By CHRIS WILSON

February 16, 2002 -- A famed Manhattan chef is getting a hard time from the makers of Viagra.

Drug giant Pfizer has warned Chicama chef Douglas Rodriguez that stiff penalties are in store unless he changes the name of his restaurant's popular "Viagra Ceviche."

In a stern letter to the restaurant, Pfizer claims the libidinous dish - a mouthwatering mix of clams, mussels, calamari, conch, shrimp and merzula - is "an improper and objectionable use of Pfizer's registered trademark" that "trivializes the very serious medical condition that Pfizer's product treats."

But Rodriguez tells The Post he's standing firm.

"I'm not just gonna change the name," Rodriguez vowed.

"I'm talking to my lawyer. That's my best-selling ceviche. What am I gonna do? Call it the ‘Lead in the Pencil Ceviche'?"

The cheeky chef jokes that his culinary creation is as potent an aphrodisiac as the little blue pills that get millions of men ready for amorous action.

"My wife won't let me eat it," Rodriguez said. "She says, ‘No more ceviche.' I get home, and I'm like a madman."

Although the $16 Viagra Ceviche has been on the menu since Chicama opened in 2000, Pfizer only recently learned about it.

The drug company quickly retained the Park Avenue law firm of Hale and Dorr, which fired off the cease-and-desist letter to Chicama on Tuesday.

Jennifer Gaeta, a lawyer retained by Pfizer to take on Chicama, declined to comment.

Lead in the Pencil Ceviche?

-- Anonymous, February 16, 2002