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When Vandy grad John Leonard planted The Acorn on a quiet side street in the relatively empty food fields of the West End corridor, his sexy little restaurant—with its gorgeous treetop patio and dramatic lamb shank entrée—quickly drew praise among foodie circles. But in the half-decade since Acorn’s launch, things have changed, both for the restaurant and for the dining landscape. With upscale contemporary eateries popping up across town there’s stiff competition for the (increasingly sophisticated) dining dollar. In a field crowded with newcomers, including Cabana, Ombi, Radius10, Watermark, Rumba, Tayst, Bricktop’s and Flyte, to name a few, it takes more than a pretty face and a lamb shank to turn diners’ heads.

While it’s impossible to know whether an increase in competition, a rise in customer sophistication, or just simple menu stagnation was the leading issue, it’s fair to say some combination of those factors resulted in a muting of the buzz surrounding the once-high-flying Acorn. (Not to put too much stock in our own nonscientific research, but Acorn enjoyed popular acclaim in the Scene’s Best of Nashville readers’ poll for its first three years, finishing among the best overall restaurants for 2003, 2004 and 2005 before dropping out of the rankings in virtually every category last year—except Outdoor Dining and Best Waiter or Waitress.)

That sort of downward trend is not lost on Leonard, who served his time in the corporate cubicles of financial planning before launching into his dream job with wife Pamela in 2002. This spring, Leonard made the move to goose the restaurant by bringing on chef Robert MacClure, who had just garnered tons of buzz for the nascent Flyte World Dining & Wine. When MacClure parted ways with the fledgling Flyte crew in February, citing a need to spend more time with his young son in Chicago, he found himself at home alone on Valentine’s Day while his girlfriend Cinnamon Idles worked the dinner shift at Acorn. (Yes, it was Idles who made the Scene’s Best Waiter or Waitress list last year, taking home second place.) MacClure offered his services to the slammed kitchen on the romantic evening, and thus began the courtship of MacClure and The Acorn. Over the next few months, Leonard ironed out an amicable deal with fellow Vandy alums Scott Sears and Scott Atkinson, who agreed to release MacClure from Flyte’s non-compete agreement. In May, MacClure officially took the helm of the Acorn kitchen in the new position of managing chef and set about updating the entrenched menu with a new level of creativity. After only minor tweaks in the last few years, MacClure replaced seven of 11 entrées and plans to revamp the menu every three months going forward.

So far, Leonard’s investment in MacClure seems to be paying off. Over two recent dinners, we enjoyed innovative, well-executed appetizers and entrées in the comfortable and romantic atmosphere that has become the hallmark of Acorn.

On our visits, MacClure demonstrated a deft touch with seafood across the board. In the scallop appetizer with sweet chili polenta, the seafood, seared to a sandy crispness on the outside, retained its sweet flavor and buttery interior texture and offered a demure foil to tangy hoisin sauce. Spicy barbecue shrimp, gently cooked to retain a firm bite, delivered lingering heat of Tabasco in a tangle of sweet and spicy onion rings.

The entrée special of cornmeal-encrusted scallops on a bed of purple sticky rice balanced intriguing bites of smoky cauliflower with a decadently sweet butternut squash puree, which could only have been better if it had arrived in a giant ramekin instead of a stingy schmear on the plate. One of the highlights was MacClure’s Caribbean jerk shrimp. Served on a bed of risotto with shreds of coconut peeking out, and finished with mango, pineapple and a strawberry glaze, the entrée is a fresh study in contrasting textures and flavors.

From the turf, MacClure delivers pork tenderloin on a bed of grits, dappled with tender black-eyed peas. When someone at our table ordered the pork well done, MacClure, who has been known to push the envelope of pinkness, managed to salvage the flavor and moisture in the cautiously gray meat.

The standout of our meals was an appetizer of blackened beef tenderloin tips over sweet corn pudding with a chipotle remoulade. While the dish was exceedingly salty, the juxtaposition of spicy beef and soothing, buttered-popcorn-flavored pudding led to a greedy rush of spoons competing for the shared appetizer.

A few disappointments in our two dinners were almond-encrusted calamari (the squid was overcooked to the resistant chewiness of surgical tubing); Thai peanut chicken (fettuccine noodles were doused with thick, beige sauce eliciting one unflattering comparison to Lean Cuisine); and seviche (a legacy of the old menu, the fresh, citrus-tinged fish arrived inelegantly cramped in a soup bowl, surrounded by bottom-of-the-bag shards of broken tortilla chips).

Without prompting, MacClure says he is working to revamp the presentation of many of the dishes. He also plans a much-needed overhaul of the dessert menu, which couldn’t come too soon, as we sent back four out of five desserts with their exquisite presentations virtually untouched. If you must conclude a meal with something chocolate, be warned that the so-called chocolate mousse cake is not a light and airy mousse so much as a sturdy, flourless puck.

MacClure is clearly heading in the right direction, bringing some overdue panache to the menu, but he has his work cut out for him if he wants to launch Acorn back into the top tier of dining. One place to start is with the bread. Yes, it’s just bread, but it sets the tone for the whole meal. Every homemade roll we tried was dry and flavorless, despite various additives like nuts and cheese. Another thing: in the middle of summer, why plate a $28 filet with anything other than fresh corn? People are shooing errant cobs of fresh Silver Queen off their doorsteps, while Acorn is delivering a side of fresh grilled okra with chewy, thawed niblets. (Leonard, a numbers guy, cites soaring corn prices resulting from ethanol demand. He also says that he and MacClure are actively looking for local growers to source fresh product, so there’s hope for fresh corn.)

Finally, if you’re going to list a caipirinha on the cocktail menu—and if you’re going to charge $8.50 for it—please muddle the limes by hand. It’s not difficult, but it shows a commitment to freshness and quality that a place like Acorn clearly wants to portray.

And Acorn, as well as any place, is poised to live up to such an image. Leonard is clearly a hardworking, astute guy who has developed a gracious staff and a casually elegant environment. People want to love his restaurant. Maybe MacClure can give them all the reason they need.

Acorn serves dinner Monday through Saturday.