In the Comfort Zone

The story of vermont, a new restaurant on Vermont Avenue in Los Feliz, reads like an early draft of a script about two fledgling restaurateurs. Two guys in their 30s (Michael Gelzhiser and Manuel Mesta) who have worked around town for years--first as waiters, then as managers--find a space with possibilities in an up-and-coming neighborhood. They decide at long last to follow their dream and open their own place. And they do it the old-fashioned way: with most of their own money and their own labor.

Lease secured and chef hired, they strip the former Sarno Caffe, next to Sarno Bakery’s window of towering white wedding cakes, down to the essentials, revealing old brick walls and a graceful arch in the vaulted ceiling. When no hanging lamps in their price range show off the space the way they envision, one of the owners designs sculptural fixtures out of ivory rice paper. They add potted palms and a faded Oriental carpet to the single dining room furnished with leather chairs finished in brass studs and banquettes upholstered in stripes. When it opens, the place looks as settled in as any restaurant that’s been serving patrons for years.

Locals have embraced vermont with enthusiasm, stopping in for lunch or dinner after browsing in the bookstore or the all-vinyl record shop up the block. The big front window looks out on a gritty cityscape of light and shadow, but the couples seated on the banquette beneath are too busy with field greens tossed in a roasted shallot vinaigrette or a vegetarian roasted corn soup to notice its Hopperesque quality. It’s a good first date kind of place that’s just as suitable for a meal out with your mother. Whenever I’ve visited, there always seems to be a birthday party in progress. Fortunately, no one here insists on singing “Happy Birthday” out of tune.

Chef Edwin Figueroa’s menu is basically contemporary American comfort food--soothing soups, mashed potatoes (and parsnips) and other vegetables that are good for you, grilled fish, roasted meats and homey desserts. There are few dishes you haven’t seen before, but everything is cooked with care. Most main courses are less than $20 and generous enough to be supper on their own, which means vermont is priced to become a neighborhood fixture.

Vermont’s real virtue is that the owners and staff try so hard to please that they win you over before you ever take a bite. Host Michael Gelzhiser is tremendously welcoming and genial. One night, for instance, he is worried that, because the restaurant is short-staffed, we might have had to wait longer than usual for our food, so he sends out one of the specials to make up for it: three plump crab cakes flecked with a confetti of bright peppers and served on a piquant remoulade with a salad of shaggy mizuna leaves and shaved fennel. This I wouldn’t mind having as a main course some other time. When the steamed mussels arrive, they’re generous to a fault--a bowl brimming with Prince Edward Island mussels steamed in white wine and shallots and powerfully scented with threads of lemon zest.

The fluffy mixed field greens are always a good bet, but the salad I like best is “Michael’s favorite salad,” a variation on salade Lyonnaise that consists of curly frisee strewn with apple-smoked bacon and topped with a poached egg. The idea is to puncture the egg’s runny yolk and let it mix with the sharp raspberry vinegar dressing that is just warm enough to properly wilt the greens. Running a close second is the salad of peppery arugula leaves and shrimp with slices of perfectly ripe avocado. A warm braised endive salad would be delicious if the blue cheese vinaigrette wasn’t so overpoweringly vinegary.

Confronted with two huge braised lamb shanks, I momentarily wish I had spent the afternoon hiking instead of sitting at my desk, but my hungrier guests soon help polish it off. Nobody, however, wants to finish the pasty risotto. Other main courses at vermont are basics such as pale slices of roasted pork loin propped against a mound of mashed potatoes or grilled salmon brushed with a sweet (too sweet for my taste) glaze and accompanied by mashed potatoes and parsnips. The crispy whitefish (a special one night) is nicely paired with a rather starchy puree of celery root. Pistachio-stuffed breast of chicken is a pretty dish: Thick slices of chicken come fanned across the plate with a splash of Sherry reduction, fingerling potatoes and caramelized cipollini onions the color of mahogany.

Occasionally, a piece of fish may not be as fresh as you’d like, the frisee arrives a little tired or a sauce is applied overexuberantly. But only a couple of dishes entirely miss the mark. One is pasta Locanda (from Locanda Veneta, where Gelzhiser once worked). Maybe if it was made with Italian green lentils instead of mushy domestic ones and the spaghetti was cooked more al dente, this pasta dish (it also includes whole spinach leaves) would work, but it’s reminiscent, unfortunately, of something you’d find at a latter-day hippie restaurant like Inn of the Seventh Ray.

For a small wine list, vermont’s is more eclectic than expected, ranging from Veuve Clicquot and a sparkling methode Champenoise Grandin brut from the Loire to Chilean Sauvignon Blanc and Italian Pinot Grigio, and reds from Provence and Sicily, along with wines from California’s Central Coast and Sonoma. Corkage is a relatively modest $10.

Desserts are in the comfort zone, too. That irresistible rich vanilla custard beneath a blanket of caramel sauce is very much like the one served at Locanda Veneta. There’s also a warm flourless chocolate cake for those who can’t not order chocolate. And there’s a good buttery tartlet filled with a puckery lemon curd.

With its menu of American comfort food and all the allure of the familiar, vermont is plugged into the restaurant vernacular of the moment. It will be interesting to see how the cooking evolves as this promising restaurant builds an audience and its confidence.

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VERMONT

CUISINE: Contemporary American. AMBIENCE: Warm and stylish little restaurant with vaulted ceiling, brick walls and potted palms. BEST DISHES: mixed baby field greens; “Michael’s favorite salad”; arugula salad; steamed mussels; grilled salmon; pistachio-crusted breast of chicken; roast loin of pork; vanilla custard. WINE PICKS: 1997 Qupe Syrah, Central Coast; 1996 La Bastide Blanche Bandol, Provence. FACTS: 1714 Vermont Ave., Los Angeles; (323) 661-6163. Lunch Tuesday through Friday; dinner Tuesday through Sunday. Dinner appetizers, $5.50 to $8.50; main courses, $13 to $18. Corkage $10. Parking on street.