A corner bistro, L.A. style

Some restaurants are plugged in the moment the doors open. And velvet rope or no, the heat-seeking crowd is right there swarming over the next new thing. Sometimes it’s easy to see where the honey is -- a celebrity investor, a well-connected publicist, a chef or maitre d’ who has defected from another hot restaurant or spun off something new.

Other restaurants, like the new EM Bistro in Los Angeles, seem to amble into existence and play it low key. Charles Nuzzo, EM’s owner and maitre d’, doesn’t know from Hollywood. He’s recently moved from New Jersey, where he had a restaurant-gallery called Ruga.

EM Bistro is named for his young daughter, Emylee. The chef, Anne Conness, has worked at a string of good restaurants -- as line cook at Campanile and Saddle Peak Lodge, at Water Grill, and as chef de cuisine at Alex -- but she’s not a name yet.

EM has a great location on the corner of Beverly Boulevard and Sweetzer, right in the midst of a neighborhood that’s heating up rapidly. The stretch of Beverly between La Cienega and Fairfax seems ready to become the next restaurant row, with Opaline, Grace and Jar there.

EM has the poised good looks of an ingenue, decked out in pristine pale tones with light fixtures overhead that look like clusters of champagne bubbles about to burst. The former Atlantic, a pitch-black glamour dive whose sole claim to fame seemed to have been that it was designed by Christopher Ciccione, Madonna’s brother, is unrecognizable now. Designer Bret Witke, a former partner in Russell Simpson Co., has let the light in with a bay window looking onto the street.

But what most distinguishes EM is its refreshing lack of attitude. At this new American bistro, it’s all about you. The staff is congenial, yet completely professional. Nuzzo is comfortable in the role of maitre d’. An outsider, he doesn’t know anybody, so he treats everybody as a welcome guest. It’s something more restaurateurs would do well to emulate.

Attracting a diverse crowd

Whenever I’ve gone to EM, I couldn’t begin to tell you who was there. The room seems to fall away and you find yourself lost in conversation. Eating at EM is like being a guest at a particularly good dinner party, where the host and hostess are not continually disappearing to attend to something in the kitchen. As a result, the restaurant gets a more diverse crowd than the trendy spots. And that’s a good thing.

Every time I come away thinking what a lovely evening. The food is only part of it. That we didn’t have to yell across the table or deal with over- and under-attentive waiters who want to know if everything is fabulous, precisely at the wrong moment is unusual enough.

Conness is the antithesis of the showoff cook. She’s seems more intent on giving people a good meal squarely in the American comfort zone. Product is paramount for her. She writes the menu almost every day, shuffling and subtly altering dishes on the lineup. Crab and shrimp cakes recently morphed into crab and lobster cakes. Her beguiling deep-fried artichoke hearts with horseradish have given way to a regal steamed whole artichoke with lemon-drenched aioli.

Speaking of comfort, there’s her homemade potato chips from the bar menu -- but also available at the table -- with a contemporary twist on that tired old onion dip: Hers is creme fraiche laced with onion. If you want to make it dinner, she’s got a chewy individual pizzette topped with bufala mozzarella, tomato and olives. She bakes sesame seed crackers to accompany her smoked trout salad, but the crackers win out. As for the spicy lamb sausage wrapped in pastry, it falls flat.

She’s a genie with soup, though. Her spring onion soup is a lovely take on the classic. The onions haven’t been cooked to oblivion and it’s crowned with a floating grilled cheese sandwich more or less. Her heirloom bean soup swirled with cumin cream is definitely a keeper.

A salad of perky fresh spinach, though perfectly nice, is overloaded with ingredients. Take one away -- golden beets, pecans, Parmesan, or bacon -- and the salad would have more clarity. She makes a fine version of the ubiquitous pear and endive salad with Maytag blue cheese, only hers also includes pear and macadamia nuts rather than the usual pecans. Stick with the pecans.

One of my favorite appetizers here is her delicious little crab and lobster cakes crowned with shaved fennel and a jaunty feather of dill. Conness’ time at Water Grill holds her in good stead. Roasted halibut is moist and flavorful. Wild Irish salmon is superb, perfectly cooked and accompanied with sauteed spinach, baby artichokes and a delightful couscous. King prawns show up in a risotto flavored with sweet peas. It’s a combination that makes sense.

Braised short ribs spell comfort and are also the dish of the moment. EM’s version is falling-off-the-bone tender, sensibly matched with a creamy soft polenta and sauteed brocciolini.

Most of the other meats come from the rotisserie. Cooking on one of these things is harder than it looks. Center-cut pork roast is always on the menu. Some nights it’s juicy and irresistible; other nights it’s dry and tough. Saddle of Colorado lamb seems more reliable. Besides, you get a portion of scalloped potatoes with it, and brown-butter asparagus. Cornish hen is a good choice too, and at $17, quite the bargain.

Homey desserts too

A friend who hadn’t eaten red meat in weeks pleaded to order the prime Delmonico steak. Just the thought of it made her eyes light up. Unfortunately, it wasn’t the steak of anybody’s dreams and for some unknown reason the kitchen ambushed her by covering the beef in an over-reduced sauce. Unless announced beforehand, sauce should go on the side when you’re talking steak. The fries that came with it were terrific, though, much enjoyed by the entire table.

The least expensive entree is the New York chop burger at $14. Good bun, nice fixings, but on the one occasion I tried it, overcooked.

Pastry chef Natasha MacAller worked at Campanile, where she met Conness, then at Rix. Here, she’s turning out homey desserts such as pear and apple crisp or chocolate pudding swirled with pistachio cream. I loved seeing Boston cream cake on a menu (a tribute to Nuzzo’s East Coast roots?). She makes it as an individual cake, napped in dark chocolate, with a heart of cream. She’s brought her brown butter plum tart from Rix too.

But my hands-down favorite is her organic strawberry shortcake. The dough is rough and crumbly sprinkled with crystals of sugar. The strawberries are nice and juicy, and it comes with a soft cloud of whipped cream. Comfort, that’s what it is.

EM may be just what the neighborhood needs: a moderately priced American bistro. Cutting edge, this is not. But that can sometimes be a virtue. EM is more intent on pleasing its guests than rationing tables or impressing the critics. For my money, that shows a lot of integrity.*

EM Bistro

Rating: **

Location: 8256 Beverly Blvd., Los Angeles; (323) 658-6004.

Ambience: Contemporary yet comfortable American bistro with pale-toned decor, beige felt armchairs and a cozy bar at the back with its own little menu.

Service: Personable and professional.

Price: Appetizers, $5 to $14; main courses, $12 to $26; sides, $5; desserts, $7 to $9.

Best dishes: Heirloom bean soup, crab and lobster cake, steamed mussels with lentils and curried leeks, wild Irish salmon, Cornish game hen, braised beef short ribs, sauteed pea tendrils, brown butter plum tart, Boston cream cake, organic strawberry shortcake.

Wine list: One-page, mostly California list with a few interesting choices from other regions, such as a Pinot Blanc from Alsace or a Billecart-Saumon rose Champagne. Corkage $10.

Best table: The round table in the front window.

Details: Open Monday to Thursday, 6 to 10 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 6 to 11 p.m. Closed Sunday. Full bar. Valet parking, $3.50.

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.