RESTAURANTS : Bernard’s to Califia: New Beachhead for Gibert

Roland Gibert’s rich and subtle dishes always seemed so much at home in the dark, den-like atmosphere of Bernard’s that Gibert’s new restaurant takes some getting used to. Califia is designed in the brightly lit pink-and-gray mode, and is so far from clubby that it features a private dining room with glass walls, like a human terrarium.

Califia is unhappily located next to the Radisson Plaza Hotel’s waterfall, so in part of the room you’re eating with the background hum of water pumps, and if you’re by a window you’re looking at a pattern of spots of the sort that humiliate people in dishwasher detergent ads.

In fact, Manhattan Beach itself may not be the best location for Gibert, at least not yet. At Bernard’s, Gibert’s clientele was mostly sophisticated diners who made pilgrimages downtown to eat his food. A lot of the diners at Califia seem to have wandered in just because they were staying in the hotel. I’ve seen people order beer with their elegant French meal. This may be why the menu does not include the kind of daring, unexpected dishes we came to expect at Bernard’s. No pig’s foot stuffed with snails here.

But Gibert is still a masterful chef, and his touch is still in the dishes. There’s a clever one of red snapper “in a thin layer of potato” where the fish steak has been coated with grated potato and then fried brown on both sides. It’s more or less a fish encased in Swiss rosti (or inside a potato pancake, if you insist). The vegetable terrine consists of layers of peppers, zucchini and onions inside a thin shell of eggplant slices, with the eggplant wittily taking the place of the layer of pork fat that encloses a meat terrine.

He still gets extraordinarily good meat, as with the plain and elegant rack of lamb on a bed of braised endive. You notice the meat most in the beef tenderloin in a Sauternes and cinnamon sauce--that’s right, beef with Sauternes (not a very sweet Sauternes) and, despite centuries of French squeamishness about spices, cinnamon. It works surprisingly well, just a whisper of cinnamon in the rich meat glaze, and the unbelievably tender beef is still really the star.

Gibert plays with spices elsewhere, too. The cream of sea urchin soup, a rich, creamy soup with a perfume of sea urchin, is dashed with ginger, though the most noticeable thing about it is the bowl, which is made out of a sea urchin--it looks like a coconut shell with stubble. On the other hand, the duck consomme with beets and star anise was too subtle for me, because I could scarcely taste any of the ingredients.

Most dishes are far less exotic, like the duck breast in pinot noir sauce (the French text of the menu specifies that it’s Clos du Val pinot noir; ask for it by name), but there are still lots of unexpected touches. The appetizer of smoked salmon and sturgeon comes on a bed of the world’s mildest and best-behaved sauerkraut, sprinkled lightly with blond caraway and accompanied by crisp, positively brittle toast points.

At dinner there is always a five-course prix - fixe dinner at $45 per person. The time I had it, the centerpiece was a rather Mediterranean halibut in tomatoes, bell peppers, artichoke hearts and olives followed by blue hare (many laughs when the waiter announced that one), a gamier cousin of rabbit in thick red wine sauce. However, it was flanked by two courses not quite up to the same standard: a terrine of sweetbreads with foie gras in the center, undeniably rich but rather bland, and a surprisingly vague mango and chocolate mousse.

All the regular desserts were quite good. There were some real Bernard’s-like items like lemon almond tart, pistachio milk chocolate terrine in mandarin plum sauce, and a devastating hazelnut Napoleon with chocolate frosting. The star is the poppy seed souffle, a frozen souffle--think of it as a light-textured ice cream--flavored with poppy seeds served in a raspberry sauce. The fruit tartlets, though, come in a rugged crust that practically calls for a steak knife.

Lunch was never a very substantial meal at Bernard’s but it seems rather more interesting at Califia. There’s scarcely any overlap with the dinner menu. I’ve had a very Bernard’s-like scoop of trout terrine on a bed of paper-thin marinated slices of cucumber and a swordfish with a mild and only faintly disturbing topping of veal gravy.

Unfortunately, the only troublesome dish I’ve had at Bernard’s also came at lunch. It was a minute steak in a walnut and Roquefort sauce. The sauce was very good, an extraordinarily rich meat glaze mixed with walnut chunks and subtly flavored with Roquefort. In light of the wonderful meat generally served at Califia, it was remarkable that the minute steak was actually a little tough. The knife provided wasn’t nearly sharp enough--I ended up sort of tearing it apart instead of cutting it up.

The Radisson Plaza is a vast, imposing ziggurat of a building and gives the impression of existing to protect its private sunken golf course. But there’s also a major chef working here, turning out elegant, pretty dishes in a setting that does not quite do him justice. I hope it works out.

Califia, Radisson Plaza Hotel, 1400 Park View Ave., Manhattan Beach, (213) 546-1668. Open for lunch Monday through Friday, for dinner Tuesday through Saturday. Full bar. Valet parking. All major credit cards accepted. Dinner for two, food only, $54 - $80.

Selected prices:

Appetizer: vegetable terrine, $8.

Entrees: red snapper in a thin layer of potato, $20; beef tenderloin in Sauternes and cinnamon sauce, $22.

Dessert: cinnamon and poppy seed souffle glace with Mandarin plum sauce, $5.