Quite a friendly surprise

OK, I admit it’s not the most promising location for a serious bistro -- a storefront squeezed between a Starbucks and a hair-cutting establishment in a Burbank strip mall. But in a landscape almost exclusively populated by chain restaurants, Bistro Provence is a welcome oasis.

This new restaurant is the project of former Pinot Bistro chef Miki Zivkovic and maitre d’ Stanko Mihajlov, who met when they were just starting out in the restaurant business. After years of working for other people and plotting their independence, they’ve at long last taken the plunge and opened their own modest place.

The two did most of the remodeling themselves and, given a limited budget, it looks quite swell. A dark-wood bar with a handful of stools anchors the back of the single dining room. Warm ochre-sponged walls are punctuated with sconces and giant paintings of jazz figures -- Miles Davis, Louis Armstrong -- mounted over the white-clothed tables.

The menu, which is posted outside, is strictly cuisine du marche and changes weekly depending on what the chef has on hand or feels like making. There is usually at least one special as well. After years of cooking at Pinot Group restaurants, Zivkovic has a large repertoire of dishes to draw on. The name suggests Provencal cuisine, but at this friendly neighborhood bistro Provence is more a state of mind than a collection of regional recipes.

Bread arrives in a basket, warm, with good butter. First courses may include tender steamed mussels with zucchini and ribbons of sweet red pepper in a mild garlic sauce or barely seared, fennel-encrusted ahi tuna on a salad of fennel and green beans garnished with tapenade-smeared toasts. Even the house salad -- mesclun and radicchio in a balsamic vinaigrette -- passes muster.

If you need a pasta fix, the penne Bolognese made with ribbed penne in a rich meat sauce with lots of aged Parmesan is comforting and delicious.

The special might be snowy halibut just in from Alaska, served with sauteed mushrooms, spinach and potatoes gratin. You can pretty much always count on an exemplary roasted chicken with the biggest heap of fries I’ve ever seen and a cassoulet of pork and juicy cannellini beans. There’s also a good Spanish paella studded with mussels, shrimp, clams and sausage. And every main course is under, sometimes well under, $20.

The chef may step out from the kitchen for a few minutes to say hello to friends, who at this point seem to be the entire clientele. Tables are pushed together to form longer ones as more people arrive. Couples wave to each other across the room, or pass glasses of wine back and forth.

Thursday nights it’s locals’ night, when Zivkovic offers a four-course family-style dinner for $23, not including tax or tip. Kids younger than 12 eat for half that price.

So many restaurants on the other side of the hill are doing special evenings, it makes sense that somebody in the Valley would claim the idea too. Besides being a bargain, it’s a great introduction to Zivkovic’s cooking.

Its wine license is still pending, but even at this early stage, Bistro Provence has enough personality and professionalism to make its strip mall address matter not one bit. Go. Eat. This is one for your short list.

*

Bistro Provence

Where: 345 N. Pass Ave., Burbank

When: Lunch, noon to 2 p.m. Mondays through Fridays; dinner, 5:30 to 10 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays, 5 to 9 p.m. Sundays. No alcohol. Parking lot.

Cost: Dinner appetizers, $6 to $9.25; main courses, $12.75 to $17.25; desserts, $5 to $5.50

Info: (818) 840-9050