Rouge

3 Center Street
West Stockbridge, MA 01266
(413) 232-4111

Rouge is quiet irresistible - my fantasy of the neighborhood bistro where you would be happy to dine every Friday to celebrate the end of the week. You enter to the side of a cozy bar area decorated with twinkle lights and a short flight of stairs leads up to a dining room with a cathedral ceilings featuring exposed beams. The chairs are red and the tables a cheeky silver Formica that winks at you. The ladies who acted as hostesses and servers could not be more charming - just the right amount of chat before becoming intrusive.

However, as most things in life, Rouge is a mixed bag.

I went there with my parents who were visiting for the weekend and we were all up to try something new. I will say, in general, we are "looking to like" sorts of people, my mother in particular. She is the kind of person who, when sitting eating breakfast at my wobbly dining room table with her coffee shaking in her mug whenever anyone uses their utensils, will protest that there is no problem at all. So while I think we would all agree that we would return to Rouge, it was not transformative dining bliss.

I thought the bread (baguette) was on the stale side - my parents thought it was just crunchy. You be the judge. We then started with an order of naan, hummus, and raita to begin. They served the hummus and raita in the kind of silver cups restaurants usually bring sides of ketchup or mayo in - not so easy to dig into with a piece of naan. But points for the successful cross-cultural combo of the naan and raita and the hummus.

For the first course, I had a salad special that was fabulous - romaine, frisee, avocado, bacon and a little quail sitting on top in a lemon dressing. Delicious - even as I felt sorry for the bird laying splayed on top the pile of greens. He gave his life for a good cause. My dad had the oysters which he also reported as entirely satisfying.

For the second course, I have less praise. I had a house feature - the oven crisped lemon chicken with asparagus and spinach gratin. The spinach was fantastic, and it's served as a separate tapas if you're so inclined to have it as a bite at the bar. Just the right amount of spinach to cheese - I'm not sure what the cheese was, but it was rich and had a bit of a bite to stand up to green. The chicken - disappointing. I think the pieces are braised and then crisped in the oven - one piece was tough and the other piece was still pink. Unfortunate. My dad had hamachi on a cedar plank special which he reported as being quite good.

My mom has this issue with portion size - she finds large portions just unappetizing to look at and despite our advice to eat what she wants, well, large portions just bug her. So she ordered two tapas. And ironically, they were quite huge. So this is good for those of you looking to share bar snacks - less good for my mom. One was goat Gouda in tomato sauce, which was basically fried cheese sticks in tomato sauce, and the other was vegetable tempura. I am not knocking fried cheese, by the way - it just wasn't what I was expecting from the goat cheese and tomato tapas I've seen in the past. And it would easily serve 2-4 as a starter. The tempura was larger than entree servings I've seen in restaurants, and it made me wonder if one should eat tempura outside of a Japanese restaurant - the batter was too thick.

And so we came to dessert and I have no complaints in this department. I was the only one to order dessert, and I had the caramello, which the server described rather unappetizingly as a "caramel substance." I persevered anyway and was brought a caramel delight that is somewhere between a pudding and caramel sauce. Unique and delicious. It would only have been improved with a bit of sea salt and a sprinkle of dark chocolate shavings.

So - go to Rouge, but order carefully. And remember - tapas is for sharing!

New restaurant coming to Lee!

The "Lee Renaissance" continues as Hot Harry's Burritos moves out, and Otto's moves in on Main Street. Operated by the couple the runs the solid Salmon Run Fish House, they intend this new restaurant to be oriented towards locals, providing breakfast all day and deli sandwiches. While I am a stalwart fan of Jill's Country Kitchen for breakfast, another option is never a bad thing, and Lee desperately needs a place to get a good sandwich. No offense, Cakewalk, but you get very crowded and your sandwich options are limited for lunch. I still love you, too.

I was particularly excited to see that the folks who are investing in this new restaurant as Salmon Run is consistent, friendly, and tasty - all the things you expect from a good deli.