A New Spin on Chicken

When it comes to rotisserie chicken, everybody is trying to build a better mousetrap, as it were. A restaurant in the Glendale Market Place may have succeeded.

The concept is light and healthy poultry with a few Middle Eastern touches. Spring Chicken clearly takes a page from Zankou Chicken, but it also pays homage to Koo Koo Roo.

Instead of something like Zankou’s famous garlic sauce, it serves a fresh tomato salsa or a hummus-like tahineh sauce, both agreeble options.

More Middle Eastern flavors come from side dishes, such as the creamy hummus, a nice baba ghannouj and incredibly huge falafel balls. Conventional American sides are available as well.

You certainly aren’t here for the ambience.

The restaurant is at the end of a small food court, and its boxy interior houses only a few tables, some vinyl banquettes and a large watercolor of a chicken (what else?) hanging over the rotisserie.

The gorgeous roast birds, all natural cluckers raised without any hormones or chemicals, have crisp skin and juicy meat, heady with the perfumes of garlic and thyme.

The chicken is served on a bed of Middle Eastern lavash bread, a wonderful touch. Pull off a bit of skin, fold the bread around it, douse it with tahineh sauce and--shazam!--you’ve got yourself a Middle Eastern riff on Peking duck.

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On the lighter and healthier side of Spring Chicken’s menu, you can’t go far wrong with the juicy skinless chicken breast sandwich. There’s also a magically moist, generously proportioned turkey breast sandwich, made with hand-carved meat.

There are tortilla wraps, natch. The best one, turkey Caesar, has a judicious balance of lettuce, meat and dressing. The Chinese wrap is a Chinese chicken salad in a tortilla, but this one doesn’t work.

It’s ruined by a gummy, insipid dressing, more like bottled Italian salad dressing than anything Asian.

A few of the sides suffer from sitting too long at the steam table. The green beans may turn mushy there, the roast potatoes often taste steamed and the (otherwise tasty) stuffing can dry out.

Still, Spring Chicken may be the perfect way to eat on casual evenings that include a trip to the movies. Did I mention that there happens to be a multiplex cinema directly upstairs?

BE THERE

Spring Chicken, 136 S. Brand Blvd., Glendale. Open 11:30 a.m.-10 p.m. Sunday-Thursday, 11:30 a.m.-11 p.m. Friday-Saturday. Validated parking in nearby structure. Beer and wine only. MasterCard and Visa. Dinner for two, $14-$21. Suggested dishes: half rotisserie chicken a la carte, $4.59; turkey breast sandwich with one side, $5.99; spring chicken breast sandwich, $4.59; choice of any three sides, $3.99. Call (818) 549-9285.