Time Hasn’t Diminished Handsome, Quality French Dishes at Vincent’s

To reach Vincent Grumel’s place in the Encinitas hills, visitors turn onto a street that looks like it might lead to green fields and secluded glens. Then the road proceeds up a steep drive to--a warehouse district.

It is an incongruous setting for such an attractive little eatery and for such a fine chef and authentic Frenchman as Grumel.

Vincent’s has been open for just over a year, and a recent visit confirmed that it has maintained the quality Grumel established when he sent out his first order of rack of lamb roasted under a coating of cognac, minced garlic and fistfuls of mixed fresh herbs. So many restaurants open well these days, only to fade like the leaves of October, but Grumel has not allowed this to happen. The cooking continues to rank in the upper regions, and the well-trained dining room staff allows guests to set as leisurely a pace as they wish, just as they should.

It might be said that Grumel specializes in simple French food. This is not to say that it is easily prepared, but that it is guileless--the flavors are direct and bold, and the presentations make no effort to make the food appear different from what it is. The obfuscations occasionally employed by French cooking are notably absent here.

A prime example of this simplicity, drawn from the appetizer list, would be the “prosciutto facon Vincent, “ or cured Italian ham “Vincent’s way.” The usual presentation pairs melon or figs with this sweet, salty and very worldly meat, but Grumel instead dresses the tender ham shavings with piquant capers, tart lemon juice and drizzles of dulcet, virgin olive oil. The capers point the ham in an entirely different direction (whereas fruit emphasizes the meat’s sweetness), while the oil brings up a richness that is not always apparent. The lemon seemed present primarily to cut the combined saltiness of the capers and ham.

The duck liver mousse exists partly to make use of the livers from the many ducks that pass through Grumel’s kitchen, but it certainly makes happy use of them. Served in a healthy slab that belies its lightness, it features a faint citrus tone; the menu mentions cognac, but there seems to be a little orange liqueur in the mix. Chopped black truffle serves its classic role as an intensifier, brightening the suave flavor of the duck liver and making this an altogether seductive offering.

Grumel also makes a duck terrine (very like pate) with pistachios, as well as oysters Rockefeller and a dressy shrimp en croute that wraps marinated shrimp in puff pastry and sauces the baked result with beurre blanc and the useful, stewed chopped tomato relish that the French call tomate concasse . A special appetizer offered one recent evening was a voluptuous presentation of charred eggplant slices topped with cloud-like mounds of fresh, remarkably creamy buffalo milk mozzarella cheese and a little tomate concasse . The result was not unlike an extravagantly elegant pizza without the crust.

Pizza Offered, Too

The menu does, in fact, offer pizza in the Nicoise style known as pissaladiere ; a freshly rolled round of puff pastry is coated with sun-dried tomatoes, cheese and herbs and baked to a buttery finish. This can be an entree or a shared first course, and other dishes that fall in the same category are the tortellini in cream and Parmesan cheese, and the linguine in a freshly, smartly herbed tomato sauce.

Grumel comes from near that part of southern France in which the duck preparation called confit is virtually a ritual dish, served both at simple family meals and on major occasions. Confit thus holds a hallowed spot on his standing entree list, as does the interesting canard au citron vert , or roast duck in a sauce finished with honey and lime juice.

Oddly enough, the confit , or duck slowly simmered in its own highly seasoned fat and juices, was not at all up to par recently. It has been superb on previous occasions, but this time around the bird was dry and tough, attributes that are hard to explain when the cooking procedure is taken into account. The sauce, thick with garlic, shallots and herbs, was remarkably sharp.

The confit is, in fact, the most highly seasoned dish on the menu, although the herb-roasted lamb and sauteed steak in a sauce of five peppercorns come in close seconds. Other entrees tend to be more on the mellow side, including a grilled New York sirloin in Cabernet Sauvignon sauce, the salmon in tarragon sauce and the scallops in a white wine sauce studded with golden raisins.

Grumel offers handsome veal chops finished in a pair of ways--grilled with fresh rosemary and braised with chanterelle mushrooms--and recently featured an especially pleasant chop stuffed with the minced mushroom mixture called duxelles and finished with an unctuous Port deglazing sauce. The meat was cooked a bit to the pink side, as is the current trend, and was beautifully tender.

The menu usually includes a fish or two of the day, always dressed with a simple sauce. A properly thick cut of swordfish, grilled to a fine finish, was gilded with a clever, easy-handed horseradish sauce that was simply a beurre blanc seasoned with just a little of the sharp condiment. The effect was teasing, really; swordfish can stand up to fairly sharp accents, and this little note of horseradish was amusing and flavorful. A heavier dosage would have ruined the effect entirely.

All these entrees arrived surrounded by families of baby vegetables from Chino’s Farm, all steamed to the crisp-tender point that continues in fashion and that frankly, with veggies as young as these, comes off rather well. These are done as simply as possible and are dressed merely with whatever sauce may be on the plate.

The desserts at Vincent’s continue to be a triumph, and final resort to the pastry cart should be kept in mind when ordering the other courses. The flashy standout still is (as it probably always will be; Grumel never will be able to do away with this sweet) the bavarois au chocolate , an astonishing globe of vanilla Bavarian cream that encases a heart of chocolate mousse, is drenched with vanilla and chocolate sauces, and is surrounded by a picket of berries. Diners with a more moderate sweet tooth will head straight for the tarte tatin , the upside-down apple tart flavored with a caramelized mixture of butter and sugar.

VINCENT’S

581 Westlake St., Encinitas

944-5617

Credit cards accepted.

Dinner served nightly through mid-September, after which the restaurant will close on Sundays.

Dinner for two, with a modest bottle of wine, tax and tip, about $45 to $90.