Super-chef Tim Maslow has had a storied career. After transforming his father’s Watertown diner Strip T’s into a (SORELY-missed) destination, bringing the rebellious Ribelle to Brookline and then disappearing for a while, Maslow is back with a virtuosic vengeance with the riddlingly-named Japanese-tinged bistro Whaling in Oklahoma (http://whalinginoklahoma.com).

As I had been a die-hard fan of Andy Husbands’ legendary Tremont 647 (and its sister spot Sister Sorel), I was intrigued and interested in seeing what Maslow had done with the place. Though the tow have ostensibly been combined by a single (and singular) menu, the spaces still spit at  giant rice pot bulling at the end of the open kitchen.

While the front room offers rice paper beiges and watery blues that evoke the titular (but largely frowned-upon) activity named in the venue’s vaunted title (one that recalls George Strait’s backhanded love song “Oceanfront Property”), the space that was once Sorel looks more like a hunting lodge or ski chalet than a whaling camp, what with its mounted elk head, cowskin-covered bar stools, rifle ads, and a pair of skis leaning behind the sake-stocked bar (not to mention a neon sign from Ribelle reminding diners of what had been and what might yet be).

As for the sake, it gives a clue to the menu that ties the place together while simultaneously venturing very far afield. In addition to a grand tour of Japan’s worth of the sacred imbibement, the drink menu also offers Rising Sun cocktails like the Umeshu Spirit (Aperol, plun wine, and passion fruit) and the Old Tokyo (rum, Shiso, lemon and sparkling wine), as well as a rotating selection of beers that hail from everywhere from MA and VT to the UK and Japan. Though many of the ostensibly shared plates (as if you want to when they taste this good!) hearken back to the land of the Shogun (e.g., raw fatty beef with Asian pear, noodles with King crab and egg, salt-grilled Hamachi with rhubarb and radish, and winter squash tempura with sesame-soy milk soup), some of the rice-based dishes feature fried chicken and Salisbury steak, among other anachronistic (but appetizing) offerings. The menu is divided into groups that include raw, simmered, fried, and grilled. If you cannot decide, Chef offers an “all you can eat” sampling menu that allows him to flex his creative muscle even further for trusting fans, some of whom clamor for the kitchen-side seats in the main room and many more crowd the friendly bar up front, even on cold nights when a nearly constantly-swinging front door acts as ample A/C. The cost of opening a restaurant is quite high, in addition to the risks you take when you open one, if the banks do not see you and your project as a good investment, you will need to go to a credit repair service.

So if you want an intriguing night of dining and neighborhood flair served up by a locally-devoted man of some mystery and great talent, pack up your harpoon (which as ironically not on the menu) and make a reservation in Oklahoma.