Nestled in the trees of Ojai

THE lighting effects are better than any stagecraft as the sun, sinking in the west, paints plum, rose, gold in succession across the mountains we see from the deck of Auberge at Ojai. Massive old trees frame the view. The air is redolent of rosemary and eucalyptus; the light has a mesmerizing clarity.

I wonder about the life of this stone-and-timber house before it became l’Auberge, the restaurant that preceded this one. Who lived in these rooms? Who called this solidly built house home?

The name may echo that of the predecessor, but this auberge is an entirely new restaurant; the vestiges of the former have been swept away to play up the good bones of the rooms. The new chef-owner, Christian Shaffer, 33, and his co-owner and wife, Tedde, have given it not so much an extreme makeover as a good scrubbing and painting, installing gleaming new hardwood floors and a flagstone fireplace. The trellises that once enclosed the deck at the back and side of the house have been removed in order to restore the view and give the restaurant more of a sense of place.

Shaffer mingles French technique with American ingredients to make dishes that are French-Californian, a fusion that has a long history in L.A. Here at Auberge at Ojai, just as at his Manhattan Beach restaurant Avenue, he keeps his menu limited to eight first courses and eight main courses.

Because the menu changes almost entirely each month, he can be flexible enough to take advantage of the seasons at the farmers market. And chef de cuisine Nickos Rovello, who worked with Shaffer at Pinot at the Chronicle and with Michael Cimarusti at Water Grill, is definitely on the same wavelength.

Seasonal fare

YOU can perhaps start with unctuous duck rillettes escorted by small, glistening golden beets, blood orange segments and walnuts. The beets and oranges cut the richness of the rillettes bite for bite. Or what about pan-roasted quail, its delicate gaminess played against sweet grapes and slightly bitter braised chicory. Both are wonderful with a Rhone or Rhone-style red.

February, the month Auberge at Ojai opened, proposed “oyster service, raw or rock,” as in Rockefeller. I rarely pass up briny fresh oysters on the half shell, and these are excellent, but finding a decent version of oysters Rockefeller is more challenging. Here, it’s first-rate, made with fresh spinach that tastes earthy and bright against the warm placid oysters.

April’s menu featured clams casino, another classic appetizer that’s difficult to find prepared in anything but a heavy-handed way. Here the kitchen has calibrated just the right amount of garlic and buttery bread crumbs. What a great dish for a Riesling from Alsace or a Roussane from the Central Coast. Foie gras? At Auberge it’s seared perfectly, though sometimes the sauce teeters on the edge of too sweet. One month the foie might be presented with maple-glazed pears in a fragrant Muscat sauce. Another month it’s served with mango and mizuna, a Japanese green. There’s always a soup and it’s always worth trying, whether it’s white beans with rosemary or the lovely fresh pea puree swirled with creme fraiche I had a couple of weeks ago.

Shaffer certainly has an eye for the right location. His first restaurant was Chloe in Playa del Rey, which he opened in 2002 in a neighborhood in dire need of a good restaurant. (Due to a problem with his lease, he had to close it earlier this year.) Then 2004 brought Avenue in downtown Manhattan Beach, right on the main drag. And now he’s nabbed this sweet little auberge less than a half hour from Ventura, an hour from Santa Barbara and just over an hour from Los Angeles (when traffic is with you).

A native Angeleno, Shaffer started out at Remi in Santa Monica under Josie LeBalch, and later worked for a couple of Joachim Splichal restaurants, including as chef de cuisine at Pinot Blanc in Napa Valley. The then 29-year-old decided the time was right to open his own place after arriving for work one day at Drake’s, a trendy Venice restaurant, only to find the place padlocked shut. Closed.

He’s smart, though. Instead of trying to open in West Hollywood or Beverly Hills, he scouted neighborhoods that could use a nice little restaurant with progressive French-American cuisine. Without the pressure of high-stakes locations, this fine cook has had the chance to show what he can do. He’s had time to train the staff and to find his groove at each new place. And the locals have been, in each case, wildly appreciative, more into staking a claim as regulars than sampling and then moving on to the next new place.

I appreciate that though Shaffer’s very much aware of what most people like to eat, he doesn’t play it safe as so many chefs do. He always has a handful of more surprising dishes on his menus. One that catches my attention here is chickpea fritter, something like the chickpea pancakes called socca that are a specialty of Nice on the French Riviera. The flavor is nutty and warm, which makes the fritter a worthy foil for a salad of tender frisee strewn with pomegranate seeds in a punchy cumin vinaigrette.

