Ma Maison,the Sequel

Twenty years ago, I was talking with the owner of a restaurant-supply store when the name of Ma Maison came up. He paused for a moment, awe-struck. “Mamasan!” he gushed. “That’s a great restaurant! Me and the old lady drove by it the other day--the parking lot was full! “

“Ma Maison” was a name to conjure with, even on that crass commercial level. Maybe only a few thousand people actually ate at L.A.’s most fashionable restaurant, but millions around the country had heard of it; Johnny Carson mentioned it on “The Tonight Show” all the time.

But then chef Wolfgang Puck moved on to other restaurants and owner Patrick Terrail closed the place, and eventually the rights to the name “Ma Maison” were up for grabs. So since May there’s been a place called Ma Maison in Atwater Village, at the corner of Los Feliz and Glenfeliz boulevards.

We can spell out the differences briefly. Original Ma Maison: unlisted phone number; rented Porsches parked out front to impress such people as the restaurant-supply guy; near antique stores and art galleries; offhand, mismatched decor (it looked like the fanciest French restaurant in Kingman, Ariz.); inventive California cuisine, challenging the then-dominant French cuisine. New Ma Maison: phone number on a banner out front; no rented Porsches; near the Los Angeles River; French neighborhood restaurant decor--peach-tone walls, oak bar, mural of Provence.

And the food is fairly traditional French, challenging, as it were, California cuisine. Chef Jacques Emery has worked at Pascal in Newport Beach and Les Ambassadeurs at Le Crillon Hotel in Paris.

His salads may not surprise, but they’re very good: warm goat cheese ( roulade de chevre chaud ) on an explosion of chopped frisee in a mustardy vinaigrette ; a garlicky Caesar ( cotes de romaine ) with anchovies, big fresh croutons and relatively little cheese; endive with apples and Roquefort accompanied by another salad of mixed greens in a different dressing. He likes to include yellow tomatoes in his salad for a splash of color, although they’re rather flavorless.

Among other appetizers, the fricassee of wild mushrooms is very flavorful, the crab cakes fried quite crisp and brown (the remoulade sauce is like a faintly sweet mayo), the escargots tender but quite plain. Ma Maison’s soup of the day (say, asparagus) is likely to be a thick, split-pea-like potage.

Emery makes a meaty, tender rabbit in Dijon mustard sauce, so rich it’s like peanut butter, and a very satisfying beef tartare, spiked with capers and horseradish. Three charcoaly lamb chops ( cotelettes d’agneau ) are coated with whole-seed mustard and herbs, and come with a thick red-wine sauce. One night the fish of the day was catfish with a hint of saffron. The filet mignon comes in a light wine sauce with lots of peppercorns.

But the veal scallops are rather chewy (you get lots of wild mushrooms with them, though), and so is the odd sea bass in tapenade, served on a watery tomato coulis. Emery’s odd idea of New Orleans cookery is chicken with linguine in a fairly hot sauce with lots of extremely crunchy dried mushrooms (at first I thought they were seaweed).

The pastries--all made on the premises--are unexpectedly impressive. You’re likely to find a cappuccino cup (complete with handle) made out of chocolate filled with coffee mousse; a sort of jelly roll with a tangerine mousse filling; an exotic passion fruit cake; a tiramisu of neat rows of ladyfingers. The raspberry chocolate mousse and the Kirsch-dosed chocolate truffle cake both come enclosed in decorative ribbons of chocolate.

In addition to the main room, there’s a banquet room in back seating 50. From Friday to Sunday, a pianist plays near the front entrance, and between 4:30 and 6 p.m. there’s an early-bird menu with choices such as salmon.

This is quite a serious restaurant, and its neighborhood ought to treasure it. And where else in L.A. does a walking path beside a river (entrance just past the Los Feliz Municipal Golf Course) lead you to lapin au moutarde ?

*

Ma Maison, 3179 Los Feliz Blvd., Los Angeles. (323) 906-9000. Dinner 4:30-10:30 p.m. Tuesday-Sunday. Wine. Parking lot. All major cards. Dinner for two, food only $4 to $68. What to Get: cotes de romaine, roulade de chevre chaud, fricassee de champignons sauvages, crab cakes, lapin au moutarde de Dijon, tartare de boeuf, cotelettes d’agneau, cappuccino cup, raspberry mousse.