Walking up to Red Light, the funky diner attached to Motel Blu on Miami's Upper East Side, the hungry customer might be subjected to images of Biscayne Boulevard's sketchier past.

The occasional working girl still struts down the sidewalk in short shorts, and from time to time a cracked-out soul weaves through traffic. But if you knew the neighborhood even five years ago, you would recognize how much has changed.

Yes, there is still crime. But retailers are multiplying. The area's historic architecture looks spiffed up. And perhaps this is the best reason to rejoice if you live in the upscaling 'hoods from Buena Vista to Shorecrest: Finally there are real restaurant options in an area that not long ago was a culinary desert.

There is something almost surreal about nibbling on scones and finger sandwiches at the Pineapple Blossom Tea Room on 82nd Street; crunching into a conch fritter sushi roll at Moshi Moshi on 72nd; listening to the waiter at Red Light, on 77th, talk about the menu:

Barbecued shrimp with a rosemary-lemon shrimp stock. Fennel-orange snapper sous vide. Slow-roasted spare ribs. And how about a side of mac and cheese gooey with Gruyere, Morbier and sharp white Cheddar?

Red Light, which opened in the spring but only recently expanded service from three nights a week to six, plans to unveil patio seating downstairs by the Little River where manatees, iguanas and blue herons often loiter, adding to the Old Florida-meets-New vibe around which chef-owner Kris Wessel built his concept.

''I call the food current regional. It's not just mangoes and avocados that we're using but a lot of new local organics,'' says Wessel, who was sous chef at Mark's Place in the early 1990s and later opened Paninoteca on Lincoln Road and Liaison on Española Way. The place has become a must for foodies who remember Wessel's name. But so far, Red Light is keeping its menu real with starters priced between $7 and $9 and large plates topping out at $25.

The patio, will seat 40 (there's room for 38 inside) and feature a raw bar of West and East Coast oysters, ceviches, Glades frog legs in garlic and sour orange.

''This may seem like a very urban spot, but it also has a Florida state park aspect down by the river,'' Wessel says.

SOYKA THE PIONEER

After South Beach restaurant pioneer Mark Soyka (News Cafe, Van Dyke) opened Soyka at the 55th Street Station off Biscayne Boulevard in 1999, a food scene began emerging along the ragged corridor.

There have been plenty of casualties: 5061 Eaterie, which gave way to Douglas Rodriguez's OLA, which eventually moved to South Beach; Boulevard Bistro in the lobby of an office building on 71st Street, now home to the neon-happy Moonchine Asian Bistro; 72nd Street's Kemia Mediterranean, which replaced Sushi Box, which replaced Suzanne's Vegetarian Bistro, which is now the Argentine Che Soprano.

But some places have hung in, even through prolonged but now completed road construction that inhibited car and foot traffic. Casa Toscana, the popular little trattoria that opened on 70th Street in 2001, survives. So does Uva 69, which opened on 69th Street in 2004. And Michy's, featuring the upscale cuisine of Miami star chef Michelle Bernstein, seems as busy as it did when it opened in early 2006.

Still under construction at Biscayne and 68th Street is the residential-retail building that will house Balans. The British chain with an outpost on Lincoln Road will soon add two other restaurants. The one on the Upper East Side is slated to open in about a year, and another in Mary Brickell Village should debut in the next few weeks.

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