Rooster Co.

Rooster Co. Restaurant Review:

Settle into a table in the brick-walled, art-filled dining room, or gravitate toward the sleek wood bar, where 12 mostly regional brews like Route of All Evil from Connecticut's Two Roads Brewing Company are on tap, and suspend any thoughts you may harbor that chicken is ordinary or boring. This is not your grocery store's rotisserie chicken. Chef KC Ward, who ran the kitchen at West Hartford's popular Bricco before launching this first venture with wife Jaime, has fashioned a fowl-filled menu with grown-up tastes in mind, and he puts a new spin on his offerings frequently to incorporate local, seasonal ingredients. Starters range from a colorful kale salad topped with beets, pumpkin seeds and goat cheese to roasted bone marrow with port wine and onion marmalade: a caveman-style cross between meat Jello and beef butter. Even though there's a 95 percent chance you'll be ordering a chicken entrée, don't miss the super-meaty and crispy chicken wings. Chicken noodle soup, chicken leg confit and daily specials like Saturday's chicken Bolognese show off poultry's versatility. Organic, free-range, brined, spit-roasted whole or half birds are the stars here, though, and you'll want to ask your server to sample several of the sauces: fire lemon, cola BBQ, walnut herb, house hot and tandoori. Main plates like mushroom risotto and pan-roasted salmon accommodate vegetarians and those who simply must fly against the wind. Savor local apple cobbler topped with Connecticut-made Mortensen's ice cream or local artisan cheeses before you fly the coop.