CORPORATE America’s loss is our gain. Bob and Karen Finigan jettisoned their corporate lives and went to live in Ireland where Bob learned the craft of artisan bread making. Now they’ve set themselves up in a charmingly refurbished 1850s house in Cranbury (where Ms. Finigan grew up) as the proprietors of the Blue Rooster Bakery and Café. If you’ve read my blog, you’ve heard me rave about their delicious breakfasts. Their breads are amazing, especially a peerless baguette and a brown bread that makes the best toast ever.

   As they approached their first anniversary this fall, they decided it was time to give dinner service a try, maybe filling some of the void left by the departure of Hannah & Masons down the street. So, on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights, they keep the doors open until 9 p.m. and serve a concise menu of small plates and dinners, as carefully edited and put together as the rest of the enterprise. The menu encourages diners to “select just exactly what you want from any part of this menu... it is our intent to offer you a range of choices in both the fresh foods we offer and in how you like to eat in the evening...” They succeed admirably.

   Everything here is thought through, with a clear intention of creating a comfortable yet stylish ambience, where customers clearly enjoy the carefully prepared food. It’s wholesome, it’s delicious, and much of it is local. Seasonings are gentle, but there’s no tradeoff in flavor thanks to quality ingredients and techniques. Warmed slices of that great baguette were in our bread basket at dinner, so that was a great start for me.

   From the six options on the small plates/tapas side of the menu (other choices included a cheese/paté plate and a zucchini tomato timbale), my friend and I chose salmon bruschetta ($14), a generous portion of smoked salmon with toast and chopped red onion, that we found irresistible. Stuffed portabello mushroom ($12) was also generously portioned, the large cap stuffed with spinach, sundried tomatoes and cheese, with mixed greens on the side. Careful technique was evident here, as it appeared that most of the dark gills of the mushroom cap had been scraped off, an extra effort much appreciated by those of us who don’t love the flavor of the gills.

   Salad is served with dinner, and ours were fresh spring greens, demurely sprinkled with dried fruit and nuts and sunflower seeds, and flasks of olive oil and vinegar on the side.

   We passed up lamb chops, scallop risotto and other options in favor of crepes and fish for entrées. My crepes à la Francaise ($20) were filled with a soft mixture of roasted chicken, then napped with creamy sun-dried tomato and gruyere sauce. They were delicious, even if they were, in a bit of crepe bondage, rather firmly wrapped and securely tucked in at the ends like a burrito.

   My friend had her eye on salmon, but it was already sold out. So she went with herb zucchini crusted tilapia ($18) instead, served with mashed Yukon potatoes and divine butternut squash purée. The flecks of shredded zucchini were part of a puffy coating on the fish that was lightly browned on top, for a very attractive presentation. My friend raved about this dish, although I thought the fish had a bit of that muddy flavor characteristic of much farmed fish. Clearly I’m not adjusting well to the new realities of sustainable fisheries.

   There were several desserts on offer, some made in house and some, such as the good “Opera Cake” ($5) we shared, from the high-quality Little Chef French bakery in Princeton. We didn’t have room for coffee or tea, although we were taken with the pretty quilted tea cozies we spotted on several tables, and which I’ve seen for sale in the retail area near the entrance.

   The restaurant was quite busy on the Saturday I visited, and the two servers did yeoman’s duty hustling from table to table, in high spirits and valiantly keeping up with the usual stream of special requests, such as ours for an ice bucket for the white wine we’d brought. It took a couple tries, but they found a nice ceramic one, and generally took very good care of us. The kitchen was slow, but the diners enjoyed the pleasant dalliance, and seemed very happy.

   The Blue Rooster has got to be one of the sweetest spots around, and the owners’ commitment to quality in food, service, décor and table settings (lovely ceramics) is commendable. They live in, and are big supporters of, the community. No wonder they’ve got a winner on their hands, and I only hope they have no yen to return to corporate life.

Read Faith Bahadurian’s food blog, NJ Spice, at www.packetinsider.com/blog/njspice and follow her on Twitter at www.twitter.com/njspice