Location: 1245 S. Highway 97, Bend

Hours: 5 p.m. to close Tuesday through Saturday

Price Range: Entrees from $9.95 to $28

Alcoholic Beverages: Full bar

Kids’ Menu: Yes

Reservations: Recommended on weekends

Credit Cards: Visa, MasterCard

Contact: 318-8435

Please don’t ask for a plate of jackalope.

It’s not that Jackalope Grill Chef Ramsey Hamdan is not accommodating. And he’s as creative as they come, fusing ”cowboy chic with a European drawl,” as the restaurant’s motto goes.

No, the reason you shouldn’t ask for jackalope – you might want to sit down – is that it just isn’t real. The jackalope is a mythical jackrabbit with an antelope’s headgear.

Hamdan, however, gives you lots of other dishes to choose from. He opened the grill in 2001 with his wife, Juli. Before moving to Central Oregon, the couple lived in Portland, where Hamdan was lead instructor and wine and dining manager at Western Culinary Institute-Le Cordon Bleu.

The grill’s only theme, Hamdan says, is variety.

”We’re not a steak house, we’re not a seafood house, we’re not a pasta house – but we have a little bit of everything.”

The restaurant embraces serving game, which it gets locally. Hamdan regularly prepares buffalo, duck or elk. This includes elk quesadillas or buffalo specials, like a recent one of buffalo tenderloin with sweet potatoes and a wild mushroom demi-glace.

Diners at Jackalope Grill can also take comfort in the lightly breaded, lemon-grilled wiener schnitzel. There’s a 14-ounce cowboy steak as well as a rack of lamb with French green peppercorn sauce.

The menu changes regularly. Right now, a pheasant pasta with chantarelle mushrooms and apples is a hit, as is a pan-seared wild salmon over spinach with a shallot lemon vinaigrette.

And all entrees at the Jackalope Grill come with soup or salad and bread.

Much new business comes from Jackalope’s loyal customers talking it up to their friends, the two say.

”We want to be the neighborhood restaurant,” Hamdan says. ”I just try to keep it simple, fresh and approachable.”