Bijou Garden Café and Sage Restaurant, both led by executive chef Chris Covelli, reopened last night after a four-week hiatus. Both restaurants debuted new seasonal menus, while Bijou Garden Café also showed off an interior facelift with upgrades like new wood flooring and updated décor adorned with plenty of greenery.

"This is the second phase of our new vision for Bijou," Sharon Carole, co-owner of both restaurants, said in a press release. "We're highlighting the garden theme inside with the living walls and the greenery."

At Bijou, Covelli and his team aim to demonstrate French, Italian and Spanish influences on the new menu with items like truffle butternut squash soup; beef tartare with pickled red onions, chilis, capers and saffron aioli; and pan-seared scallops over blackberry coulis with seared goat cheese polenta and glazed carrots.

Over at Sage, Covelli continues to honor the restaurant's mission of offering global cuisine through dishes like jamón and manchego salad with toasted walnuts, sherry geleé and saffron vinaigrette; apple and capicola tartlet with tarragon foam; and house-made rigatoni with braised lamb, cardamom yogurt and pickled blueberries.

"This fall menu is bringing back the original creativity that we saw in the first two years we were open," said Covelli. "We aim to hit all of your senses."

Bijou Garden Café is open Tuesday-Thursday from 5-9 p.m. and Friday-Saturday from 5-10 p.m. at 1287 First St., Sarasota. For more information call (941) 366-8111 or click here.

Sage Restaurant is open Tuesday-Thursday from 5-10 p.m. and Friday-Saturday from 5-11 p.m. at 1216 First St., Sarasota. For more information call (941) 445-5660 or click here.