Still Ahead of the Rest

When a mutual friend introduced Suzanne Goin and Caroline Styne, she did them a tremendous favor. Though both were involved with restaurants at the time--Goin as chef de cuisine at Campanile, Styne as manager of Jones Hollywood--they had never met, because the two places were such different scenes. But once they did, the connection was immediate. Their first restaurant, Lucques, which is the name of Goin’s favorite French olive, is now 3 1/2 years old, and it’s worth taking another look at this terrific West Hollywood restaurant as Goin and Styne prepare to open a new place this summer on West 3rd Street. It’s a smart location and is close enough to Lucques so that they can easily go back and forth between the two restaurants.

The two women, both in their 30s, share the same modern aesthetic. For Lucques (and the new restaurant as well), they hired design icon Barbara Barry to turn the funky space that was once Harold Lloyd’s carriage house into a sleek, contemporary restaurant with a soul. The serene lines of Barry’s design are reflected on the tablescape. La Brea Bakery bread arrives bundled in white linen in a banette, the round reed baskets that French bakers use for proofing breads. Beside it is a slice of sweet butter, a tiny bowl of fluffy fleur du sel and an oval dish of warm, oil-drenched almonds and the juicy green olives that are the restaurant’s namesake.

The menu is just one printed sheet, fastened to a wooden support with a wide rubber band, and is unpretentious and easy to read. As small as the menu is, there are usually so many things you’d want to order that choosing can be harder than you’d think, especially when it comes to the first courses, which are Goin’s strength.

Take her avocado salad, a fan of perfectly ripe Reed avocado showered with minced shallots, intensely peppery organic upland cress, and tiny jewel-like red and gold beets. She tucks shredded duck confit into a lovely salad of toasted walnut halves, long-bladed dandelion leaves and luscious orange persimmon, with its balance of sweet to tart punctuated with pomegranate seeds. This season she’s sending out plates of prosciutto di Carpegna and tender fresh burrata set off with a green fava bean puree that tastes of spring, with grilled Maui onions and shaved pecorino cheese. It’s exactly the kind of dish an Italian friend would throw together for an unexpected guest with ingredients from the pantry and garden.

One day at lunch, which may be my favorite meal at Lucques, I started with velvety slices of seared albacore garnished with chopped, sweet lemon flesh, thin, transparent lemon slices and a potato salad dressed in a garlicky aioli. It doesn’t sound revelatory, but it was. I find when I sit down to write about Lucques, the flavors of dishes I’ve eaten months before are vividly etched in my memory. This is not a restaurant where you’ll ask yourself the next day, “Just what did I have, anyway?”

Goin might decide one day to make a dusky wild mushroom ragout and serve it on a delightful parsnip puree and garnish the whole thing with the first pea shoots of the season. Or she may take those same earthy mushrooms and use them to top a tart covered with tangy molten Gruyere. She tends to keep her flavors clear and distinct. If she were a painter, she’d be an Impressionist, the way she lays down intense strokes of color on the plate.

In the wake of Berkeley’s Alice Waters and our own Mr. Puck, the godmother and godfather of California cuisine, everybody has learned to talk the talk. Seasonal cooking. Local ingredients. But Goin shows more dedication to the idea than most. She cooks food for the Los Angeles climate, and her menus are based on flavors that make sense together. She rarely stretches for effect. You won’t find foie gras and litchi nut here, or at least I hope not. An excursion to the farmers market may turn up a dish, for example, that I had at my last meal at Lucques: nettle pasta with crinkly little morels, fresh peas and a spoonful of mascarpone. Or a bowl of English peas cooked with mint and lettuce chiffonade.

When it comes to main courses, she considers everything on the plate as a whole. Grilled Atlantic snapper might be set on green rice dotted with pine nuts. It has a backbeat of chile that she cools down with a dollop of yogurt-dill sauce. I love her black bass, too, sauteed and deglazed with tangerine juice. Even someone dedicated to meat could love this fish.

Other standouts include suckling pig with its crackling crust, and a juicy veal chop with cavolo nero (Tuscan black cabbage) and truffle butter. Goin has a thing for birds, too. The idea of pairing roast squab with its rare, almost livery, flesh with delicious, chewy grains of farro and nuggets of sweet kabocha squash is inspired. But the dish loses focus with a sauce that is also somewhat sweet. In fact, she often serves main courses in wide bowls with a splash of broth, as if to throw in extra vitamins like the mother urging her children to finish every spoonful. But it doesn’t do every dish a service. Occasionally, she can err on the side of being too rich. Take the wild mushroom lasagna with shell beans. I like the combination of the wild mushrooms (all different sorts) with the starchy softness of the beans, but the dish itself is so rich it lacks the clarity of Italian cooking. It tastes like what it is: a French-trained chef doing lasagna.

What I appreciate most at Lucques is how deeply civilized it is. The experience is about more than just food. It’s people taking the time to go out to dinner with their intimates and friends, and that’s where Styne comes in. The restaurant staff members try to do everything within their power to make the evening expansive and fun. Her touch comes into the wine list, too. Styne isn’t handing the responsibility over to someone else, but turning it into a personal learning experience. The list continues to evolve as she discovers interesting new wines and producers.

The other thing I find appealing is the cheese selection. It’s not vast, and that’s its virtue. For example, whatever cheeses are offered--and it’s usually just three--they’re at their peak, each beguiling in its own way. It could be a brin d’amour from Corsica--shaggy with herbs--a roaring ‘40s blue and, perhaps, a chalky tomme de chevre.

Desserts sidestep the flashy in favor of the sensual pleasure of a deep chocolate pot de creme with sugary shortbread cookies the size of silver dollars. Or a wedge of seductive, dense olive oil cake topped with softly whipped unsweetened cream and candied tangerine wedges. Desserts have definitely perked up with the addition of pastry chef Kimberly Sklar, who moved over from Campanile. Her contributions include a walnut dacquoise with ricotta, mascarpone and rhubarb compote, and the Tunisian pastry brique, with alternating layers of pistachios and honey.

No time or inclination for a full meal? Slip onto a bar stool and nosh on a prosciutto and butter sandwich, herbed fries, or a cheese plate. After 10 p.m., you can get an omelet with soft herbs and cantal. What serious restaurant offers an omelet anymore? Along with steak frites or a plate of spaghetti carbonara? It’s a fine way to eat late or dine alone. For such a popular restaurant the staff at Lucques is unusually evenhanded in the way it treats people. Styne is there every night, and so is Goin, which is part of why Lucques is so successful.

In the end, Lucques is always a restaurant I can count on. If I send friends there, I know they’ll not only enjoy the food, but also have a fine time.

Lucques

8474 Melrose Ave.

West Hollywood

(323) 655-6277

Cuisine: French Mediterranean

Rating: ***

AMBIENCE: Cozy, contemporary space with patio garden. Bar menu after 10 p.m.

SERVICE: Professional.

BEST DISHES: Wild mushroom tart, prosciutto and burrata, seared albacore with lemon, nettle pasta with spring vegetables, suckling pig, veal chop, olive oil cake, walnut dacquoise.

FACTS: Dinner appetizers, $8 to $14. Main courses, $21 to $30. Corkage, $15.

WINE PICKS: 2000 Kelham Vineyards Sauvignon Blanc, Napa Valley; 1998 Domaine de la Grange des Peres, Vin de Pays, Languedoc, France.

FACTS: Dinner and lunch Tuesday through Saturday. $30 prix fixe menu Sunday. Valet parking. 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.