Rouge introduces a new chef and decor, but the rest

The perfect restaurant experience requires more than just good food. In the firmament that is fine dining, the hello, the lighting, the table, the way the napkin is folded, the music, a server’s ability to remember your water are just as important as the chef. If the front of the house person knows your name, you’ve truly arrived. That very experience can be had in West Stockbridge, Mass.

Rouge Restaurant and Bistro has been showing the love for almost two decades with proprietress Maggie Merelle as sentinel. People who know and love the place go back for Merelle as much as they go back for the food because during service, she is present the way a good front of the house person should be.

As of fall of 2018, change has come to the establishment. Taking over the kitchen is Chef Oliver Antunes (whose first job was as a dishwasher at Rouge). He has returned to the Berkshires trailing a provenance of restaurant work in France and Northern California and making his mark with a new menu that changes frequently, depending on the season and local farmers’ bounty. The interior, as well, has been refreshed.

“Almost 90 percent different!” said Merelle with a Gallic shrug. A sprite of a woman, she grew up in Brooklyn but lived in France and worked for a Bordelaise wine merchant before coming home to the U.S. She is the kind of person who lapses into perfect French, or Yiddish, depending on the occasion.

Last Friday we got a taste of the new Rouge as soon as we entered the establishment, after succumbing to cries from friends at the bar that we must try the food they were enjoying. Nibbles of crunchy calamari and several warm olives were exquisite and fortified us for the brief trek to our table, drinks in hand.

We were seated in a beautiful room painted in a subtle madder, next to a view of an early spring evening through a large window. Munching on warm bread and butter, we waited for another couple to show up while the week melted away.

After deciding on a good wine, the four of us shared a medley of starters beginning with a nice endive salad in remoulade sauce, walnut, pomegranate seeds and tarragon; a sturdy stalked white asparagus dish with apple and fennel; a dish of beets with crunchy grains for texture and a bit of nice sauce and, finally, a perfect plate of warm polenta fritters in a cross-hatch presentation, crispy on the outside and creamy on the inside.

We chose the duck as the first of our main course; it was a simply prepared, nice cut of meat, rare on the inside and delicious. The other favorite of the table was a Fred Flintstone-sized rib dish with black char to contrast with the pliant and well-seasoned, juicy ribs, served on a plate with cold red cabbage and crispy French fries. Monkfish is sometimes referred to as poor man’s lobster — the texture of the tail is quite similar to lobster but can sometimes be tough. The monkfish we tried was the opposite of tough.

We finished up with pot au creme, authentically French and consisting of chocolate ganache with whipped cream. We followed that with an authentically American scoops of vanilla and chocolate ice cream and the authentically Caribbean passion fruit sorbet, to cleanse the palate.

At the end of the evening we left the premises with a feeling that we were well fed and cared for. In the firmament that is dining in the Berkshires, Rouge is a steady star.

Rouge Restaurant
3 Center St., West Stockbridge, MA
Reservations accepted for parties of 4 or more.
Wednesday & Thursday, 5-8:30 p.m.
Friday & Saturday, 5-9 p.m.
(413) 232-4111