Going Formal

At its height, along with the original Spago and Michael’s, Citrus was the quintessential California-French restaurant. The image of that all-white loft-like space with white market umbrellas unfurled beneath its soaring roof appeared in all the magazines. Lit as brightly as an operating room, the kitchen was the theater where patissier-turned-chef Michel Richard worked his magic for an A-list crowd. But that was before Citrus--and much of the L.A. restaurant scene--lost its momentum, the economy slumped, and an unhappy Richard decamped with his family to Washington, D.C.

Citrus had been shuttered for nearly a year before a new restaurant moved into the Melrose Avenue space. It’s called Alex, after chef/owner Alex Scrimgeour, who last cooked at Saddle Peak Lodge. With this ambitious new contemporary European restaurant, Scrimgeour, a young Brit who trained at the Cordon Bleu in Paris and London, is wagering that fine dining is on its way back. If the recent success of Josie or Melisse is any indication, he may be onto something.

Like Josie LeBalch’s and Josiah Citrin’s, Scrimgeour’s model is a rather formal, old-fashioned restaurant with a large menu, thick wine list and plenty of service. He lards his menu with ingredients such as caviar, foie gras, black truffles. The danger for a young chef attempting such a restaurant is the same as for an actor taking on a big Shakespearean role too soon.

Citrus was more California casual than elegant. So Scrimgeour opened up the room and subdued the high ceilings by adding dark wood beams. The bar now flows into the dining room, furnished with deco leather armchairs. Dark wood furniture and glass panels edged with pale stripes give the space a Modernist cast. The kitchen, partially screened by a small fortune in hanging copper pots, now recedes into the background. At the front, a chorus line of wait staff in white shirts and light blue ties stands at the ready.

The effect is a sober elegance, a bit staid, nothing like the freewheeling electric atmosphere that made Citrus such fun. It’s a different time, and definitely a different crowd. Diners, tired of shouting across tables or squeezing into tight banquettes at other restaurants, can revel in the distance between tables, the ample armchairs and the soft lighting.

There’s nothing trendy about the cooking either, which could be, mostly, a good thing. The menu is filled with up-to-date buzz words but it’s less wordy than most. Scrimgeour uses straightforward titles for the dishes and a format that makes it easy to choose. First courses are all $15, middle courses $12, main courses $29 and desserts $9, with the occasional choice of foie gras or cheese instead of dessert warranting a supplement. The four-course prix fixe menu seems like a bargain at $58. In the end, he steers his guests toward going for the whole deal--not an easy feat in a town where everyone is habitually watching their abs.

As a first course, Scrimgeour offers his variation of a Thomas Keller dish that’s been making the rounds across the country: butter-poached lobster. The butter brings out the shellfish’s meaty sweetness, so each bite really tastes of lobster. A rectangular porcelain plate is the blank canvas for a slice of foie gras au torchon (poached to a rosy color and chilled) and an even smaller piece of beautifully cooked seared duck liver that plays the foie gras’ cool, silky texture against the fat richness that oozes from the seared version. There’s a beguiling coriander-crusted skate wing with meltingly tender leeks and a beurre rouge that’s a fine alternative to the traditional brown butter and capers. Goat cheese souffle, though, is not as fluffy as its name implies, and basically falls flat.

My favorite of the middle courses is lovely spring asparagus and quail’s egg salad paired with a piquant saffron remoulade. Chilled cherry tomato consomme perfumed with a swirl of tangerine oil is an agreeable take on the tomato water that enthralled chefs in France a while back. Grilled langoustine, when they’re as fresh as these very expensive crustaceans, have enough flavor to stand up to a delicious dab of anchovy butter. But one night, the langoustine are virtually raw, and it’s hard to find a taste of anchovy in the sauce.

Red meat stars in the c0te de boeuf for two, a hefty piece of prime beef that comes with a dreamy potato puree. The wild mushroom risotto is intense, but Scrimgeour gets the texture of the risotto right. A pork filet is not well served by a bizarre accompani- accompaniment of blackberries and agnolotti stuffed with cardamom-infused carrots. When the waiter one night proposes whole Dover sole, which can be a wonderful treat, it arrives fileted, as a snaky curl of fish in a fussy preparation that doesn’t allow the flavor of this delicate fish to shine through. Sometimes a classic doesn’t need to be reinvented.

Alex’s menu needs more dishes as incisive and delicious as that butter-poached lobster and the foie gras au torchon. Less is often more. The cheese course, for example, would make more of an impact if presented straight on rather than embellished with extras such as mango chutney.

Desserts are fine but not particularly memorable. The best are the tall chocolate souffle with an icy star of pistachio creme anglaise, a gossamer creme brulee spiked with lemon grass, and a banana mille-feuille set off with a splash of rum and some espresso syrup. Along with the specials, waiters never fail to mention the option of having Alex cook for you, at $95 per person. Except for a couple of courses--seared ahi tuna with a little salad of shaved fennel with mandarin orange and a seared scallop set on a finely chopped ratatouille--the menu lacked the pizazz you’d expect.

The service is excellent for such a new restaurant. One night when I ordered lobster, the amuse bouche for everyone except me was a lobster bisque with a swirl of cream. I was given diced tuna tartar topped with caviar, so as not to repeat the lobster. It was a small detail, but telling.

Alex’s eclectic wine list is not huge, but it has interesting, offbeat wines, particularly from Austria. It’s also well-priced.

This restaurant needs more seasoning, but Scrimgeour has all the elements in place. If this one can find its audience and--along with Josie and Melisse--join the ranks of Patina and Spago, the door will open for restaurateurs to start dreaming of fine dining again.

Alex

6703 Melrose Ave.

Los Angeles

(323) 933-5233

Cuisine: Contemporary European

Rating: **

CUISINE: Contemporary European.

AMBIENCE: Spacious dining room with glassed-in kitchen, comfortable bar and private dining room and patio.

BEST DISHES: Butter-poached lobster, panache of foie gras, coriander-crusted skate wing, asparagus and quail’s egg salad, grilled langoustine with anchovy butter, wild mushroom risotto, c0te de boeuf for two. First courses, $15. Middle courses, $12. Main courses, $29. Four-course prix fixe menu, $58. Corkage, $20.

WINE PICKS: 1999 Tement Gelber Muskateller, Austria; 1999 Remulluri Rioja, Spain.

FACTS: Dinner Monday through Saturday. Lunch Monday through Friday. Valet parking. 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.