...Natural teacher

Opening his kitchen to diners was a natural for chef Kevin Koebel, who has taught cooking classes and prepared meals in private homes for three years. Koebel opened the restaurant with a limited menu in May, then fully in December.

Most the diners sit at regular tables. The dining area, which seats 38, is pleasant; its many windows provide an open feeling, yet the Victorian cottage that houses the restaurant lends a cozy, living-room atmosphere.

The tapas-like small plates are a nice way to start the meal, and many lend themselves to sharing. Curried meatballs ($8) are quite good, juicy and spicy enough to beg for something sweet, which the accompanying apple chutney provides. Celery root puree ($8), although not easily shareable, is another fine choice. It's topped with thin apple slices and drizzled (squeezed, rather) with chile oil.

The menu changes frequently to reflect the availability of local ingredients, but sometimes the dish differs from its menu description. The roasted eggplant Napoleon ($8) listed feta and micro greens, but arrived on top of very thin slices of jicama with mild watercress and no feta. It was still good, especially the eggplant, which was roasted with very little oil until it was almost sweet.

Meat loaf is often merely comfort food, but at Rogue Chefs the dish ($20) is a mix of good-quality pork and beef, spiced with juniper, chiles, ground Meyer lemon and balsamic vinegar.

Rogue Chefs also took a pork chop, rice and greens entree ($23) to a new dimension. The toasted basmati rice, almonds and currants had that crunchy-chewy texture that makes breakfast cereal so fun to eat, and juicy red chard and a squeeze of chocolate-apricot-espresso sauce offset a slightly dry chop.

The dessert menu could have used a fact-checker, but it pointed the way to some excellent sweets. The hazelnut chocolate fudge cake ($6) is in truth very light, with merely a chocolate accent. And apple cake ($8) was actually a crisp, with a buttery crust topping cinnamon-y apples.

My favorite dessert, however, is the rice pudding ($8), a delicious baked cylinder full of coconut flavor and texture from both coconut and currants. A generous squeeze of creme anglaise adds richness. ...