Positively 4th Street Positively Worth a Trip

I don’t know whether it’s these stuttering earthquakes or too many overcast days but my curmudgeon quotient has hit an all-time February high. So when I went to check out Positively 4th Street on a positively busy stretch of, yes, 4th Street in Santa Monica, and saw that it was in the middle of a no-parking zone, I bristled at having to park (perish the thought) half a block away.

Since this deli/restaurant/take-out/catering establishment looks rather anonymous from the outside, I was about as pleased as Punch and Judy to find a smart, changing-weekly menu packed full of inviting things to eat: Freshly made caponata. Thai-roasted chicken breast. Pan Bagna. Flourless chocolate cupcakes. Homemade soup.

While it may have been the effects of Positively’s pink neon lighting (identical, no doubt, to the lamps scientists are using to combat that winter light deprivation disorder, SAD), I think my mood changed when I tried the homemade vegetable soup, a rich, dark, distinct chorus of pureed herbs and roots ($2 a cup, $3.25 a bowl).

There are usually eight or nine cold salads to choose from, available by weight or by the plate. Served with green salad and pesto-smothered bread, two salads are $5.95; four cost $8.25. Thai noodle salad is a bounty full of peanuts and sesame seeds; caponata (really just chunks of eggplant with capers without the usual red peppers or tomatoes) is freshly sauteed and pleasantly oily. The cooks seem to have an affinity bordering on addiction for minced red onion. They turn up over and over again but happen to work well in the lush German potato salad accented with well-smoked bacon.

The Santa Fe-style black beans and the lentil salad, despite their onions, are blandsville. The southern French pan bagna ($5.25), a wonderful crusty slab of bread piled high with good tuna, olives, egg, capers, and, natch, minced red onion, makes a swell lunch.

Hot platters include crisp, smooth, oniony crab cakes, and a honey of a moist ginger-flecked Thai roast chicken breast (both are $7.25). Large ravioli stuffed with ricotta and ground walnuts are a subtle delight, bathed in a thin slip of lemon-zested vodka cream.

Just when I thought the curmudgeon in me had taken a walk, the voice rose again from the deep. “Well,” it said, sounding just like Jack Benny, “the only time they’re open for dinner is on Friday nights.” And some of the best desserts are gone if you get there too late. But if you get there too early, not all of the salads are ready to go. Even if I do concede that the “spa special” (poached baby salmon) was certainly moist, would you ever want that nondescript red bell pepper sauce again?

Then I tasted Positively’s superbly tender grilled swordfish with its quiet orange-cilantro butter sheen, a glorious cheesecake with crunchy brownie crust and a completely delicious, flourless, serious-chocolate cupcake.

“They’re open for breakfast,” I countered. Besides, they do catering when they’re closed. And the priciest entree here is $7.95. “Anyway, remember that fabulous vegetable soup?”

“Well,” the curmudgeon said, “You’re right. And maybe next time you’ll see that public parking structure across the street and save us a walk.”

Positively 4th Street, 1215 4th St . , Santa Monica. (213) 393-1464. Open Monday-Thursday 7 a.m.-4 p.m., Friday, 7 a.m.-8 p.m. Personal checks and cash, no credit cards. Lunchtime delivery in downtown Santa Monica area available. City parking structure across the street.