A Thousand Times, Oui

I first visited the Pleasant Peasant in Newport Beach nearly eight years ago, and I was indeed pleased. I’ve been eating there off and on ever since.

Maybe you’ve heard the story of how Newport Beach native Lisa Blender met chef Laurent Ferre while both were working at the Michelin-starred restaurant La Cremailliere in Orleans, France. Soon afterward they married, returned to Newport and were able to buy the Pleasant Peasant from its former owner--Lisa’s father.

Well, the restaurant has just reopened after a two-month remodeling. The kitchen and bathrooms were completely redone, and the entire place has a newly bright, fresh look. The decor is breezy and unpretentious: rustic farm implements arranged on overhead shelves, blue-and-white Paris street signs tacked to the blond wood walls along with a gallery of pencil drawings and water colors.

Don’t look for major changes on the menu; you’ll still find the same honest French cooking Ferre has been doing here all along. Ferre spent five years in the kitchens of Alain Chapel, a three-star Michelin restaurant near Lyons, and many more cooking in his native Brittany. This man isn’t trendy or creative; he’s just a solid craftsman. And his menu is a bargain. No other French restaurant around here gives you such quality for the price as the Pleasant Peasant.

Perhaps there is one major difference in the place nowadays. Lisa was only 24 when she first took on the responsibility of running a restaurant, and it took time for her to develop into the self-assured patronne she is today.

The Pleasant Peasant upholds the French restaurant tradition of the husband running the kitchen and the wife taking charge of the dining room. Lisa is a hands-on patronne--she stops by tables to chat with regulars, she handles menial chores when her staff is busy and she sees that everyone gets the table they want if at all possible.

Once you’re seated, you’re served hot fresh rolls and a complimentary appetizer--a rather boring chicken liver mousse that happens to melt like butter when spread. This particular calling card has never impressed me, but Ferre’s appetizers do.

His duck leg farcie is, in effect, a galantine of duck; the firm, fatty roast duck leg is stuffed with a delicious forcemeat of chicken and vegetables. Served cold in thin slices with imported Puy lentils and shredded carrots, it makes a wonderful starter at dinner or the perfect light entree at lunch.

Ferre also makes excellent smoked salmon, which he somewhat grandiosely calls smoked salmon Laurent. This gorgeously buttery salmon gets its flavor from the salt curing, like gravlax, more than than from the smoking; there’s just a hint of mesquite in every bite.

The fairly classic onion soup, served in a two-handled crock, is good enough (at $3.95) to put the onion soups at many a pricier restaurant to shame. The beefy broth balances the natural sweetness of the onions with a hat of bubbly Gruyere cheese. Another appetizer that works well is the vegetable Napoleon, a tower of eggplant, tomato and zucchini slices layered with goat cheese, served hot.

The entrees come with a choice of soup or salad, and you can’t go wrong either way. The house salad is simply butter lettuce in vinaigrette, and the soups, such as a refreshing gazpacho or a silken pureed spinach soup, are all well-crafted.

The chef’s best-known dish is lamb shank Alain Chapel. It’s almost a farmhouse daube, the meat braised with carrots and potatoes in a rich stock flavored with tomatoes and white wine. The lamb is fork-tender and delicious. Another good dish is lamb loin Dijonnaise, a baked tenderloin of lamb with a mustard and bread crumb crust rich with tarragon.

The sand dabs amandine are dredged in flour, sauteed with lemon butter and topped with shaved almonds; they come out as smooth as velvet. There’s a dish described on the menu with Gallic insouciance as salmon sorrel, but it’s more sophisticated than it sounds. It’s a beautifully poached chunk of Atlantic salmon afloat in a luxuriant cream sauce made with white wine and tart sorrel.

Duck breast (somewhat tough) is cooked medium rare and served with a tart blackberry sauce. The menu’s simplest entree, lemon ginger chicken, is chicken breast sauteed in ginger-lemon butter. The lowest-priced item on the menu is the “Wellington.” It’s baked in puff pastry and smothered in a proper sauce bordelaise like beef Wellington, but it’s only $10.95, so don’t expect filet mignon or foie gras; it’s just meatloaf en crou^te.

The desserts are fairly classic. My favorite might be tarte aux pommes, the apple tart every French home cook can throw together at a moment’s notice. It’s just buttery puff pastry lined with apple slices and baked. Ferre adds French vanilla ice cream for $1 extra, but he’ll throw in some whipped cream for free. Outside of that, you have the choice of a chocolate mousse rich with the taste of egg yolks, bite-sized ice cream puffs (profiteroles) drizzled with hot chocolate sauce and a creme bru^lee with a crackling caramel crust.

The Pleasant Peasant isn’t much like a box of chocolates; you know exactly what you’re going to get. But that’s the way the Ferres like it, and that’s what will keep this place open for a long time to come.

The Pleasant Pleasant is moderately priced. Appetizers are $3.95 to $7.25. Pastas are $9.50 to $12.95. Entrees are $10.95 to $21.

BE THERE

The Pleasant Peasant, 4251 Martingale Way, Newport Beach. (949) 955-2755. Lunch 11:30 a.m.-2 p.m. Monday-Friday; dinner 5:30-9 p.m. Monday- Thursday, 5:30-10 p.m. Friday-Saturday. Closed Sunday. All major cards.