An Address With Zip

Just across Thousand Oaks Boulevard from the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza is 2087, an American Bistro. Like 2424 Pico in Santa Monica and 410 Boyd in downtown Los Angeles, this restaurant’s address is its name. But unlike the other two restaurants, 2087 is set in the suburbs. Nevertheless, it has a distinctly hip urban profile. So hip that, despite the big lot in back and street parking galore, the place has valet attendants in snappy red bow ties and suspenders.

The word “bistro” conjures visions of a bustling big-city restaurant that serves stylish, casual cooking. The first bistros were French, of course, but American bistros have become a valid concept, too. In 2087’s case, the food is uncontrived, up-to-date American cooking. Chef Desi Szonntagh, a Culinary Institute of America graduate who has worked at Le Cirque and Provence in New York City and Ocean Avenue Seafoods and the now-defunct Tatou in Los Angeles, has created a solid menu based on dishes with straightforward appeal. Szonntagh has also wisely contracted with the Ventura County growers Underwood Ranches and Tierra Rejado Farms to provide fresh greens, fruits and vegetables. So instead of run-of-the-mill produce from a restaurant supplier, he sorts through tender baby lettuces, ruby berries and heirloom tomatoes to compose his menu from the season’s best ingredients.

2087 is a handsome restaurant with lots of natural light, comfortable banquettes and plenty of elbow room between the tables. The gleaming stainless-steel open kitchen at the back, bordered by a row of stools, adds focus and excitement to the airy room. By comparison, the fenced-in front patio with umbrellas and bamboo garden chairs seems cramped. But inside, the air conditioning is sometimes turned up so high that you feel like a Fosters Freeze cone. And, even when the place is half-full, it’s difficult to hear over the annoying background music--satellite-transmitted soft rock from the ‘70s.

Partner Charles Bruchez, the guy in the big-shouldered suit, isn’t shy about introducing himself. He may ask if you’d like mineral water and then inform you that he filters all the water at the restaurant, even the water used for cooking the pasta. A veteran of the Beverly Hills watering hole Jimmy’s and Tatou, Bruchez arrived from Liverpool 15 years ago, long enough to almost lose his accent.

First courses, many of them supervised by sous-chef Richard Demane, include excellent crab cakes, tall disks of crab meat flecked with sweet red peppers. A lobster cocktail special is terrific: half a Maine lobster perfectly cooked and served with a spunky housemade cocktail sauce and a whole-seed mustard sauce. But a brick-colored lobster soup laced with corn kernels and polenta croutons arrives cold and flat in flavor.

The Caesar, a heap of soft and crisp, dark and light romaine leaves draped with salt-cured anchovy, comes with a classic dressing but freighted with too much grated Parmesan. Wasabi-encrusted ahi tuna, wrapped in nori and a spring roll wrapper and briefly fried, is cut in thick slices. Still rare in the middle, it’s wonderful with an Asian slaw of slivered carrots, nappa cabbage and sugar snap peas perfumed with sesame oil. Artichoke hearts stuffed with duxelles, though, are hard to appreciate because the artichoke underneath the rich, savory mushroom stuffing is overcooked.

An entree of grilled swordfish, much more flavorful than most, is overwhelmed by a sharp sauce but worth ordering just for the delicious, fluffy corn tamales that come with it. In season, Copper River salmon is cooked to a perfect medium rare in a good but not brilliant Pinot Noir reduction and paired with fat green asparagus, carefully peeled at the base, a detail many kitchens miss. So many dishes work well that crab-encrusted Chilean sea bass comes as a surprise: It doesn’t sound good and it isn’t. Imagine a smashed crab cake on top of a piece of fish.

This is the place, however, to get a beautifully roasted chicken with a crisp, dark gold skin that’s been steeped in rosemary and lemon. The bonus is the side of earthy garlic mashed potatoes made from Yukon Gold spuds. Steaks include a filet mignon with little taste, par for this cut unless you’re talking very aged prime. Instead, go for the New York strip, always a good bet, especially when accompanied by 2087’s chile-dusted fries and perky salad of aru-gula and red onions.

As at any restaurant, a few lapses are to be expected. Just after a holiday weekend, a special layered lobster salad in a peppery gazpacho sauce would be delicious if the corn and the avocado weren’t both past their prime. On the same night, the house-smoked salmon, presented on a shredded-cabbage pancake with horseradish creme fra 5/8che, tastes as if it has been hanging around the refrigerator too long.

Still, the wait staff seems so genuinely captivated by the food that it’s hard not to get swept up in the enthusiasm. So when one waitress confesses that she’s fallen for the banana cream pie after hating bananas all her life, I have to try it. And it is great--cool and luscious, topped with a dense, irresistible cream. The dessert menu sometimes touts as many as three pies, all with pastry chef Alina Gibbert’s delightfully short crust. Think blackberry pie. Fresh peach pie. And what a season it is for peaches! Plus raspberries cooked down almost to a jam for dreamy raspberry pie. They’re all served with good vanilla bean ice cream, a wonderful indulgence.

Right out of the starting gate, 2087, an American Bistro is living up to its name. So many of the elements of a good neighborhood restaurant succeed here that this newcomer easily tops the Ventura County dining scene.

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2087, An AMERICAN BISTRO

CUISINE: American. AMBIENCE: Good-looking bistro with open kitchen, inviting bar and patio seating. BEST DISHES: Lobster cocktail, crab cakes, wasabi-encrusted ahi tuna, roasted chicken, strip steak with spicy fries, fresh peach or blackberry pie, banana cream pie. WINE PICKS: 1995 Pahlmeyer Chardonnay, Napa Valley; 1995 Havens Merlot, Napa Valley. FACTS: 2087 E. Thousand Oaks Blvd., Thousand Oaks; (805) 374-2087. Lunch weekdays; dinner daily. Dinner for two, food only, $47 to $78. Corkage $10.