I mean neither the restaurant nor chef John Glenn any disrespect in giving the bar first mention here. The restaurant has been thoughtfully redone, the menu is sharply focused and the staff is well trained, but the fact remains that the lounge is at least twice the size of the dining room. During happy hour and beyond, the bar is jam-packed, and the crowd spills out the door to a dozen or so sidewalk tables. In short, it’s a scene.

The restaurant is an island of tranquility in this sea of high spirits. Comfy, intimate booths, perfect for tête-à-tête dining, line a wall of windows. Well-spaced tables for four round out the seating. The light fixtures are of a pleasingly retro design, and plush, stylish draperies hide the half wall separating the dining room from the lounge.

It’s an agreeable mix, one calculated to satisfy customers in a variety of moods. Likewise calculated to satisfy are the portions served in the dining room at dinner, a monumental example of which is the White Marble Farms stuffed pork chop. This double chop weighs in at what I would guess to be at least a full pound. As if that weren’t enough, it’s voluptuously stuffed with goat cheese, dried cranberries, spinach and shiitake mushrooms. But wait, there’s more! The whole extravaganza is served with a terrific apple-inflected sweet potato bread pudding and finished not only with asparagus spears but also with a nicely understated bacon-asserted sauce.

This is a monster you’ll be delighted to confront and, quite possibly, to take home with you for the next day’s lunch.

A slightly more modestly portioned main dish is the grilled duck breast, but the flavors are just as big as the chop’s. The first thing that arrested my attention was not the sliced and fanned duck breast, which was excellent in duck’s fatty way, but the warm Napa cabbage slaw dolloped with a creamy duck confit. It’s a telling detail when a chef pays every bit as much attention to a meaty main dish’s sidekicks as to the star of the show. Chef Glenn is one of those blessed chefs. Everything on the plate is first rate.

Starters, selected from a somewhat misleading list headed “Sharing Menu,” also are well executed. A “deconstructed” crab cake put the spotlight on beautifully dressed but crumbless jumbo lump crab served with the bread, in the form of thinly sliced toast, on the side. All the ingredients are there; you put them together as you please.

Another winner is the housemade mozzarella Napoleon, which layers fried green tomatoes with fresh slabs of cheese and dresses the tower in a basil-balsamic vinaigrette. Here’s the strange part: The fried tomatoes are not the best I’ve ever tasted, but they worked beautifully in this combo. I’d certainly order it again.

Note, too, that a prix fixe menu also is offered, a bargain at $25 for one with a glass of house wine or $50 for two with a bottle.

Back in the lounge, a bar menu featuring a wide assortment of small plates, from “martini-crusted” petite filets to chicken satay, designer flat-bread pizzas and trios of mini-cheeseburgers is served until 2 in the morning Thursday through Saturday nights, which is good to know.

Horse Feathers Grill & Lounge
1923 Ringling Blvd., Sarasota
(941) 955-9179
Lunch: 11:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m. Monday-Friday
Dinner: 2:30-11 p.m. Monday-Friday; 4-11 p.m. Saturday
Late night: Until 2 a.m. Thursday-Saturday
V, MC, AMEX, Discover
On-street, valet and garage parking
Handicapped accessible