Pommes and Circumstance

It’s easy to spot Cafe du Village, the newest place to eat on Larchmont Boulevard in Los Angeles. Just look for the cheerful red awning. You’ll need some sort of landmark because the west side of Larchmont has become crowded with little restaurants, each with a cluster of sidewalk tables in front.

There are a couple of Italian places, a pizzeria, a Greek spot, a coffee and tea shop--and now this pleasant neighborhood cafe. The food is “French, French, French,” the man on the phone told me proudly when I called to make a dinner reservation. His strong French accent was a good omen, I thought.

The dinner menu is simple, just a handful of dishes. And yes, it is French, French, French, except for pasta Chinoise, which is linguine tossed with shrimp, chicken and bits of ginger root. The atmosphere is informal and homey, the sort of place where the chef--Laurent Duffaut, who is from Bordeaux--hobnobs with the customers and the small tables are set so close together you can’t help but get to know your neighbors.

The room is decorated with sheaves of dried plants, polished copper pots and other rustic objects. The red-printed tablecloths and the charming yellow pottery cigales (cicadas) that hold salt and pepper are from the south of France. Bread comes in a basket lined with a printed yellow Provencal napkin. You can just glimpse the kitchen beyond the pastry case stocked with croissants and apple tarts set out on Italian tiles patterned in warm Mediterranean colors.

That first night, I had a hard time deciding between grilled baby lamb chops with mustard sauce and entreco^te with peppercorn sauce. As it turned out, I couldn’t have either one. Someone had neglected to order the meats that day. Oh well, duck breast with peppercorn sauce sounded good too. And it was fine, served on a wood plank with some well-cooked green beans and the sauce in a little crock on the side. But what stole my heart was the skinny French fries. I would be happy eating only these, they are that good. Crisp on the outside, soft within, they are a frites lover’s dream.

When I went again, the meats had been ordered, and I did get my chops. They were nothing fancy, just good, plain lamb chops with a sauce of whole-grain Dijon mustard and cream--with those wonderful frites on the side.

I sneaked in a taste of my companion’s entreco^te, too. It’s a small piece of prime New York steak accompanied by a black peppercorn sauce made with cream, veal stock and cognac--and a good dose of pungent peppercorns. I’m saving the three other dinner entrees--grilled chicken breast with wild mushroom sauce, filet mignon with Bordelaise sauce and grilled salmon with bell pepper sauce--for another visit.

Prices are attractive: dinners range from $14.50 to $17.50 and include soup or salad, bread and vegetables. Salads are greens dressed with balsamic vinaigrette. But you need nothing more when the mixed lettuces are so crisp and fresh. However, heartier chicken Caesar, warm goat cheese, and duck breast salads are also available. And of course, you can have escargots as a starter. Soups are plain and simple--mushroom, broccoli puree, and one night a combination of tomato, eggplant, onion, garlic and basil that sounded more interesting than it was.

Open just two months, Cafe du Village offers dinner only three nights a week, but breakfast and lunch are available every day. Morning pastries, baked fresh every day, include chocolate-filled croissants, almond croissants, pain au raisin swirled with cinnamon, and apricot and blueberry Danishes. The kitchen also serves pancakes and French toast.

Cafe du Village’s large and diverse lunch menu is only partly French. Testing the Gallic offerings, I ordered Provence’s famous picnic sandwich, pan bagnat, a big sourdough roll stuffed with a zesty mixture of tuna, anchovies, capers and other good things. But someone had fallen down on the job that day and forgot to order the rolls: therefore, no pan bagnat. But I didn’t mind switching to a classic quiche Lorraine, which comes with sensational potatoes on the side. To make them, Duffaut sautes boiled red potatoes in butter, with onions and sweet red peppers, seasoning the mixture with paprika and herbes de Provence.

Salade Nicoise was in trouble that day too. The kitchen had none of the requisite green beans, so you had to choose something to replace the haricots verts. My lunch companion decided on avocado, then found out that the usual brine-cured little olives were missing too, replaced by ordinary black ones. This young restaurant is still in its shakedown phase, so substitutions and the occasional glitch are likely.

Desserts include a lusciously creamy creme bru^lee with a solid layer of melted sugar on top, rice pudding with caramel sauce that contains a dash of brandy, and bread pudding with puree apricot sauce. The restaurant does not have a liquor license, but the big pitchers of lemonade and ice at lunch are every bit as appealing as wine.

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BE THERE

Cafe du Village, 139 1/2 N. Larchmont Blvd., Los Angeles; (213) 461-3000. Breakfast and lunch, 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. daily. Dinner, 6 to 10 p.m. Thursday through Saturday. MasterCard and Visa. No alcohol, but you may bring your own wine (there is no corkage fee). Dinner for two, food only, $29 to $35.

What to Get: Baby lamb chops, entreco^te or duck breast with peppercorn sauce; quiche Lorraine with red potatoes; creme bru^lee.