A warm welcome back

Joe Pytka, the commercial director and wine collector who owns Bastide in West Hollywood, has kept us guessing at his plans for the once-formal French restaurant. While it was closed for retooling, Bastide’s then-chef Ludovic Lefebvre worked for months before he and Pytka parted ways. The new chef is former Patina exec chef Walter Manzke, who’s spent the last few years up in Carmel at l’Auberge.

Zut alors! This time around, the food is no longer exclusively French. Neither are the wines, which should have California winemakers feeling less excluded. In a complete switcheroo, he’s hired Belgian Pieter Verheyde as sommelier, and it’s a wild, wonderful ride with this protegé of Alain Ducasse. He’s expanding on Bastide’s already deep list of French wines with bottles from Spain, Italy, Germany, Slovenia and Croatia. And they’re not all priced in the stratosphere. The humblest bottle is $26. The most expensive, though, is well over $100,000.

Instead of a bastion of French cuisine, Bastide now feels like a swell party at a lovely house with a garden. The first week the restaurant reopened -- unbeknownst to guests who managed to secure a reservation -- everything was on the house. Last week, Verheyde surprised guests with complimentary wine pairings. But on Tuesday, while still limiting reservations to 30 or so guests, and finally deciding on a format, the restaurant went live.

This time around Pytka and company seem to be making a concerted effort to make Bastide warm and welcoming.

Verheyde greets guests with a glass of Champagne and a flurry of amuses. Simple and not overly taxing, these include prosciutto or speck threaded onto a skewer, skinny bread sticks, house-made paprika potato chips and spiced caramelized nuts. It’s relaxed and fun, and also gives guests time to look over the menu and decide whether to go with the four-course prix fixe menu at $80 or the full seven-course extravaganza at $100. With just a $20 difference, anyone with any sense is going to choose the latter. Verheyde’s wine pairings -- eccentric and interesting -- will cost you $100 more. Per person.

Manzke’s tasting menu so far is a delight. The array of dishes changes slightly almost every night. Dinner here might begin with a deconstructed taco to be eaten from right to left: a crystal clear salsa “shooter” that tastes of tomato and chiles next to a sliver of fried tortilla followed by a tiny bite of lobster and dab of guacamole on a spoon and then a scoop of lime sorbet drenched in tequila.

Or it could be a fan of yellowtail sashimi and baby abalone with a chunk of solid salt grated over like Parmesan. It’s from Peru and it’s 7,000 years old, according to the server. A luscious sweet corn curry soup poured over nuggets of fresh Alaskan king crab with tapioca pearls buried at the bottom of the bowl seems to be the one sure item on the repertoire so far.

There’s always a meat. Last week it was rounds of tender lamb, but this week it could be something else. A beautiful cheese plate with dabs of four or five cheeses is followed by sweets made by Manzke’s wife, Margarita. She also makes the miniature breads, a half dozen each night. And as a last taste, she offers exquisite handmade chocolates flavored with kumquat or Earl Grey tea and more.

The night I was there everyone in the three demure -- and somewhat stark -- dining rooms seemed to be having a fine time tasting their way through the menu. But after four hours at a table, the new metal chairs that have replaced the once luxurious wicker armchairs gave my party grief.

Next time, I’m thinking maybe that four-course menu is the one after all.

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virbila@latimes.com

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Bastide

Where: 8475 Melrose Place, West Hollywood

When: Food service begins at 7 p.m., doors open earlier for aperitifs, Tuesday through Saturday. Wine. Complimentary valet parking.

Price: Four-course prix fixe menu, $80; seven-course prix fixe menu, $100.

Info: (323) 651-5950