A strong supporting role

It can’t be easy being the chef at Opaline in Los Angeles. There’s all the competition from other restaurants on this increasingly interesting stretch of Beverly Boulevard. That would be Jar, EM Bistro, Grace. Competition is a good thing, but at Opaline the chef also has to contend with co-owner-managing director David Rosoff’s wine list -- a list so savvy it can’t help but be the star.

Opaline opened a little more than a year ago with a menu that was simply too ambitious for the kitchen’s skills and anything but wine-friendly. Superb bottles had to wrestle against too many flavors and too much exotic detail. Endive and chestnut salad with a dressing sweetened with chestnut honey, or squid stuffed with fatty Mexican chorizo? No way either would show an intensely concentrated Sauvignon Blanc from Didier Dagueneau to advantage.

But six months ago, Jason Travi, a young sous-chef at Spago, jumped ship to take on the job as chef at Opaline. So far, not only has the food found a better focus, but the wines are also faring much better without all the fussy distractions of the previous menu. Travi’s menu is less about him and more about the kinds of dishes that will show the wines to advantage.

For chefs with an experimental bent, the task of devising wine-friendly food can feel like a straitjacket for creativity. Some feel it limits them too much. They do have a point. How can you shine when often it’s the simplest dish that flatters a complex wine? Rosy roast beef with Bordeaux, say. Or a garlic-and-fennel-scented pork roast with an elegant Sangiovese. Many chefs know almost nothing about wine, nor do they care. So it comes as a distinct pleasure to find a restaurant where the emphasis is on drinking well and not necessarily expensively.

We’re not talking ancient Bordeaux or hoary bottles of Burgundy. Rosoff belongs to a new and hipper generation of sommeliers. No tastevin worn on a ribbon around the neck or condescending advice. He knows his stuff, but he’s not pretentious or stuffy about it. He is, however, also extremely broad-minded and eclectic in regard to the wines on the list, ferreting out intriguing examples from odd appellations or new winemakers.

Rosoff’s list is incredibly user-friendly, and that goes for everything from the typeface and design to the way the list is organized (by color and by light-, medium- or heavy-bodied) and the words he uses to describe the wines. Domaine de Mourchon Seguret gets the notation “a wildly overachieving Cotes-du-Rhone,” while Vietti’s Barbera d’Asti La Crena gets a rhetorical question: “How good can Barbera be? The answer may lie herein.” The snootiest wines are listed on a single page under the rubric “rare and venerable,” which says it all and quite correctly.

For Muscadet made from 100-year-old vines or a premier cru Chablis (described as the second best white wine value on the list), Opaline usually has three kinds of oysters on the half shell available, such as Fanny Bay, Kumamoto and Quilcene. Shucked to order, they’re beautifully fresh, served with lemon wedges and/or a radish mignonette (basically a flavored vinegar).

A weightier white, such as a Savenniere (that’s a Chenin Blanc from the small appellation in the Loire Valley) plays well against a velvety celery root soup that comes with a playful sidekick, a miniature grilled cheese sandwich with tomato confit inside.

The broth at the bottom of a large bowl of steamed mussels is deliciously flavored with melted leeks and pancetta and it pairs well with a Gruner Veltliner from Willi Brundlmayer. But why the chef dribbles his tarragon aioli all over the outside of the mussel shells is a mystery. It’s hard to get at.

A good match with a medium-bodied white such as a minerally Fiano di Avellino from the south of Italy is the lovely salad of warm wild mushrooms and arugula in a lively citrus vinaigrette. Or an English pea risotto that’s the essence of spring, embellished with Italian parsley leaves and pea tendrils. For lighter appetites and a Pinot Noir, the appetizer of roasted squab with an earthy rutabaga puree and braised romaine is perfect.

Main courses are more straightforward now, the better to allow the wines to shine. There’s one pasta: strozzapreti, which means “priest-strangler,” the waiter points out, making a twisting motion with his hands. It’s a pasta you find out in the country in Tuscany, here given an original twist with sauteed chard and chanterelles. A splash of mild Austrian vinegar gives it just enough definition.

For a red wine, you can’t go wrong with the apple-braised Colorado lamb shank, cooked until it’s practically falling off the bone. The flageolet beans (those pretty pale green French ones) are a little al dente, though, and why sliced toasted almonds are strewn over the lamb shank by the handful is anybody’s guess. Grilled chicken is beyond bland. The duck breast with a blood orange gastrique, a holdover from Opaline’s early menus, has much more flavor. But the duo of pork may have too much going on -- licorice root in the braising liquid, rainbow chard stems and pistachios and ricotta in the crepinette.

Do save room for cheese and a wine suggestion from Rosoff, who tends to favor white wines with them. I have to agree. A Jurancon sec, for example is lovely with chalky goat cheese, a ripe cow’s milk cheese and particularly a Roquefort.

Service is very good. Rosoff was the manager and wine director at Michael’s in Santa Monica before leaving to open his own restaurant. The staff knows the food and enough about the wines to offer to decant a closed, young red or an older bottle. Opaline also has a long list of wines that you can try by the glass or half-liter carafe. And at Friday lunch (and soon on Saturdays) any wine by the bottle or half-liter carafe is 30% off, which is a great incentive to experiment.

Dessert could be a glass of old Madeira, a Kracher Trockenbeerenauslese from Austria, or a Domaine de Baumard Quarts des Chaumes from the Loire Valley. Or a wonderful little goat cheese cake encircled by berries and a lashing of lavender-scented syrup. There’s an interesting carrot cake too, a moist cylinder of cake with a subtle white carrot sauce and -- this is the best -- cream cheese ice cream.

After a rocky start, Opaline is coming into its own.

*

Opaline

Rating: **

Location: 7450 Beverly Blvd., Los Angeles; (323) 857-6725, www.opalinerestaurant.com.

Ambience: Contemporary urban bistro with a Mediterranean influence and a strong focus on wine. The food is accessible and wine-friendly and the ambience casual and fun.

Service: Warm and professional with excellent wine service.

Price: Dinner appetizers, $8 to $14; main courses, $18 to $30; desserts, $8; lunch appetizers,

$6 to $10; entrees, $12 to $20.

Best dishes: Celery root soup, warm wild mushroom salad, sauteed Santa Barbara sardines, parsley and pea risotto, steamed black mussels, chanterelle strozzapreti, duo of pork, apple-braised Colorado lamb shank, New York strip, carrot cake, Valrhona chocolate torte.

Wine list: Interesting and intelligently organized with notes that encourage trying something new. Corkage, $12.

Best table: The roomy L-shaped banquette at the back of the restaurant.

Special features: “Den” menu of small plates at $4 each and pressed sandwiches at $7.50 served in the adjoining lounge.

Details: Open for dinner Monday through Saturday from 6 to 10:30 p.m.; for lunch on Friday and, starting May 1, Saturday from 12 to 2:30 p.m. with a 30% discount on bottles and half-liter carafes of wine. Closed Sunday. Full bar. Valet parking, $4.50.

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.