RESTAURANT REVIEW / ROGER KELLER’S : First-Rate Second Act : A new chef blends regional American cooking and California cuisine in a pleasing performance.

When his Backstage Restaurant closed three years ago, Roger Keller moved his operation a few blocks up on Ojai Avenue and gave the place his own name. He also moved up a couple notches in quality. Then, in October, he hired a new chef, Peter DeLucca, who revised the menu.

The restaurant has always been good; now it’s even better. Perhaps the Backstage was a mere dress rehearsal. For Roger Keller’s has certainly now taken a prominent role--if not center stage--on the Ojai restaurant scene.

The restaurant makes the best of its roomy, somewhat stark storefront location. The decor is agreeably simple, with cool, dark greenery in the carpeting, tablecloths and potted plants. A horseshoe-shaped bar is in the center of the room.

Splashes of color come from a series of bright Matisse-like paintings by local Ojai artist Nancy Witman. My only complaint is that at night they tend to dim the lights too low.

Before the new chef arrived, the food at Roger Keller’s managed to do what California cuisine does best: take a tour of global tastes, in this case mostly Italian, Thai, French and Southwestern.

The new menu offers more in the way of regional American cooking, with items like sauteed Mississippi catfish and Louisiana shrimp cocktail. However, you can still find several pasta dishes that are pure California cuisine, and a classic Northern Italian risotta dish that changes daily.

Fortunately, they still bake (and sell) their wonderful, fresh, authentic European bread. In the restaurant, they usually serve the country loaf, a superb bread with a hint of sourness and a marvelous crust.

A selection of salads can be sampled as dinner salads for $2.50. Of these, I preferred the garlicky Caesar. A mixed Italian salad was also good, with roasted walnuts, crumbled goat cheese and sweet dressing. I was sorry to see they have given up their daring and delicious jalapeno vinaigrette.

The new entrees, however, are quite wonderful. Chef DeLucca has a lighter, surer, more imaginative touch in the kitchen. Seafood cappellini with scallops, shrimp, mussels and calamari ($11.95) had plenty of fish without being at all fishy, and the tomato sauce was great. Another marvelous fish dish was a delicate poached salmon ($14.95) with a thin coating of butter sauce on a bed of hearty ratatouille made of onion, zucchini and thickly sliced eggplant.

Blackened fillet of beef ($15.95) didn’t have a trace of Cajun spices; instead it was sprinkled with whole green peppercorns, which were sauteed until tender. It came with thick sliced potatoes and spinach lightly seasoned with lemon and olive oil.

They raised the price of the backstage burger ($6.50) without noticeably improving it. In fact, with the great bread they bake here, it’s a mistake to offer the hamburger to adults on such an ordinary bun. In all fairness, however, children are very present in the restaurant--and it probably would be no easy task convincing them of the virtues of the country loaf.

One of my favorite entrees was the roasted pork medallions. Fairly plain meat was embellished by acerbic red onion “marmalade” and sweet, intensely-flavored hot apples with the consistency of mashed potatoes. There were real mashed potatoes too.

Classic lamb stew was perfectly prepared. An aromatic merlot sauce set off the sweetness of fresh vegetables: carrots, pearl onions, zucchini and the thinnest of green beans.

Another dish I fell in love with was exquisitely grilled ahi tuna with a gingery lemon sauce. It was delectably raw in the middle, served on a bed of grilled vegetables, including cabbage, onions, peppers and potatoes.

An unusual dish of tiny roasted quail with crunchy wild rice, pearl onions and shiitake mushrooms, had a small-boned delicacy with all the heartwarming flavor of a fall banquet.

From the dessert tray I sampled a savory, rustic peach tart, made with a stiff, almond-flavored (or liqueur infused) dough and topped with cold-sliced peaches.

For the grand finale was the offering of an array of dessert wines and ports, along with an excellent cappuccino. We felt they deserved a curtain call.

* WHERE AND WHEN

Roger Keller’s Restaurant, 331 E. Ojai Ave., Ojai, (805) 646-7266. Open daily for lunch and dinner, 11:30 a.m.-9 p.m. Full bar, major credit cards, dinner for two, food only, $26-$58.