Fixings for a French Revolution

French food has been on the defensive for 15 years or more. First it quailed before the eruption of California cuisine, then it threw up its hands and sat in a corner nursing a vermouth during the cuisine-of-the-month period.

And now tout le monde seems to want Italian food. Italian food! Ah, it is a mad world, mon ami.

True, French food been making a comeback lately, but only by presenting itself as something new: not French, you understand, but Provencale; not la cuisine francaise but bistro food. There’s an exception in east Hollywood, though, right where Santa Monica Boulevard runs into Sunset Boulevard: a romantic little place called Cafe Stella.

But you have to work to find it. Cafe Stella is hidden behind a pet store in a sort of down-at-the-heels mini-mall called Sunset Junction. From the street, all you can see of it is a neon sign of a star. It’s a tiny place with room for six tables, plus about nine more out in the worn patio it shares with a hair salon, some kind of Satanist paraphernalia shop and a couple of other businesses.

But once you’re inside Cafe Stella, it’s as if the last few decades never happened. You’d think you were in a French neighborhood restaurant during the De Gaulle years. It absolutely looks the part, from the blackboard listing drinks and desserts to the mirrored back bar to the tchotchkes on the counter, such as a North African drum--the French equivalent of a souvenir from Puerto Vallarta.

The place has a fairly uncompromising attitude about other details too; it accepts no credit cards and serves no decaf. Needless to say, the food is pretty uncompromising. This is a place where you can rediscover the forgotten pleasures of poulet a l’estragon and steak au poivre, not tarted up in the slightest for post-Nouvelle Cuisine tastes.

The tiny appetizer list includes escargots, which are actually not the best way to begin a meal, because they’re flabby and uncharacteristically bland. More typical of this restaurant is an absolutely classical French onion soup, made with a beefy broth and plenty of onions. For once, the floating crouton isn’t overloaded with cheese in the nacho-plate manner.

Mostly it’s the entrees that are unusual by today’s standards. The salads are more like what you find on other menus around town. One is mixed greens topped with hot goat cheese rounds on toast. In another, the greens are tossed with apples, walnuts and a generous amount of Roquefort. The only concession to Italian food here is a green salad with mozzarella and tomatoes. All the salad plates are scattered prettily with chives around the edges.

Among those entrees, the most charming is the poulet a l’estragon, just chicken breast in a judicious amount of fresh cream, sweetly scented with tarragon, a strong argument for simplicity. Like all the entrees, it comes with a choice of two side dishes: green beans, which taste pretty fresh; ratatouille; gratin dauphinois, a cake of thinly sliced potatoes layered with onions; and (of course) French fries.

“We’re famous for our steak au poivre,” the waiter is likely to say, and it certainly is excellent. It’s a boneless strip with quite a bit more cream sauce than the chicken has, and it’s gleefully punched up with crushed black pepper. There’s also a plainer grilled steak with Provencal herbs.

Another simple dish is pork tenderloin in a mushroom cream sauce subtly flavored with mustard. The most exotic item is tuna in a curry cream sauce with anise. For a French-style curry, the spices are remarkably Indian.

There are also nightly specials. Usually there’s a grilled fish, and I’ve had hachis parmentier, more or less shepherd’s pie with just a thin frosting of mashed potatoes over the ground beef.

The desserts on the blackboard are pot au chocolat and creme bru-lee. The former is a sort of French chocolate pudding, with the flavor of a chocolate mousse but a custardy texture. The latter is probably the best-known French dessert to today’s restaurant-goers, though it happens to be an old English dish called burnt cream. Anyway, Cafe Stella makes it very lightly sweetened, so that there’s a delicious contrast between the creamy custard and the caramelized sugar crust. Unfashionable to the end.

BE THERE

Cafe Stella, 3932 Sunset Blvd., Hollywood; (323) 666-0265. Dinner 6 p.m.-midnight Tuesday-Saturday. Wine and beer. Street parking. Cash only. Dinner for two, food only: $42-$54.

What to Get: green salad, poulet a l’estragon, steak au poivre, tuna curry, creme bru^le, pot au chocolat.