SOPHISTICATED LADY

WHEN A FRIEND RAVED ABOUT A DISH AT A NEW Los Feliz restaurant, I was skeptical. The dish, after all, was seared foie gras on French toast--with strawberries. It’s awfully bold, especially here, a stone’s throw from the Dresden Room, the club where lounge act Marty and Elayne hold forth with oldies but goodies every evening. But then the neighborhood is changing.

It’s been touted as the SoHo of L.A. or the next new thing for years now, about as long as Fred Eric has been shocking the locals with his irreverent menu prose and eccentric presentations at Vida and, later, at his impossible-to-love, impossible-to-hate coffee shop Fred 62. But only now are the neighborhood’s two main drags, Hillhurst and Vermont, morphing into something interesting. Newish restaurants include Vermont on Vermont, the Electric Lotus and the tiny French bakery next to Figaro Brasserie.

And now, Los Feliz Restaurant, owned by Rick and Debbie Clemente. On a first visit, I’m impressed. I never expected to find such a sophisticated dining establishment. My guests, two architects who rarely venture from the Westside, are ensconced in the bar, relieved that I haven’t booked at some scruffy cafe. They’ve already scoped out the menu, noting filet mignon, duck breast, herb-crusted salmon. They’re also quick to admire the leaded-glass panels and sleek supper club booths salvaged from the original Chasen’s.

I recognize some of the musicians struggling in with heavy instrument cases: Los Feliz includes an intimate venue called the Jazz Spot. The soundproofed room with a concert grand is at the back of the bar. Sometimes you can catch a riff or two from the dining room, but the music is never obtrusive. Los Feliz, in fact, is one of the few restaurants in Los Angeles where you don’t have to struggle to talk over the ambient noise.

And it’s even better when you can eat skookum oysters on pickled cucumber or skate wing in balsamic brown butter. For a neighborhood restaurant, even one as grown-up as this one, the menu is as ambitious as the prices. Chef Collin Crannell, a former Patina sous-chef and head of Joachim Splichal’s catering division, last cooked at Asia de Cuba in the Mondrian. At Los Feliz, his California-French menu is rigorously seasonal, based on ingredients from the local farmers market.

The freshness and integrity of the raw materials are shown off in the salads, from a basic mixed green salad with tomatoes “melted” to give up their flavor, a scattering of capers and Parmesan chips to a delicious “bittersweet” salad of both sweet and bitter greens garnished with fat caramelized pecans and marvelous, ripe Roquefort in an orange-inflected vinaigrette. Anyone who fancies fish carpaccio should be happy with the dominoes of ahi tuna perked up with a fennel confit and briny picholine olives in a vinaigrette laced with the salty-tart taste of preserved lemon.

Under the “served warm” appetizer category, I love the look of Crannell’s timbale of stacked, glossy purple eggplant. The contrast of its rich, nutty flavor with chalky, herbed goat cheese and tapenade is very Mediterranean. A standout is the salad of Maine lobster, set on a sweet yellow pepper coulis studded with tender fava beans. That seared foie gras on vanilla-scented French toast is interesting, though the strawberries don’t work as a tart contrast. Less successful, too, are veal cheeks on a bed of red lentils. The veal sometimes isn’t tender enough or the lentils are too soft and bland.

When I saw skate on the menu, I jumped at it, remembering a fabulous skate wing in brown

butter that a French friend’s mother once cooked for me in the seaport of La Rochelle on the Atlantic coast. What was wonderful about that dish was the play between the pristine and delicate skate and the nutty brown butter. Alas, that’s missing here because the heavier balsamic brown butter has soaked into the fish, and its sweetness covers the taste of the skate. Happily, the halibut is wonderful, nicely set off by a gorgeous, sweet English pea puree. I like the lamb loin wrapped in a thin pastry encrusted with Moroccan spices and served with chickpeas and olives. Another dish, one sure to impress that great-aunt, is grilled filet mignon with morels and round (but curiously flavorless) orbit carrots. Also to note: Nearly half the dishes on the menu have a heart-healthy symbol.

Another sign of how grown-up this restaurant is: The service is pitched closely to the pace of the diners, not to the convenience of the chef or the server. And the cuisine is understated. The chef isn’t shouting, “Look at me, look at what I can do.” This food doesn’t impose. You could bring your mom here. Guaranteed, she’ll enjoy the food and marvel over the fresh tulips on the tables.

The wine list is young, but it offers enough interesting choices, including some older Bordeaux, to keep wine buffs happy. And the restaurant is serious enough about wine to have invested in good stemware, which even some places with renowned wine lists have failed to do.

As for dessert, I couldn’t stay away from the deconstructed Tahitian vanilla bean ice cream sundae--that’s three balls of ice cream with all the toppings in separate little dishes, so you can pour on the hot fudge and the buttery burnt sugar caramel sauces, the sliced almonds and the preserved cherries. If you must detour from that, try the classic vanilla creme brulee, which has the proper ratio of cream to the crackling sheet of sugar; or the chocolate moelleux, yet another version of the molten chocolate cake, this one served with an intense coffee ice cream.

After, you can retire to the jazz club to listen to a little music and, in the midst of Los Feliz, feel like a big-city sophisticate, which this restaurant is close to being.

*

AMBIENCE: Sophisticated supper club with old Chasen’s booths and leaded-glass wall, and outdoor patio. Plus the intimate Jazz Spot. SERVICE: Professional and courteous. BEST DISHES: Bittersweet salad, lobster salad, halibut with sweet English pea puree, Moroccan crusted lamb loin, vanilla creme brulee, Tahitian vanilla bean ice cream sundae, chocolate moelleux. Appetizers, $8 to $16. Main dishes, $17 to $26. Corkage, $10. WINE PICKS: 1997 Talley Estate Vineyard, Arroyo Grande; 1995 Pavelot Savigny-Les Beaune “Les Peuillets,” Burgundy. FACTS: Lunch Tuesday through Friday. Dinner Tuesday through Sunday; prix fixe menu, $26, Sunday nights; New Orleans brunch, $23, on Sundays. Valet parking.

Los Feliz Restaurant

2138 Hillhurst Ave.,

Los Feliz,

(323) 666-8666

cuisine: California-French

rating: **

Rating is based on food, service and ambience, with price taken into account in relation to quality. ****: Outstanding on every level. ***: Excellent. **: Very good. *: Good. No star: Poor to satisfactory.