Fun is the dominant flavor

Suzanne Goin and Caroline Styne, the chef/front-of-the-house team behind Lucques, have just opened a second restaurant, A.O.C. Wine buffs will know this is short for Appellation d’Origine Controlee, the French system that designates and controls geographic names for wines and also certain foods, such as cheeses. It’s an apt name for this chic new wine bar.

Barbara Barry, who also designed Lucques, has transformed the funky space on 3rd Street just west of Fairfax that was once L.A. Trattoria into a smart, urban restaurant with two bars, one in front of a Cruvinet unit that dispenses 50 wines by the glass or carafe. The list of wines is eclectic and interesting, and the beautiful thing is that carafes are exactly half a bottle and exactly half the price, which means you can feel free to experiment and taste. A.O.C. also features a nightly flight of three wines, with a 2-ounce pour of each.

The menu is fun too. Plates are small and meant to be shared, tapas-style. Charcuterie arrives on a small, white porcelain rectangle. You can have good prosciutto, serrano ham or a selection of thinly sliced chorizo.

The aged ham called speck, with its slight edge of smoke, is served with sliced apples and arugula. There’s also a full-flavored version of the Tuscan appetizer chicken liver crostini.

Goin goes straight to the earthy and sensual in her cooking. Her baby octopus salad is punched up with preserved lemon. Velvety rare seared albacore comes with a blue-black tapenade. She pairs farmers market beets with tangerines in a salad fragrant with mint.

From a wood-burning oven come clams cooked in the shell with spicy chorizo and chickpeas, or a dreamy gratin of potatoes and salt cod. I couldn’t keep my fork out of the arroz negro, rice blackened with squid ink and served in a little cast-iron skillet with a dollop of real aioli.

And then comes cheese. Or first comes cheese, whichever you prefer. As at Lucques, it’s an appealing, shrewdly edited list ... which, of course, calls for more wine.

A.O.C. is open seven days a week, ladies and gentlemen, and late enough that you can stop by after the movies.

How civilized is that?

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A.O.C.

Where: 8022 W. 3rd St., Los Angeles.

When: Open for dinner, 5:30-11 p.m., Monday-Thursday; 5:30-midnight, Friday-Saturday; 5:30-10 p.m., Sunday. Wine and beer only. Valet parking.

Cost: Charcuterie, $8 to $16; salads, $8; fish and meat, $8 to $13; sides, $7 to $12; cheeses, $5 each, three for $14 or five for $20; desserts, $7.

Info: (323) 653-6359.