Bit of the French in Manhattan Beach

Cafe Pierre in Manhattan Beach could be the setting for a romantic comedy. Girl meets boy over feuillete d’escargot, boy loses girl over a plate of sauteed frog legs, boy gets girl over steak-frites.

Then in the next scene they are married at one of the monthly Monday wine-makers dinners featuring Chalone Vineyard wines, where they are served warm oyster feuillete with fresh raspberries, watercress and mushroom salad with balsamic vinaigrette, medaillons de lotte, salmon in ginger sauce and quails on toast with country sausage and chestnut stuffing.

From then on, the couple celebrate the anniversaries of their first meeting, marriage, divorce and remarriage with a toast at the bar with their favorite vintage brandy, compliments of proprietor Guy Gabriele, whose curly blond hair has, by this time, turned silver.

A Neighborhood Fixture

Why not? One gets the feeling that Cafe Pierre, despite its laid-back beach town location, will always be there, a neighborhood fixture filled with neighborhood regulars whose lives are somehow entwined, providing dollar-for-dollar value, attentive service, good, homey French bistro food in a pleasant atmosphere. Nothing fancy, mind you, but dependably good.

Actually, owner Gabriele modeled his restaurant after the typical neighborhood bistros operated for generations by his family in Provence, France. He is also part Italian, so you have, along with French things, Italian dishes with a French accent, which add a bit of international dimension to the bistro. You get ravioli au Roquefort, lemon linguine Provencale and ravioli aux olives among the regular items and the specials.

I tried several things, including steak-frites (steak and French fries), which I seem to crave at the first whiff of springtime in the air. (That’s when I plunge into my annual ah, Paris malaise.) Steak-frites was not on the menu among the steaks, but the dish was granted with grace and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The steaks on the menu are the typical French bistro steaks--steak au poivre, filet Dijon, filet mignon maitre d’hotel and Roquefort. All good, hard-to-find standbys.

You’ll also find other French bistro standbys on the regular menu, such as sweetbreads with Cognac, as well as with mustard, Toulouse-style chicken sausage, cabbage and bacon, chicken with artichokes, duckling with fruit sauce in season, veal with mushrooms and capers or with apples.

On the specials menu, which changes monthly, along with excellent monthly wine selections, there is saddle of lamb, ratatouille with cheese, several pastas plus a number of daily seafood specials.

A French bistro, they say, is measured by its pate and salad dressing. I tried the venison and the duck pates, which brought Paris to mind once again. I also tried the baked goat cheese marinated in olive oil and thyme, and it, along with the dressing, was excellent.

The onion soup is quite wonderful with its richly plastered coating of melted cheese over a fat piece of toast.

The soup du jour (a cream of cauliflower soup when I was there), another telltale sign, was on the thinnish side of thick, which is typical of homey soups of Provence.

Presentation on most dishes is good, better than average, the work of Ramon Cardenas, the Mexican chef who started seven years ago as busboy and whose talents have been nurtured by a caring management. Which is probably one reason why the Monday wine-maker dinners work so well. These monthly dinners, whose menus I find rather creative, range from $25 to $45 per person.

Cafe Pierre, 317 Manhattan Beach Blvd., Manhattan Beach, (213) 545-5252. Open for lunch Monday through Friday 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.; dinner Sunday through Thursday 5:30 to 10 p.m. and Friday and Saturday 5:30 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. Visa, MasterCard and American Express accepted. Reservations suggested. Structure parking in rear or street. Excellent wine list, wines by the glass, vintage brandies and liqueurs. Average dinner $15, lunch $10.