Perhaps the best way to understand what the term "classic international cuisine" means at Thistles Restaurant in Bangor is to play a little game. Think of a meal you've had at some exotic locale, preferably a meal that's traditional in the culture you were visiting. Ask chef Alejandro Rave about it. Chances are, he'll know how to make it. Give him a day or two's notice to collect the ingredients, and he just might.

His son Santiago Rave (Rah-vay) loves to play this little game with customers. "If you've had a dish in your travels, my father will make it for you," Santiago says."People come in and say, 'I was in Peru and I had so-and-so.' And my father will say, 'I know that dish. That's good.' He can make anything, from anywhere."

Thistles is the product of a South American family that unexpectedly ended up with a restaurant in downtown Bangor. It's a family of artists: the mother, Maria, is a painter; Alejandro was once a famous opera singer in his native Argentina; and Santiago, an industrial designer by trade. It's a family that loves to travel, immerse themselves in local culture, and bring back old-school recipes, methods, and even cookware from far-flung lands. Thistles' menu touches almost every part of the globe, from French cuisine to Spanish and Latin cooking — including recipes from Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Cuba, Mexico, and Portugal — even pastas from Italy and schnitzel from Bavaria (a favorite of the city's German Club at their monthly meetings, held always at Thistles).

"When we go to places, we always eat at the best restaurant in town," says Santiago. "But we also like to eat at authentic places, to really taste what people there eat. Then we try to bring it back to Bangor."

The result is surprising, especially for an unassuming storefront in a small retail complex in the shadow of the Bank of America building. It's more surprising still for those who last dined here before Alejandro and Maria bought the place in 2000, when the restaurant served American food in an atmosphere the Raves compare to a cafeteria.

Today, white-linen tablecloths and shiny silver charger plates spiff up the tables, as do unusual food vessels from the Raves' travels. Maria's leafy live plants and flower arrangements abound. The work of local artists brightens the space, and live music is a regular accompaniment to meals.

Dinner begins with fresh bread. Ciabatta and rye, Cuban and sourdough — Alejandro makes all of it from scratch, twice a day. Salads are generous and imaginative, such as the mesclun greens with sweet, caramelized peanuts, dried apple, and maple balsamic vinaigrette.

Appetizers run the spectrum from escargots baked in mushroom caps to Brie in phyllo pastry, and there's always a special or two, usually one from Argentina. Beef empanadas, a spicy ground beef mixture in a crispy pastry shell, are often on the specials board. Another recent specialty, gazpacho, was thicker and more flavorful than most, with the flavors of fresh tomatoes and sweet onion bursting from a cast-iron crock.

It's hard to imagine a more varied selection of entrees. The Argentinean steak, a New York strip cooked to perfection, features a chimichurri sauce that heats up the beef with garlic, scallions, and balsamic vinegar. The menu claims the salmon Portuguese, a large portion braised in a port wine sauce with green olives, tomatoes, and garlic, will melt in your mouth. It does. There are Maine recipes as well, such as lobster pie with a sherry cream sauce and chicken New England, a pan-seared dish topped with lobster in a tarragon cream sauce.

But the house specialties are the meticulous reproductions of traditional international dishes. Rave's paella is cooked and served in pans brought from Spain. The shallow pans, slightly angled in on the sides, help fuse the flavors of Spanish paprika and saffron with the chicken, pork, chorizo, scallops, shrimp, and mussels.

Often the most exotic dishes are the nightly specials or the custom creations prepared for country-themed wine dinners and Tango Tuesdays. Held on the second Tuesday of each month, tango night includes all-Argentinean cuisine and wines, live music, dancing by Alejandro and Maria Rave, even basic tango lessons. The most popular dish is Asado, a mixed grill of five meats. It's served on a tableside grill over stones, a tribute to the Argentinean method of barbeque.

The wine list features offerings from Chile, New Zealand, Germany, and South Africa along with more familiar European and Californian offerings, all in the $20 to $39 range. And there may not be a better selection of Argentinean wines in the state. Santiago, who just returned from a three-week trip to his father's country, says most of the Argentinean wines available in the U.S. are the less-expensive bottles, which represent just a sliver of what the country's climate produces. He's working to bring even more.

there's a photo in the lobby of Thistles showing three-year-old Alejandro, masquerading in full chef's regalia. His first career, however, was on the stage, as a noted tenor in Buenos Aires' opera scene. He met Maria after she attended one of his touring shows in Colombia. They married and opened a small restaurant in Colombia, then a few more. Along the way, Alejandro added to the cooking talents he had gained from his Italian-born mother by attending culinary school. "He was," Maria says with a grin, "destined to be a chef."

Two boys came along soon after — "No more La Boheme for me," Alejandro laughs. When Santiago was sick as a child, they heard the best treatment for his disease was in Miami, so they sold off the restaurants and moved to the U.S. in 1980.

Looking for an inexpensive vacation one year, the Raves called Maria's cousin, who had moved to her husband's native city of Bangor. The Raves spent a week in Maine, then soon picked up everything again and moved to Ellsworth, even though none of them spoke English. Alejandro started working in area restaurants, with stops at the Bar Harbor Inn, the Bar Harbor Regency, and the Hilltop House & Grill in Ellsworth.

"Maine is a beautiful place to live," says Maria, who still teaches Spanish at the University of Maine at Orono, between shifts at the restaurant. "We had two boys, and this was where we wanted to raise them."

With the boys in college, Alejandro and Maria started looking for a restaurant of their own. They found it at Thistles. The business opened in 2000, with just Alejandro, Maria, and a dishwasher. Santiago, fresh from college with a job waiting in Boston, came to help for the summer and never left.

Alejandro and Maria transformed the mostly charmless space into an upscale, intimate setting without spending a lot of money. They took down a wall to create space, spread out the tables, built a small stage for music, and painted the walls a blush pink. One of the hardest decisions was whether to keep the name, since Thistles didn't exactly convey the idea of international cuisine. Santiago lobbied to change it, but Maria wouldn't allow it. "I love the flower," Maria says. "At home, it has medicinal powers for women. People think of Scotland when they think of a thistle, but it's a wild flower in Argentina and Colombia and here in Maine."

The thistle, then, is both traditional and international, just like the Raves and their restaurant.

Thistles Restaurant is located at 175 Exchange Street in Bangor, in Maliseet Gardens Plaza, and is open for lunch and dinner year-round, Monday through Saturday. Reservations suggested. 207-945-5480.