Paris of the Past

“Who’s Sammy Shell?” asked my friend as we headed to Studio City. Aha; a misapprehension I had to nip in the bud. “Sammy Shell” is just how you pronounce the name St. Michel.

Actually, Sammy Shell would make a pretty good name for a deli, but we were talking about the glossy new Cafe St. Michel, named for a prominent boulevard in the 5th arrondissement of Paris. It’s owned and operated by people from the nearby Wine Bistro and serves rigorously old-fashioned French dishes: pa^tes, coq au vin and veal Marengo.

No one is going to mistake a Ventura Boulevard storefront for a Paris bistro, but the management has done a good job of making St. Michel look the part. It’s lit by a wagon wheel-type chandelier suspended from the beamed ceiling, and the mustard-yellow walls sport French Art Deco ads for Armagnac and various French liqueurs.

At lunch, I recommend starting with l’assiette froide, a platter of salad and cold cuts. You get two squares of fine, fatty country style pa^te, three thin slices of good prosciutto and a pile of sliced garlicky Lyon-style salami, plus tart French cornichons, Nicoise olives and mesclun greens dressed with a nice, rather Italianate balsamic vinaigrette.

The lunch choices run to hot sandwiches, such as Monsieur Michel, a take on croque monsieur, the famous French grilled ham and cheese sandwich made with white sauce-soaked bread, ham and Swiss. Monsieur Michel is an open-face version using Italian ciabatta bread, and it’s delicious. So is Le British: ciabatta topped with a deliciously charred piece of lamb tenderloin, cut in manageable slices.

Dinner is a different proposition. The menu, etched into a mirror that takes up the entire eastern wall of the place, is rather ponderous fare by ‘90s standards. One notable exception is Cajun popcorn shrimp. The lightly breaded rock shrimp have an excellent, though scarcely French, dipping mixture of the soy sauce and balsamic vinegar mixture that accompanies them.

L’assiette froide notwithstanding, appetizers fail to impress. A dish of sizzling mussels in a garlic and rosemary sauce is made with those skimpy Eastern mussels. The Caesar salad is a version for cheese-lovers, not anchovy-lovers.

In my experience, the entrees are erratic. My grilled white tuna--reasonably large filets with a smoky tomato relish--were badly overcooked, positively dry. There are some pleasingly chewy chicken ravioli in a light tomato tarragon sauce, but the veal Marengo is like cafeteria food--just veal chunks in brown sauce--and the coq au vin is a leaden dish of fried chicken in thick red-wine gravy.

The desserts present a much better picture. There’s a fine creme bru^lee au chocolat served in a huge oval casserole; it’s big enough to share. My non-French-speaking friend fancied the flourless chocolate cake, a richly fudgy wedge that I personally found overly dense.

Like the Wine Bistro, its sister restaurant down the street, Cafe St. Michel has a large selection of imported wines, available by the glass or bottle. But one thing that sets St. Michel apart are the sidewalk tables where you can sip a skillfully brewed oversized Illy espresso, effectively a double espresso at the price of a single, in an attractive white porcelain cup. It’s tres Parisien, something not every boulevard haunt in Studio City can lay claim to.

BE THERE

Cafe St. Michel, 11929 Ventura Blvd., Studio City. Lunch 11:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m. Monday-Friday; dinner 5-10 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday. Dinner for two, $25-$42. Suggested dishes: l’assiette froide, $7.25; Le British, $8.95; chicken ravioli, $7.95; creme bru^lee au chocolat, $3.95; espresso, $1.50. Full bar. Valet parking at adjacent Wine Bistro. All major cards. (818) 761-9800.