Red Rooster Bistro

Outside the cute-as-a-button Red Rooster Bistro, a colorful rooster sculpture stands guard on the lawn. Inside the quaint cottage, rooster paraphernalia reigns, perching on a fine line between country chic and country kitsch.

In a similar fashion, the menu of owner Nick Nikolov and chef Irwin "Snake" Schwartz mixes the straightforward with the fussy - sometimes on the same plate.

TO CROW ABOUT

Service couldn't be more cheerful or accommodating.

I'm impressed, too, with a chopped salad of bright tomatoes, cucumbers, roasted red peppers, onion and lots of parsley and feta cheese. It turns out to be traditional in Nikolov's native Bulgaria. I like the hearty quesadilla, which I order with chicken, pepper Jack cheese, onions and jalapenos. A Portobello crab cake is moist, rife with lump crab meat nestled inside a big mushroom.

The tendency to stuff extends to burgers, too. My turkey burger is juicy and well seasoned; it also has sauteed mushrooms at the center. Schwartz's crisp, half-roasted duck is brushed with a spicy sweet glaze and served with mashed red potatoes and bright, sauteed vegetables. A half rack of baby back ribs is tender enough to fall from the bone. I prefer it plain rather than with a ketchupy barbecue sauce. And, in the future, I'd ask the chef to go easy on that sauce with the otherwise- fine pulled-pork sandwich.

There's a good amount of lobster meat in the lobster salad, which is tucked into a hard roll instead of the traditional toasted frankfurter bun.

FEELING PECKISH

Red Rooster chicken wings are ordinary pub-style Buffalo wings - no sign of the chipotle sauce mentioned on the menu. The half free-range roasted chicken turns out to be a dry and overcooked bird wearing its skin like a leather jacket.

Desserts are from an outside baker. Peanut-butter pie is toothache sweet; apple pie tastes as though it comes from a supermarket shelf.

BOTTOM LINE

The place is still evolving and has yet to get a liquor license. Hopefully, by midsummer, this rooster will strut.

Reviewed by Joan Reminick 6/3/09.