THIS RESTAURANT IS CLOSED Zea Rotisserie & Grill

THIS RESTAURANT IS CLOSED Zea Rotisserie & Grill Restaurant Review:

If Zea Rotisserie & Grill has the staid, blandly upscale atmosphere of a corporate chain, that may be because it’s part of one. But this Louisiana-based franchise’s lone New Mexican outpost stands as proof that you can’t judge a kitchen by its dining room. Though it’s not exactly ambitious, the meat-centric menu is likeably free-wheeling, showing both Southern and Southwestern as well as Mediterranean influences. For starters, virtually greaseless fried calamari with feta and tzatziki---incongruous as it sounds---shows plenty of spunk, as do the signature Thai-spiced glazed ribs. The quirky combination of sun-dried tomatoes, raisins, pecans, sesame seeds, blue cheese, and Kalamata olives over spinach, topped with a sliced, grilled chicken breast and drizzled in sweet-spicy pepper jelly vinaigrette, makes for a sprightly salad that eats like a meal. To accompany the reliable array of variations on roast chicken or fine, flaky pesto-crusted trout, we far prefer the red beans and rice to the ballyhooed but odd sweet potato purée, with its almost jellied texture. Come dessert, however, the poor tuber finds redemption in the form of tender sweet potato-pecan bread pudding with rum-praline sauce. Since the reasonably priced portions are generous to a fault, how best to wash them all down? Very carefully: Skip the frou-frou cocktails and mass-produced wines for a draft microbrew.