Grumel Back in Solana Beach With New Restaurant, Familiar Menu

Vincent Grumel, one of the county’s most peripatetic chefs and certainly one of its best, finally has come to rest just paces from the kitchen where he began his United States career in 1976.

“I’m back where I started, alors ,” Grumel said in a recent interview. “But I’m not moving, I’ll die here,” he added with a big grin, together with the information that he has signed a 15-year lease in the Mercado del Sol shopping center in Solana Beach, a major step for a man who rarely has been content to spend 15 months in the same location.

Upon graduation from cooking school in France, Grumel was named a “ meillure oeuvrier de France,” a government award given to outstanding members of many professions. A summer vacation here led to the long-gone Mon Ami, the first significant French restaurant in North County. This modest location in the Mercado del Sol, now occupied by a Thai restaurant, spawned a second notable career, that of restaurateur Bertrand Hug. After leaving Mon Ami, Grumel and Hug worked together in Leucadia and Carlsbad before going their separate ways.

In March, Grumel returned to the Mercado del Sol to open Vincent’s Four Seasons, a place not terribly different from previous Grumel eateries--a situation that anyone who has dealt with this chef’s masterful potatoes and seductive sweets will find all to the good. The new restaurant is both larger and, with its mauve draperies, linens and carpet, rather more formal than other Grumel establishments. But, in the grand French tradition of la plus ca change , la plus c’est le meme chose , the atmosphere at the new Vincent’s sweats the same familiar odors of slowly cooked duck and of lamb roasted in a casing of crushed herbs and garlic.

Grumel’s menu remains well within the bounds of tradition and, to the point that it is idiosyncratic, it tilts towards the ravishingly savory dishes of the Languedoc and Provence regions of southern France. There are very few modern affectations.

This list opens on a solidly classical note with lobster bisque, a briny brew that Grumel makes his own with the addition of fresh tarragon. He also offers a second soup daily; this recently was a cream of cucumber spiked with a hint of fresh ginger, a refreshing note that oddly enough made the faintest suggestion of sweetness. Just for the sake of amusement, Grumel floated a few lavender blossoms atop the pale jade liquid.

There are also a pair of pretty salads--one of mixed greens in tarragon vinaigrette, the other of romaine and walnuts in a French Roquefort dressing--but these seem offered in recognition of the average Californian’s daily greenery requirement, and the real emphasis among the starters is upon such clever compositions as dill-cured salmon in sweet mustard sauce, duck terrine with confit (“marmalade”) of onions and a tony combo of oysters Rockefeller, clams casino and mussels baked under an herbed crust.

The hors d’oeuvres list rather prosaically continues with shrimp cocktail--the Del Mar racing season will open in July, and Vincent’s is only a few whinnies from the track--but regains its tone with snails in a creamy chive sauce and a small, stylish pizza based on Grumel’s ever-flaky puff pastry.

A supplementary daily specials list usually offers an additional starter or two and recently mentioned both extravagant Belon oysters from Washington State (topped with caviar, no less) and an extremely French pasta dish of bow-tie noodles garnished with shiitaki , oyster and other exotic mushrooms. Tossed in brown stock and mild butter sauce, this was a very handsome plate, especially because of the steak-like, grill-charred mushrooms that surrounded the mound of pasta and sauteed mushrooms. The flavors were so French that the bits of cheese thrown here and there as garnish seemed intrusive.

An innovation on the entree side of the menu is the collection of dishes titled “ la symphonie legere ,” or “the light symphony.” This diet-minded selection includes salmon simply poached or grilled, a grilled chicken breast in a sauce of sieved raspberries and a New York steak topped with garlic but--since this is a special menu--no butter.

Grumel’s New York steak with five peppercorns is more indulgent, its racy flavors sharpened by the high-pitched flavor of pink peppercorns and moderated by cream and brandy; this dish may seem a bit passe by today’s standards, but it is certainly a good way to enjoy a steak. Quite in the same mood is an old-fashioned pie of sweetbreads and mushrooms in a Port-flavored cream, bedded on wilted spinach and baked under a crust of puff pastry. It is rich and mellow, the epitome of the style of dishes that the French classify “ la cuisine bourgeoise .”

Grumel offers his specialty, confit of duck (the bird is slowly simmered and then allowed to steep and mature in its own juices for several days) by itself or with a sharp lime sauce, and sometimes in a special version garnished with morel mushrooms and Madeira sauce. Other entree choices include a veal chop stuffed with goat cheese; a French mixed grill of quail, sausage and a lamb chop doused with their own juices; salmon in a sauce of white wine and oyster mushrooms and, in a rather startling departure, a sort-of-Cajun dish of blackened scallops with ginger and candied orange rind.

The plate garnishes are quite handsome and normally include a grouping of simply cooked, first-rate vegetables and a square or wedge of one of Grumel’s singularly good potato dishes, such as garlicky gratin dauphinoise (thinly sliced potatoes baked with cheese and cream).

The dessert list offers the innovation of low-cal mousse cakes in raspberry and chocolate flavors, but the stars are the vanilla Bavarian cream that encloses a heart of chocolate mousse and the pear tart in warm caramel sauce. This last is like a sort of fruity, buttery pizza lapped in a sweetly unctuous ocean of sauce, that, unlike American caramels, is made even richer by the inclusion of cream. It is a good one to share.

VINCENT’S FOUR SEASONS

731 S. Highway 101, Solana Beach 481-1141 Dinner served Tuesday-Sunday; closed Mondays. Credit cards accepted. Dinner for two, including a moderate bottle of wine, tax and tip, $70 to $110.