Palmer's is not a restaurant. At least, that's what General Manager Jay Cohen says. Standing in the middle of what looks like a rather spartan restaurant dining room at the end of a lunch rush one afternoon, Cohen maintains that Palmer's is a meat market that just happens to serve some prepared foods. If Palmer's is not a restaurant, Rochester needs a lot more places that are not restaurants.

Just more than a year ago, Palmer's opened its new retail store in the Genesee Regional Market in Henrietta. The space is more boutique than butcher shop. Soft spotlights pick out display cases and a demo station, potted plants are scattered here and there, and the center of the room is dominated not by the meat counter, as you would expect, but by a huge number of tables and chairs for a place where serving food is supposedly secondary to the mission of the store. The dining area at Palmer's seats 49, but it seems larger. During a busy lunch hour all of those seats fill up, and many of them will turn over several times. It's not unusual to see people eating their meals standing up, which is a small price to pay for some of the best food in Rochester at this price.  

Palmer's is an exercise in restaurant minimalism, an illustration of what happens when you put a chef of Cohen's caliber in charge of a take-out operation and give him first pick of incredibly high-quality ingredients. There is no table service, no wine list, the plates are paper, and the silverware is plastic (although, to be fair, Cohen did spring for heavy-duty Chinette plates and high-end plasticware). As with any other take-out you order at the counter, take a number, and fight the crowds for a table.

I was skeptical about both the concept and the execution of the place, but that cynicism evaporated when one of the kitchen runners delivered a plate of miniature crab cakes ($8.99) to our table on our first visit. Covered in panko and pan-fried, the cakes were - as they should be - slightly uneven in shape, but with an appealing surface crunch that gave way to an interior full of sweet crabmeat, just the right dose of spice (possibly Old Bay seasoning, but perhaps just a bit of cayenne), and the bare minimum of filler to hold the whole thing together. I've had better crab cakes, but not in Rochester, and certainly not at this price. Served with a plastic ramekin of garlic aioli atop a bed of mixed greens so fresh they might have been picked minutes before hitting the table, this would make a satisfying dinner for one. Split it three ways as an appetizer and no one will complain that they didn't get their fair share.

Generous portions of quality food are Palmer's specialty. The prices, though, give you an education in how much "atmosphere" adds to your bill in fancier places. For instance, we were served a paper plate of pan-sautéed scallops, easily 10 of them, but perhaps as many as a dozen, luxuriating in a lemon dill sauce alongside a generous portion of scalloped potatoes and a heap of green beans for the bargain price of $9.99 plus a buck fifty each for the sides. The beans were sadly overcooked (uniformly overcooked vegetables are pretty much the only thing I found to quibble with at Palmer's). The potatoes were pleasing ­ the sharp bite of good cheddar cheese pushing through a dense wall of heavy cream. But the scallops were simply perfect: sweet and meaty but not at all tough, the surfaces a gorgeous paper-bag brown the interior almost buttery.

A simple preparation of pan-seared haddock ($6.99) was similarly good. A flaky fish that will easily break apart if it is even slightly overcooked, the haddock came out in one beautifully cooked fillet, served with a fresh mango salsa that complemented rather than overwhelmed the delicate fish.

A meat market is an odd place to go looking for a salad, but a significant part of Palmer's menu is devoted to them, and about half of those are noteworthy Caesar salads ($8.99). Palmer's makes the best Caesar I've had in a very long time, and top it with what appears to be 8 oz. of thick-sliced, fork-tender filet mignon cooked to a delicious and juicy medium rare. A bit of pommery mustard was added to the dressing, which added a tangy undercurrent to a dressing that can often come out simply heavy and garlicky. The croutons were fresh and crunchy, and the parmesan cheese was not grated but actually shaved onto the salad in thick, delectable curls. Even the romaine lettuce was crunchy, but not refrigerator-cold so that it actually delivered a bit of flavor. The steak was wonderfully beefy and so tender that my plastic utensils posed no challenge to cutting the generous slices down into manageable bites.

The fish is good, the steak borders on greatness, but the best thing I had in three visits to Palmer's was a burger ($6.99): 10 oz. of Certified Angus Beef ground fresh daily and patted into a massive patty before being tossed on the grill. Served on a buttery brioche roll with garlic aioli, applewood smoked bacon, marinated portabella mushroom slices, sautéed onions, and cheese (as the young man taking my order kept offering options, I just kept saying yes), the size of the thing nearly overwhelmed the plate. Cooked medium rare, the juices from the meat soak into the bread, turning that aioli into something akin to béarnaise sauce that will have you licking your fingers before the burger is half gone.

Until I tasted one, the heap of crinkle cut fries alongside the burger stuck a dull note in an otherwise perfect presentation. These are not the pale, pallid slugs that you see in too many area restaurants. They were crispy, a deep golden brown, and delivered the taste and texture of well made hand-cut fries rather than the grainy texture and dull taste of the usual crinkle cuts. Even for twice the price you'd be hard pressed to find a better (or bigger) burger anywhere.

Palmer's Meat & Seafood Market

900 Jefferson Rd (in the Genesee Valley Regional Market)

272-9470, palmerfoods.com

Monday-Saturday, 9 a.m.-7 p.m.