When Leunig's Bistro & Café chef-owner Donnell Collins announced her latest project, she told Seven Days that Electra's Restaurant was named after a friend's cat, not Shelburne Museum founder Electra Havemeyer Webb.

The 110-seat restaurant in the circa-1796 Shelburne Inn may be unaffiliated with the nearby museum's founder, but its elegance would fit in among Webb's collections.

The restaurant's space once housed the Bearded Frog, which closed in 2022 after nearly 16 years. Collins, general manager Jake Loyer and their team did an extensive renovation and created an upscale atmosphere with white tablecloths, velvet and leather banquettes, a luxe fireplace in the main dining room, and a lounge with a shiny new bar. The former bar is now a third dining area available for private events, which Collins plans to decorate with antiques from her own collection.

The chef has worked at Leunig's for 22 years and became the sole owner in early 2020. Even with multiple restaurants on her plate, she was quick to dispel rumors that Leunig's is on the market, saying she has no plans to sell.

Regulars of Leunig's and Petit Bijou in Burlington and Le Marché Café in Shelburne will recognize Collins' French influence at Electra's — and even a dish or two. But the overall approach at the new restaurant, which opened in November, is something different inspired by the location: Collins calls it "new American-colonial."

"This building means a lot to Shelburne, and people have told me so many stories about it," said Collins, who lives around the corner. "It was one of the first built in town. I knew we had to stick to that time period."

On the menu, that approach means lots of slow braising and game meat such as elk, pheasant and wild boar, Collins explained. The "new American" part of "new American-colonial" also gives the chef a bit of freedom. At Leunig's, customers expect classic French dishes. At Electra's, she's able to play with different flavors and embrace the unique style of cooking she's developed over her 30-year career.

On February 27, the restaurant launched a new menu. Collins said she must have been cold while designing it in her unheated office, because "this round has a lot of spice to it," including a new jackfruit tamale dish with Hatch green chiles.

"I'm originally from Los Angeles, Calif., so those flavors really mean comfort and family to me," she said. "It's been fun, and it takes me back to being a young child and being able to have a free mind."

Collins' playfulness jumped out at me on my first visit to Electra's in mid-February, before the new menu took effect. In place of the simple calamari fritti served at Leunig's, I found a calamari appetizer tossed with masa and poblano rings, served with a chile de árbol sauce ($18). Instead of snails, Electra's served a traditional many-holed escargot dish filled with a wild mushroom mixture topped with melted cheese ($16).

Both starters are still available, give or take a few ingredients. My dining companions and I snacked on the well-fried calamari while we enjoyed a round of cocktails, but we found the "escargots" lacking in salt and left a good bit on the plate.

The best dish of our appetizer round was the Wagyu tartare ($26): beef from Full Moon Wagyu in Panton tossed with truffle aioli, tangy cornichons, capers and parsley, then topped with a quail egg and served with duck-fat-fried kettle chips. The dish was well seasoned, and its uniform chop showed off the kitchen team's excellent knife skills.

"I'd come back for the tartare and a martini," said one of my two friends, who works in restaurants. "Maybe with some fries and oysters at the bar. That's the industry pro move," she added.

Electra's has a big menu and something for everyone, which is both a good thing and a bad thing. Entrées range from filet mignon to a vegan artichoke and mushroom gnocchi, and there are both a kids' menu and a $55 fruits de mer seafood tower. Drink offerings include a solid list of nonalcoholic beverages and mocktails, an amaro flight, and a whopping 24 wines by the glass. Feeling fancy? Opt for caviar service, or add grilled beef tenderloin and a lobster tail to your plate.

That packed menu — which one friend called "as long as one at a Cheesecake Factory" — can be overwhelming. But it's also a sign of a restaurant trying to meet the needs of a diverse community: couples out for a date night, friends catching up at the bar, and groups celebrating special occasions at eight- and 10-top tables.

For the latter demographic, Electra's variety and well-lit, quiet atmosphere fill a void in Shelburne. As my friends and I ate in the lounge area, we discussed how this would be the perfect postgraduation restaurant, a place to bring parents visiting from out of town. Electra's also seemed to be a hit with kids; several tables nearby were filled with young families.

That's important to Collins, whose two daughters grew up in her restaurants.

"I feel like there was a generation where it was more about quick and easy dinners, instead of bringing your child out to a restaurant," she said. "We want to be a place where you can teach them how to order and what fork to use. You never know — they might have dinner with the president one day."

The service at Electra's is fittingly formal, with uniformed servers in aprons and ties, yet friendly and warm. Staff are attentive to fine-dining details, stopping by to fold a napkin when a diner gets up to use the restroom and wrapping the top of a wine bottle with a cloth before putting it in an ice bucket. On my first visit, it was the more mundane details that were forgotten: Drinks took a while to arrive, and our entrées came to the table without steak knives, which we needed to tackle a fairly hefty cut of elk.

We chalked up those omissions to the growing pains of an ambitious new spot still working things out. Same with the occasional miss on seasoning or acidity — we'd have loved a lemon to squeeze over the fried calamari — and elements that seemed slightly out of place. For instance, a rogue cold relish was a jump scare on a plate of otherwise lovely seared scallops ($35, currently on the menu with 'nduja, $36), and a flourish of microgreens appeared on just about everything.

The biggest highlights of my first meal were the well-made classic cocktails ($14 for my Last Word), a well-executed maple crème brûlée ($11) — not too sweet or eggy, with a crackable crust — and the cherry elk rack ($42), once our knives arrived.

There's less game on the menu now than at Electra's opening, Collins said, largely due to supply issues. She has a good source for the elk, though, and it's one of the restaurant's bestsellers.

"People don't see it very often, and they're really game to try it," she added, no pun intended.

The formidable piece of meat was served on the bone — perfectly seared, medium rare, juicy and tender, with a tangy-sweet sauce that balanced the plate's other elements nicely. I haven't tried the version on the new menu, but its raspberry-amaretto demi-glace sounds like it will have the same effect.

For my return visit on the day the menu changed, I tested my industry friend's theory about a simple meal at the bar. I browsed the entrées, but mostly to see what had changed. When it came time to order, I stuck with lighter fare: steamed mussels with chorizo in a lightly spicy salsa roja sauce ($17) and a classic wedge salad ($17). Both were exactly what I hoped — dishes I'll return for on dinnertime drives through Shelburne.

Electra's also recently began offering a prix-fixe Twilight Dinner menu daily between 4 and 5 p.m. The $26 meal comes with a choice of salad (or lobster chowder for an extra $4) and a selection of classic bistro dishes, such as Wagyu steak frites, citrus-glazed salmon and coq au vin. Though missing some of Collins' more playful elements, it's an affordable way to check out the restaurant for those who are wary of the fine-dining price tag. (My initial dinner for three, with a round of cocktails, appetizers, a reasonably priced bottle of wine, two entrées and a split dessert, was $280; my return visit at the bar with one friend was just under $100.)

Collins said she hopes more people will stop for an afternoon meal, especially as the weather warms and Electra's adds outdoor seating. Regulars have been asking for weekend brunch, too, and while she's not ready to commit to that, she said she may offer a family-style Sunday supper if staffing allows.

"There's still a level of sophistication that I want to go to here," Collins said. From the inviting bar to the luxe banquettes, she's got the right place for it.