The new kid on the block is right at home

The egg-yolk yellow of the little two-story building floats out of the darkness. A glowing white sign spells out “Amuse Cafe.” Lights ablaze, it looks more like a whimsical stage set than an actual restaurant.

Downstairs, two couples perch on a velvet couch, waiting for a table, playing tic-tac-toe, while the cooks frantically cook and the waiters ferry dishes up and down the creaky wooden stairs to the breezy upstairs dining room. Outside, on the narrow balcony, women readjust pashminas over their shoulders as a waiter valiantly struggles with a heat lamp. The waiters, all characters, seem too present and charming to be part of the real restaurant world. The play begins.

On the porch, a man sits beside a French cafe table, a book open on his lap, two gorgeous Chesapeake Bay retrievers sprawled at his feet. He reads. He takes a sip of wine. He looks entirely at home. People come over to admire the dogs. Cooks take a break to chat for a minute or taste a wine.

Even on a first visit, you feel right at home in this appealing new cafe, where a Venice bohemian crowd mixes easily with the well-heeled Westsiders who pack the parking lot with luxury rides. The prices are part of the reason -- appetizers are just $8 and all the main courses are under $20.

And Brooke Williamson, the chef and owner, understands neighborhood. She was the impossibly young chef who ran the kitchen at Zax in Brentwood until recently, and the one who made sous-chef at Michael’s at the ripe old age of 18. But she, like most every chef-for-hire, dreamed of having her own place, and now she does, with partner Nick Roberts, another chef whom she met at Zax. It’s Venice, after all, so she’s gone and got fuchsia hair now, and, instead of simply cooking, she’s doing pretty much everything.

They didn’t have much of a chance to go gently into the restaurant business. Once fans from Zax got word of the new cafe, they were all there, thronging the door, waiting for a table. But if they were expecting the polished Mediterranean comfort food of that Brentwood restaurant, they might be just a bit disappointed. Some things are very good, but some dishes still need work.

I suspect it’s mostly the distraction of getting a business up and running. The two had overly ambitious plans that included breakfast, lunch and dinner. Every day. That could wear out even two people in their 20s. And sure enough, after only a few days, they cut the schedule way back. They eliminated lunch, and breakfast too, except for weekend brunch. The regular dinner menu is served just five nights a week. (Mondays are reserved for monthly winemaker’s dinners, and Tuesdays for cooking classes.)

The dinner menu -- a handful of small plates, a couple of sandwiches and half a dozen “bigger plates” -- fit easily on one page, so it’s basically mix and match. Williamson is a staunch supporter of the farmers market, so expect to see the small menu shift as we move into fall. If you’re quick about it, you might not be too late for the excellent heirloom tomato salad with Humboldt Fog goat cheese. But the onion tart should be there year-round, a couple of wedges of flaky pastry with a topping of caramelized onion and Gruyere laminated to the surface. This is a good dish to share, and right now comes with a dainty salad of shaved fennel and fresh figs.

The menu also proposes a red corn polenta, a robust coarse-ground cornmeal laced with cubes of sotto cenere (“under the ashes”) cheese so small they melt into the polenta. It’s a comforting dish, particularly appropriate if you sit outside on the enclosed back patio on a blustery night. Strung with Christmas lights, and planted with climbing vines, the patio has a funky Venice charm.

Baked rigatoni with roasted tomatoes, cremini mushrooms and mascarpone is squarely in the comfort zone too. If falling-off-the-bone-tender pork ribs in a complex sweet sauce appear on the small dishes menu, they’re definitely worth ordering too.

Someone in the kitchen has a real feeling for soups. One day you might get a puree of tomato and avocado in an espresso cup as an amuse bouche. Another time, there’s a marvelous roasted red pepper vichyssoise garnished with a clump of emerald watercress. A special yellow heirloom tomato soup swirled with gold-green olive oil is incredibly refreshing on a warm night.

Summer’s steamed mussels have given way to steamed Manila clams with soybeans. Served in a bowl with plenty of lemongrass-perfumed broth to sop up with your bread, the green soybeans add a sweet, starchy accent to the briny clams. Calamari salad is nicely presented on wisps of pale tender frisee, but sometimes the squid itself doesn’t have much flavor. And grilled asparagus with shaved Parmesan is a miss: the spears are either completely limp or drowned in a strong sherry vinegar.

Amuse Cafe keeps abreast of the haute burger craze with a ground rib-eye burger, or rather I should say cheeseburger, since it comes with a smear of blue cheese, and either fat homemade potato chips or a pile of less interesting fries. Though there’s a nice piece of halibut or cod and a light raft of chicken paillard conjured up from the ‘80s, which is now long enough ago to seem properly old-fashioned and retro, this kitchen seems more interested in meat. Flat iron steak, the latest rage in kitchens from New York to San Francisco, is lean and juicy, a flavorful, chewy and delicious cut. A dollop of red corn polenta and a cherry tomato salad are sensible accompaniments. No fireworks, but simple and satisfying.

Duck leg confit is the real thing, unctuous and salted all the way through. Sometimes it has that irresistible crisp golden skin; other times it’s darker and a bit limp, but you can’t beat that Muscovy duck flavor. This makes a real supper because it comes with fingerling potatoes and a little frisee, and one night, a sassy note of huckleberries.

Desserts are pitched to the kid in everyone. First of all, there’s that warm dark chocolate brownie topped with a ball of homemade mint-chip ice cream. Then there’s a bread pudding made with croissants, but so undersweetened it could be some kind of breakfast custard. Fresh-baked cookies are divine dark chocolate, hot from the oven, and accompanied by a drift of whipped cream. But the clincher is panna cotta, turned out of a mold, spangled with vanilla beans and surrounded by strawberries in syrup. The cool, heavy cream against those luscious farmers-market strawberries is reward enough.

Sorry, but there’s no wine and beer license yet; the application, the waiter explains, is still making its way through the bureaucracy. Meanwhile, it’s BYOB with no per-bottle corkage, but an eminently fair $1-per-person “glass fee.” Maybe that’s why I’ve seen so many bottles on some of the tables.

Wine buffs are on to it already. What’s not to like? Amuse has established itself as that rare thing: a true neighborhood hangout with moderate prices, decent food and a casual atmosphere.

*

Amuse Cafe

Rating: * 1/2

Location: 796 Main St., Venice; (310) 450-1956.

Ambience: Quirky two-story cafe painted the sun-drenched yellow of Van Gogh’s sunflowers with an upstairs dining room, a handful of tables on the terrace and a pocket patio out back. The crowd is a mix of Venice bohemian and well-heeled Westside.

Service: Extremely personable and professional.

Price: Little plates, $8; sandwiches, $12; bigger plates, $13 to $18; desserts, $7.

Best dishes: Heirloom tomatoes and Humboldt Fog goat cheese, steamed Manila clams and soybeans, chilled tomato soup, pork ribs, ground rib-eye burger, grilled flat iron steak, duck leg confit, bittersweet chocolate brownie with mint-chip ice cream, vanilla bean panna cotta, fresh baked cookies.

Wine list: No beer and wine license yet. For now, it’s BYOB, with a “glass fee” of $1 per person.

Best table: Table 21 on the upstairs terrace.

Details: Open for dinner Wednesday through Saturday, 5:30 to 10:30 p.m.; Sunday to 9:30 p.m. Brunch Saturday and Sunday, 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Closed Monday and Tuesday. 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.