabar pepper and lemon, finished with toasted sesame seeds, this was a delicious vegetable dish.

• Tri-colored quinoa salad ($10): One of my favorite plates blended Andean quinoa with vegetables, fruits and nuts. Kale, edamame, spicy Brussels sprouts leaves and tomatoes were all part of the mix, with pineapple, mandarin oranges, blueberries and candied pecans. It was finished with light lemon vinaigrette.

• Chili garlic honey shrimp salad ($9): A half-dozen tasty prawns, served atop arugula and cilantro, were served with avocado, tangerine wedges and pineapple and a citrus vinaigrette dressing.

• Yuzu yellowtail poke ($14): Marinated tuna with an avocado and sesame-soy dressing was presented with wakame seaweed, pickled onion and wonton chips.

• Grilled Creole sausage ($10): Spicy pork sausage direct from Bend’s Primal Cuts meat market was served with creamy polenta (featuring both Parmesan and goat cheeses), pickled jalapeno peppers and an arugula salad.

• Grilled Cascade Natural hanger steak ($14): Dusted with espresso from Bellatazza Coffee, just across the breezeway, the Oregon beef, perfectly cooked medium rare (per request), came with house-made chimichurri sauce and arugula salad.

— Reporter: janderson@bendbulletin.com