Chef James Laird offers gourmet food with an easy-to-digest price tag.

Laird, longtime chef and co-owner of Restaurant Seranade in Chatham, is offering fine dining for less in an attempt to entice customers to eat out more.

?Business is really slow ? you can see the writing on the wall,? says Laird. ?If we didn?t innovate and change and do something, we?d have no business.?

Restaurant Seranade offers $25 lunch and $35 dinner menus of contemporary French cuisine ? three courses for nearly half the average dinner price. Eric Levin, editor of New Jersey Monthly Magazine, calls fixed price menus a money-saving trend.

?It?s the same quality food that you get a la carte, and if you like that restaurant, you?re going to like their prix-fix menu,? says Levin.