The Auberge is no slapdash bistro. Shaffer has furnished the place with good stemware and plates in fashionable shapes, the better to present the food. The kitchen doesn’t stint on top-notch ingredients either. All of this costs, yet the main courses are all priced below $30.

Comfort to cutting-edge

MANY of the entrees are updated comfort fare. If it’s on the menu, grandmother’s chicken -- half a flavorful chicken served up in a light broth with carrots, turnips and pearl onions woven with the fat smoky taste of bacon -- is a must. The weather is getting warmer, so the satisfying braised oxtail with barley and cepes probably won’t come around again until fall. But the delicious wild king salmon with savoy cabbage and smoked bacon and in a silky red wine sauce may reappear from time to time.

Shaffer can just about dial in these kinds of dishes. It’s when he tries to exercise his inner cutting-edge chef that he sometimes wanders into uncertain territory. The idea of venison with butternut squash and chocolate reads as something eccentric and exciting, and it could possibly work, but the chocolate element is so sweet it’s practically a chocolate syrup -- which does not marry well with the gaminess of the venison. Or maybe the venison has to be really gamey for this combination. Somebody in the kitchen likes it, because it’s one of the few dishes that has shown up on successive menus. Also, the presentation for some of the dishes can be too contrived for the auberge concept.

The kitchen may be a bit rigid too. When one of my guests spots a dish that interests him on the tasting menu he asks if he can order it a la carte. The waiter answers no. Because it’s not busy and the ingredients must be on hand, it seems odd that the chef wouldn’t try to accommodate my friend. The waiter goes back in the kitchen to confer, and it’s still a no. Too bad, you’d think the chef would be trying to win over guests, not alienate them.

Shaffer is passionate and knowledgeable about wine. In fact, he’s a winemaker himself, making wine with partner John Langley, creator of the television series “COPS,” under the Magpie label from grapes grown at various Central Coast vineyards.

At Avenue, he often left the kitchen to his chef de cuisine while he patrolled the dining room in impeccable whites, opening bottles and talking wine with customers. I haven’t seen him do that at the auberge, but he has been in the kitchen every time I visited.

At Auberge, the two-page wine list doesn’t seem to have as many interesting wines as Avenue’s. Unless a restaurateur has very deep pockets, it takes time to build up an inventory. There are a number of decent choices, though, for such a small list. Look to the alternative white category, for example, for Chateau Soucherie Anjou, a Marsannay rose from Bruno Clair in Burgundy. Or there’s a Domaine Zind-Humbrecht Riesling from Alsace. Many people order wine by the glass; there are over a dozen on offer. Corkage is $20.

Shaffer’s signature dessert is an individual hot chocolate cake that gushes like lava at the center. Everybody does the warm chocolate cake thing, but this one is particularly well-honed to a rich round chocolate flavor. And instead of whipped cream or vanilla ice cream, he serves it with a fat house-made marshmallow poised on a spoon. Dig in. Rovello’s contribution is a handmade baklava, gritty with nuts. They’re both lovely codas to dinner at Auberge at Ojai. In an era when it’s not uncommon to see desserts at $10 to $14, these are a bargain at $7 for something made with skill.

I can’t help but think Auberge at Ojai is the beginning of a beautiful restaurant in a beautiful place.

*

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Auberge at Ojai

Rating: **

Location: 314 El Paseo Road, Ojai; (805) 646-2288; www.aubergeatojai.com.

Ambience: Sweet little auberge set in a stone and timber house in Ojai with two small dining rooms, a stone fireplace and a back deck.

Service: Friendly and accommodating.

Price: Appetizers, $6 to $15; main courses, $18 to $29; desserts, $7.

Best dishes: Menu changes monthly: oysters Rockefeller, clams casino, duck rillettes, chickpea fritter with frisee salad, wild king salmon, grandmother’s chicken, braised oxtail with barley, hot chocolate cake with toasted marshmallow spoon, Papou’s baklava.

Wine list: Small, with a focus on Central Coast wines and alternatives to the usual suspects in terms of varietals. More than a dozen wines by the glass. Corkage, $20.

Best table: One on the edge of the deck.

Details: Open for dinner Wednesday through Sunday from 5 to 9:30 p.m. Sunday brunch starts later this month. Wine and beer. Street parking in front.

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.