But such are the surprising juxtapositions in the slightly strange world of Savory Flames Cafe and Fine Meats in Middletown, where the first (the duck) is on the menu, the second (the bass) is on the wall.

This hybrid cafe-butcher shop is in a little strip shopping center not far off Interstate 75, halfway between Dayton and Cincinnati. The large, plain room, floored in black and red tiles, has a meat counter along one side, where a wide variety of meat, fish and sausages are for sale along with jams and sauces.

There’s a big stuffed bull’s head on one wall, and the Billy Bass over by the TV.

It’s a setting where you might expect to eat sandwiches, maybe soup or salad at lunch. But the laminated menu lists fancy food, real restaurant entrees like chicken breast with black trumpet mushrooms, penne and creamy truffle herb sauce, as well as simpler choices like T-bone with wild rice.

The meat market was the original idea, but the cafe grew from the experiences of owners James Lindsay and Gary Hines. Mr. Lindsay has worked in kitchens at the Palace, downtown, and the Oakroom at the Seelbach in Louisville. The owners wanted a place where people could eat good food not available elsewhere in Middletown, but feel comfortable in their shorts.

This is a place any restaurant reviewer would love to ‘‘discover,’’ since it’s out of the expected. I can’t give it a rave review, because the food has its ups and downs, but if you live any where near Middletown, or you’re passing through, I would encourage you to give it a try. Savory Flames doesn’t cost much more than a chain restaurant, and it has the feel of being owned by real people who’ve taken a chance on a dream.

Among appetizers, the sauteed wild mushrooms ($6.95) included morels, trumpets and others, both fresh and dried, in an intensely flavored sauce worth mopping up with sourdough toasts.

A quesadilla with barbecued chicken ($5.50) was also good, messy and full of caramelized onions and a not-too-heavy dose of barbecue sauce. Spinach fondue ($5.75) was a little thin for fondue, more like a cheese sauce, but with good Swiss flavor.

Entrees were more uneven. Each dish had something good about it, but nothing was perfect. Every dish was lovely, garnished with fresh flowers and accompanied by a vegetable.

Pesto-crusted grilled salmon ($17.95) was beautifully cooked, still moist inside, pleasantly crusty outside. The pesto crust was good, but the sauces were a little too oily and salty.

Seafood etouffe ($15) wasn’t exactly etouffe (well, it was spelled e Tou Fee on the menu). It was crammed full of fish and seafood, including delicious scallops, nice big shrimp and a good piece of salmon. The sauce was more of a Newburg sauce, and was almost unbearably rich.

The seared duck breast ($16.50) was probably the best entree I tried, with tender meat, a leg to chew on, a sweetish dark sauce and pretty baby vegetables.

I liked the presentation of the baby back ribs ($14) with a subtle brown bourbon-q sauce, served on wild rice and fresh green beans. But the meat was tough, not falling off the bone.

The only completely failed entree was the posole-crusted walleye ($15.50). Posole is dried hominy, and could presumably make a good crust, but this was like chewy bits of hard corn on the predictably mild fish. Its soy-based sauce was so strong it made the vegetables inedible.

Desserts are made locally, but dressed up beautifully in-house with fresh fruit and flowers and sauce in patterns. The carrot cake was good, so was the tangerine cake — both simple and homemade-tasting.

Dinner was accompanied by iced tea, since the liquor license hasn’t yet come through.

Service was friendly and proprietary. Dishes tended to come rather quickly, (salads are included with the entrees), so dinner didn’t take very long. That makes Savory Flames a good choice for a week-night dinner.