Rouge Restaurant, Bar and Lounge

Rouge is a palate-expanding experience for those to whom Spanish food means only paella and tapas. Here are duck braised in cider with apples and dates, Catalan-style rabbit smothered in tomato and pepper sauce, or salmon stuffed with avocado and baked with goat cheese. And, yes, you can also order stellar paella and choose from a long list of tapas. AE, MC, V. Closed Mon.; no lunch.

Chef-owner Joseph Gutierriz hails from the Basque region of Spain and this Spanish restaurant-tapas bar is an unadulterated paean to his upbringing. Set in a plush, red velvet sort of New Age-baroque spot left over from a brief prior life as a bar-lounge, Rouge is an unexpected surprise on a forlorn block just the other side of a chic strip of stores and eateries. The long tapas menu is filled...