A French Lesson

Break out your beret. you might want to tuck a pack of Gauloises into your pocket, too, if only for effect. And practice calling out “garcon!” to summon a waiter. To fit in at the newly reopened Cafe des Artistes in Hollywood, you’ll want to look more French than the French.

Don’t worry if you don’t get it right the first time. You can take lessons from the cafe’s very French habitues. When my friends and I arrive for dinner one night, we’re seated in the front garden patio just behind a table of French women--three generations celebrating a small girl’s birthday. The mother has the deep tan and decolletage of the South of France, and she knows how to hold a cigarette so that even in these days, when smoking holds zero cachet, she gives it an aura of chic. They’re having a wonderful time lingering over dinner on this lovely late summer night.

After French chef Jean-Pierre Bosc and his Italian-born partner Silvio De Mori, who own the boisterous French bistro Mimosa on Beverly Boulevard, bought Cafe des Artistes, they spent several months refurbishing the quaint Arts and Crafts bungalow. They covered the front patio with fiberglass and wood trellising and dotted the dining room with mosaic- and marble-topped tables. The large back patio, once a raffish, somewhat ramshackle space, was spruced up with banquettes and heavy framed mirrors.

Set on a quiet block just north of Sunset Boulevard and hidden by tall ficus tree hedges, Cafe des Artistes is quite the Hollywood hideaway. Many of the old Cafe des Artistes regulars followed former owner Michele Lamy to Les Deux Cafes when she opened that Hollywood hot spot in 1997. Not to worry. Bosc and De Mori needed this place for all the guests they can’t fit into their tiny Mimosa. It’s also large enough to do big parties.

The menu’s “no tablecloth/no dress code” spells out the concept. The single-page oversized sheet lists “Les Fruits de Mer” (fruits of the sea) at the top; it’s one of the specialties here that you can’t get at Mimosa. If you’re seated, as we were one night, next to a couple so busily absorbed in the seafood platter that they hardly exchanged a word, you might find yourself blithely ordering up the $51 extravaganza yourself. It’s a generous three tiers of seafood on ice, everything from cracked Dungeness crab, prawns, chilled mussels, steamed clams and raw oysters to minuscule sea snails served with a toothpick to pluck the mollusks from their shells. Everything tastes fresh and nicely chilled, though the clams were rather tough and the king crab legs were as bland as ever. The rye bread that comes with it didn’t have much soul either. There’s also a smaller version of the platter available for $38.

Soulful, though, is exactly what I would call the marrow bone a la coque, three marrow bones standing upright in a mini-boeuf bourguignon that tastes of wine and stock and the essence of vegetables, a marvelous contrast to the unctuousness of the marrow. One vegetable dish that almost tempts me to go vegetarian is a platter of artichokes barigoule (halved artichokes cooked in olive oil and thyme), a velvety eggplant caponata and a baked tomato topped with bread crumbs and garlic. I like the skinny grilled Merguez sausages laced with North African spices, too.

One night in late summer, offered among a handful of specials scrawled on the menu is a plate of thick-sliced heirloom tomatoes from the farmer’s market, served with a cruet of olive oil and a crock of coarse sea salt. This, more than anything on the menu, had the pure taste of the season. I’ve found the specials to be some of the best things here. There’s the earthy salad that pairs creamy sauteed veal sweetbreads with ochre chanterelles, and a perfectly simple grilled French sea bass (loup de mer) with steamed red-skinned potatoes and tender fennel. The accompanying Champagne sauce, a cashmere-weight beurre blanc, comes in a sauce boat on the side.

But not everything is idyllic. Salads tend to be overdressed. The duck rillettes are too lean to have much flavor. The steak tartare au couteau may be hand-cut, but the meat is coated in a sweetish sauce that masks the taste of the beef.

Bosc gives a nod to the current craze for Belgian food with moules frites--steamed mussels and fries. The mussels are fine, although I prefer the gratineed mussels that are also on the menu. But what are we to think of a French cafe that turns out frites as dispirited as these?

I’ve only tried three of the plats du jour, the best of which was the textbook coq au vin. It took me three visits, though, before I noticed the words in small print at the top of the list: “Served for the entire table (individual serving +$3).” The supplementary charge seems ungracious considering that the rustic plats du jour, such as the pork roast with dried plums or veal blanquette with sorrel, aren’t prepared a la minute.

There are a couple of things to avoid. The gummy Israeli pasta paella dotted with tired seafood is simply awful. Pay attention to the word caramelized in the description of the baby back ribs: They’re excruciatingly sweet.

In my four visits, I found the kitchen had distinct ups and downs, more ups when Bosc was in the house. Service is pleasantly earnest, though sometimes the food can be very slow in coming. The wine list could be better, too. Some entries lack the year or the producer, making it harder to choose a bottle. More interesting than the choice of wines is the array of popular French aperitifs. Along with Burgundy’s familiar kir (white wine and creme de cassis) and kir royal (Champagne and creme de cassis), they offer Lillet from Bordeaux and Pineau des Charentes from Cognac country.

The translation “fresh cheese” doesn’t begin to convey the pleasures of fraiche faisselle. What you get is a fragile fresh white cheese tipped out of the mold right onto your plate. It comes with a pitcher of heavy cream to pour over it, and a bowl of sugar. Mmmm. If it’s a warm night, try the Cafe Liegeois--coffee ice cream drenched with a shot of espresso--or the strawberries marinated in Beaujolais and layered in a parfait glass with raspberry sorbet.

Cafe des Artistes may not be the perfect cafe, but it is open until 2 a.m., making it a welcome addition to the Hollywood dining scene

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Cafe des Artistes

CUISINE: French. AMBIENCE: Arts and Crafts bungalow with covered front patio and outdoor bar, plus a large back patio with banquettes. BEST DISHES: marrow bone a la coque, mussels gratinee, grilled French sea bass, artichokes barigoule, fra 5/8che faisselle, Cafe Liegeois. wine PICK: Veuve Clicquot non-vintage brut Champagne. FACTS: 1534 N. McCadden Place, Hollywood; (323) 469-7300. Open Monday through Saturday for lunch and dinner. Appetizers, $6 to $12; main courses, $12 to $23. Corkage $3 per person per bottle. Valet parking.