RESTAURANTS : BISTRO DRAWS ON A REAL NEIGHBORHOOD

Remember those little French films in which the patron knows the stories of all the clients who frequent his little cafe? There are the shrugs, the winks, the romance and, always, something steaming to eat. Just when I thought Los Angeles was turning into a land of mini-marts and malls, I stumbled into Rachel Bistro and got a gust of a real neighborhood.

The egg man was sitting at the counter when I came into the small storefront restaurant. (People actually still sell fresh eggs.) Then the hairdresser from the salon down the block came in, to eat and continue his conversation from the day before with la patronne. The egg man finished his coffee, bid his adieux , the manicurist began the parade of neighbors dropping by to take lunch out, and the patron approached my table with a stream of rapid French. Oui, I would have the fish soup of the day. The hairdresser told me what a nice person the egg man was.

There are eight tables covered in pale tea rose, a haphazard collection of West African art (all for sale) and two big green photo murals of plants and gardens that fit right into this neighborhood bricolage . I fiddled with my ordinary white roll, perused the menu and listened to Billy Joel singing too loudly on the radio. The patron-chef, Gaby Nabet, was born in Algeria and lived in the Ivory Coast for many years. His cooking combines elements of French, Italian and North African cuisine and the menu ranges from pastilla and merguez sausages to pita sandwiches and salade nicoise . The fish soup finally appeared and was magnifique, rich, smooth and simmered for quite a long time.

Choosing one of the six luncheon specials (which come with soup or salad or fresh fruit salad for $4.75), I think I hit the bull’s-eye with chicken Basquaise. It was both tender and hearty, served with fragrant zucchini, peppers and carrots and stock-infused rice. Half of the generous portion went home with me (and was great the next day) and I finished the perfectly lovely and perfectly simple meal with M. Nabet’s homemade strawberry tarte . The individual tarte was packed with fresh berries heaped onto a thick butter crust and swathed with a buttercup yellow creme anglaise clearly made with those fresh eggs.

The next time I returned, the fish soup was still listed on the blackboard. “Oh, I forgot to change that,” Laura Nabet shrugged. I tried the vegetable soup, a puree so unadorned that it really needed some salt. And, no, the sign on the door (and on the paper menu) isn’t quite right. Rachel Bistro is only open until 5 p.m.; it will reopen for dinner after a liquor license comes through. “How can you serve dinner without wine?” she shrugged.

Maybe we’d eat lightly to save room for another fabulous dessert. Another fabulous Gallic shrug. Nabet had felt like making neither the sorbet nor the chocolate mousse nor the creme caramel. Well then, we’d go straight for the pastilla and the merquez . The pastilla wasn’t the elegant little package one often finds at Moroccan restaurants: It was the make-it-yourself-at-home kind you’d fine in the staff kitchen of the seraglio. A fat rectangular envelope of thin, crisp dough, it overflowed not only with the traditional boiled chicken and hard-boiled egg but with mushrooms, green beans and, as if wandering in from another dish, slices of canned peach. The spicy sausages tasted homemade; there were six of them, dangling cartoonlike off a single cord, served on wide saucy noodles instead of the promised rice.

Another day we enjoyed the cold spinach and smoked chicken salad with thick creamy vinaigrette. One friend enjoyed the Rachel salad with cold steamed vegetables, orange slices, grapes and mint. I thought the “exotic salad,” with orange and lemon and canned artichokes and hearts of palm, bland. Many of the other sandwiches and salads listed seem rather ordinary, but then this really is a bistro (the fresh fruit salad with melons and grapes and pineapple--all juicy and fresh--is only $1.85). Nabet also makes succulent chocolate candies and truffles and, when requested a day before, he will whip up an Algerian couscous.

Rachel Bistro is smack in the middle of a real neighborhood. One can pop in for a quick meal while getting one’s errands done. Have your handbag fixed, your drapes cleaned, your shoes repaired, stop at the butcher, the bakery and the second-hand book store all within a couple of blocks and then have something real to eat. You never know when the mini-mall with its chainlinked food and multi-movie halls (and no fresh egg man!) will be working its way down the street.

Rachel Bistro, 8420 W. 3rd St., Los Angeles. (213) 653-2190. Open for lunch (and take-out) Monday s -Saturday s . Closed Sundays. American Express and Diners Club accepted. Lunch for two: (food only) $8-$22.