Skaneateles, N.Y. — Read the words “game hen” on a menu, as we did at The Krebs in Skaneateles, and you begin to wonder exactly what decade you are dining in. These classic miniature whole chickens were popular, elegant selections in the 1950s and 1960s, but rarer sights on today’s menus.

That’s where The Krebs steps in and achieves what it does best: putting modern twists on the classics. In the chicken a l’orange ($36), the broiled hen was glazed in a French-style orange sauce and served over garlic mashed potatoes with charred broccolini. This type of orange sauce is typically saved for duck but has the same effect on the chicken by imparting equal doses of acidity, sweetness and savory. Hints of garlic and orange were heightened by vinegar, basting the chicken and serving as a foil for the vegetables on the plate.