When the first of two Cooker restaurants came to Toledo and settled in on Airport Highway, it wasn't a stranger in an alien land. No, it came from Columbus, the ambition, as I recall, of a cluster of OSU alumni. I knew experienced, hard-headed people who were so impressed by the fresh energies it brought into sharp focus that they promptly bought stock in the enterprise.

Alas, before too long the energies began to dissipate, the stock went south, and I began to ask myself, “Will success spoil Cooker?”

Now it is stirring anew, and the first signs are positive. The first time I visited the new Cooker, it was almost as if it had regained its original energy and focus.

If memory is not playing tricks on me, the layout of the building has changed very little. It is an assortment of small, cleverly designed spaces that invite the enjoyment of an intimate meal together with close friends. The servers' training seems to continue to stress being unobtrusive. For me, the familiar is close to comfortable, and finding the familiar in the revived Cooker is an asset.

Appetizers, with one exception, are so mild, uninspired, and conventional that they caught neither my appetite nor my notepad (The one exception, which I did sample, is a dish of new crispy crab cakes, with - watch out! - wasabi cream; wasabi is that hot, hot Japanese green horseradish that leaps for a westerner's throat.)

As you move through the well-organized pages of the menu, you'll see entrees of the sort you would expect in a full-service restaurant: four steaks and prime rib on Friday and Saturday; grilled baby back ribs; grilled salmon, and so on. Keeping up with changing tastes and times, there are a half-dozen pasta entrees.

One helpful note, by the way, is spelling out that a handful of salads are sides, while an appetizing half-dozen under a distinct heading are listed as entree salads. So often, the menu and prices can leave a diner in the dark as to the size of the salad.

But what gave me considerable pleasure as my eye wandered through the lists of entrees, still nostalgic, was a menu section appropriately headed “traditional favorites.” I wanted the meatloaf, and the pot roast (really! just like mother's), and the Americana chicken, and the spicy whitefish, and ... Well, everything.

On different visits, pushed to a choice, I opted once for the chicken and once for the pot roast. Try either one, and you won't be disappointed.

The management takes great pride in a brief but mouth-watering selection of desserts - very chocolate pie, carrot cake, ice cream pie. However, I was too full to partake, so I leave the sampling to you!

Well marked in its own building, one building-depth back along the north side of Airport Highway just east of McCord Road, Cooker has ample parking.

Hurrah! Cooker's back!

First Published April 11, 2003, 12:46 p.m.