SOCAL STYLE / Restaurants : Bistro by the Beach

Sometimes California is just too dreamy. Here I am driving on a breathtaking summer night, windows down, listening to the dark, honeyed tones of Cesaria Evora as I point the car toward Venice. That’s where I’ll find Restaurant 5 Dudley, which is the name and the address of an ambitious small enterprise. Right where Rose Avenue dead-ends at the beach, I nose my car through the entrance to the public beach parking lot, pay $4, and park in the far corner, in the direction the attendant pointed when I asked the whereabouts of Dudley.

Where the sand meets the boardwalk, hulking palm trees are lit like opera stars. A few stragglers on roller blades race by, threading their path between beach residents walking their dogs and tourists reluctant to leave just yet. Peeking around the corner a block south of Rose is the sign for Dudley. The restaurant is halfway down, across the street from the Art Deco Cadillac Hotel, just past the glittery mural that covers the corner building’s brick wall. Buttery yellow light streams out the door, and in front are a few sidewalk tables where hardier souls sit bundled in sweaters smoking, drinking wine and digging into their food with gusto.

Inside, the place is packed. (It seats maybe 40, including outside tables.) I can see a young chef in whites squeezing between the tables to set down a mysterious green soup served in an odd ‘60s glass and a tall Caesar salad topped with a slab of crouton. Hovering near the door are several hopefuls begging a table from affable owner Burt Alexander. After splitting with his original partner, Alexander called up his cousin’s son, Sandor Caplan, who had cooked at Pinot at the Chronicle, and asked if he would like to take over the kitchen at 5 Dudley. Caplan, in turn, asked best friend and fellow cook Michael Wilson to join him.

With walls painted the color of buttermilk and hung with seriously good French lithographs and prints, 5 Dudley has the feeling of a neighborhood bistro on Paris’ Left Bank. It’s quieter outside, but inside is definitely where the action is. I love the sizzle of the stove, the drifts of steam, the sudden whiff of garlic. Well-worn cookbooks lean against each other on a shelf, pots hang overhead and the refrigerator door is plastered with notes. Here, dishes don’t wait around under heat lamps; they arrive straight from the stove, though they are sometimes slow in coming.

The California-French menu is small, and is not printed. Your waiter, usually Ben, will joke that he is the menu, and proceed to recite it with a flourish, pointing out his favorites. As he explains to first-timers: “It’s dinner only. We change the menu every Tuesday. We always have two appetizers, two soups, and two salads. And as a main course we have a meat, fish, chicken, pasta, and vegetarian dish.”

He also mentions that a few dishes are always on the menu. The French onion soup served in the traditional two-eared bowl with melted cheese and a hearty veal broth bubbling over the sides. The Caesar, meant to be eaten with your hands, is made with an entire heart of romaine, stacked tall, rather overdressed and topped with a cheesy crouton. Their brie-and-avocado extravaganza is ripe avocado layered with oven-dried tomato, and croutons with brie melted over the top. It actually tastes much better than it sounds. I’d order all of these again, and have.

Specials are often more elaborate, and sometimes overambitious. On one night there’s a fascinating puree of asparagus gently perfumed with vanilla bean and garnished with slender asparagus tips. Another night, the special is a velvety avocado and melon puree that grows on me with every bite, served in a ‘50s-looking glass bowl on a triangular plate. Snowy, sweet seared scallops are served with diced potatoes and clams in an herb-flecked broth.

Main courses run to the comforting and hearty. The most popular is the half-chicken smeared with pesto and roasted until the pesto turns a rich dark brown. It’s served with freshly mashed potatoes and caramelized onions. Duck confit and seared foie gras on a bed of lentils looks promising; I just wish the sauce weren’t so sweet.

Pastas tend to be in the California-cuisine vein--overly rich and laden with ingredients. They’re good if you like your noodles thick and chewy, drenched in sauce, dusky wild mushrooms and shredded lamb shank. Pistachio-crusted halibut is kind of a bore, and that week’s filet de boeuf is somewhat odd, swathed in lobster sauce. A postmodern surf ‘n’ turf? But I love the molded noodle cake that comes with it.

Alexander has put together a sweet little wine list, featuring his favorites, which range from sturdy Rhones and Italian reds to Santa Maria Valley Pinots. But if you end up ordering that Lane Tanner Pinot Noir or the Pio Cesare Barolo Ornato, sniff your glasses before the wine is poured; they sometimes smell of chlorine.

Desserts aren’t as strong as the rest of the menu. There’s a fine creme brulee that’s sometimes overcooked, but it is laced with plenty of vanilla bean and has a nice burnt sugar topping. An individual flourless chocolate cake with a molten center would show better without the whipped cream and raspberry coulis dribbled over the top.

If every neighborhood had a restaurant with as much energy and passion as this one, L.A. diners would be sitting pretty. In fact, one night when I got to talking with one of the two regulars having dinner at the bar, he admitted living just up the block. And then he slipped me the smile of the cat that had swallowed the canary.

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Restaurant 5 Dudley

CUISINE: California. AMBIENCE: Small, crowded restaurant with French prints on the walls, an open kitchen and young chefs who deliver the food to the table. BEST DISHES: Caesar salad, onion soup, asparagus-vanilla bean soup, seared scallops, brie-and-avocado appetizer, roast chicken with pesto, duck confit, creme brulee. wine PICKs: 1997 Lane Tanner Pinot Noir, Santa Maria Valley; 1997 Josmeyer Gewurztraminer, Alsace, France. FACTS: 5 Dudley St., Venice; (310) 399-6678. Open Tuesday through Sunday for dinner only. Appetizers, $6 to $14; main courses, $14 to $26. Corkage $10.