Where the food’s the surprise

The car has just squirted out of the underpass, and right there, almost tucked under the freeway, is the new 310. We pull over. The nondescript building doesn’t give a thing away. Inside, who knows, it could be a bowling alley, leather bar or gaming parlor. But the slouching valet out front and the hulking SUVs and leased glamour wheels rolling up to the curb as the night unfurls are dead giveaways. This, improbably, is the newest Westside hot spot, a few blocks from the venerable Valentino, across from a map store.

The full name of the place is 310 Lounge & Bistro, with an emphasis on the lounge. The gritty, urban space has the feel of a speak-easy. Nobody is going to come across it by accident, that’s for sure. Inside, 310’s bar is more bar than lounge anyway, without the posh chairs and chilled Champagne the word “lounge” evokes. As we enter, it’s to the left -- a long, skinny stand-up affair where, beneath exposed girders and a wash of colored light, girls toy with pretty cocktails and tug at their midriff-baring tops and Hugo Boss-clad guys knock back a Belgian Chimay ale.

The bar is so much the thing that the bistro part of the name goes almost unnoticed. Whenever I’ve gone, weekday or weekend, the dining room, with its high wraparound booths and tables swathed in white linen, has been more than half empty. But don’t turn tail and retreat back to the bar: Nobody seems to realize yet just how serious the food is at 310.

The dining room isn’t just a place to grab a bite between drinks. It’s a real restaurant. It’s also much better than it has any right to be.

That’s because the restaurant’s owners have lucked into a very good chef: Nick Coe, who owned the unconventional tent-restaurant, Nick’s, in South Pasadena for a couple of years. When he had to close it, he took some time off and ended up, of all places, in Moscow, where he did some restaurant consulting. But the restaurant scene there was, to say the least, challenging. Now he’s back and in great form.

The break from day-to-day cooking seems to have reenergized Coe. Somewhere between South Pasadena and Moscow, he has kicked up his cooking a notch. Or maybe he’s reveling in being back behind the stoves again, in California, where almost everything is in season year-round.

At 310 Lounge & Bistro, Coe is turning out a concise but compelling California menu. His flavors are fresh and true, his dishes focused. He’s older now and neatly sidesteps the temptation to busy things up with too many ingredients and competing ideas. In short, he’s solid. He knows what he can do and is smart enough to stay within his capabilities.

The dining room looks something like a ‘60s supper club, tables set with long-stemmed wineglasses, dim overhead lights. One night, a trio of instruments sits, abandoned, in the corner. Another night, a guitarist sings and plays. He’s good, and he’s not too loud. But it seems oddly unpopulated. Thankfully, when one of the booths is available, the hostess will seat you there. Clamber up the step and scoot around. It’s so big and high that once you’re inside it’s virtually a private room. From below, the waiters emote the specials. The ones I’ve encountered weren’t seasoned professionals. They were something much better: natural. No waiter-speak. No attitude. Another surprise in a trendy bar scene like this.

I never felt rushed. We could take all the time we wanted catching up with friends, arguing over who was going to order what until someone took control and ordered several of the small plates to nibble on in the interim. They’re designed for the bar, but also appear at the top of the one-page menu as appetizers.

A heaping dish of those unmistakable fat, roundish Marcona almonds from Spain toasted in olive oil and sprinkled with sea salt gets things started. It’s all too easy to gobble up every one of them. A surprisingly generous portion of Barcelona chicken wings has a terrific spicy bite. Crab cakes are excellent too, three diminutive cakes that are almost all crab meat. The only one of the small dishes that I haven’t much liked is the stubby chorizo stained with paprika and pimenton (red pepper) and fried up with crouton cubes that resemble Tater Tots. The bread-to-sausage ratio is too high.

If you’ve got a bottle of Deutz or Veuve Clicquot in your sights, order up some of the beautiful oysters on the half shell, which could be Chesapeake Bay or Kumamoto, depending on the night. Of course, you slurp them down plain or with a drop or two of lemon, but they also come with a mignonette, that typical sauce of wine vinegar and shallots. Coe also includes a fine mincing of green apples, which adds some spark to the oysters without overwhelming them.

A fruitful bounty

After Moscow, Coe must be reveling in all the great produce our state has to offer because he strews every dish with fruit and/or vegetables. Instead of the usual heirloom tomatoes, he pairs tender organic mozzarella with a medley of garden vegetables and a crisp Italian dressing, which definitely works for me. How many heirloom tomato and mozzarella salads can you eat in one year? More unusual is a salad made with wonderfully sweet sea scallops and chanterelles scattered with pine nuts in a juicy, perfectly balanced herb vinaigrette. The combination is lovely.

Another fine first course is Coe’s warm asparagus spears served with dusky morels, a touch of orange and milky tetilla cheese from the Basque country. Crab ravioli are oddly compelling. Though they’re the size of small saucers and the pasta is a bit chewy and thick, the purity of the filling -- more like a smashed crab cake than anything else -- contrasts with the bright notes of a citrus tomato coulis to make these homely ravioli work.

Coe resists the temptation to get precious with the main courses too. Chicken breast would not normally be something I’d rush to order, but his Jidori chicken breast is as moist as they come, braised with fat prunes, olives and paprika-streaked chorizo. I also enjoyed the duck breast, which is cooked to a deep rose and sliced thickly on the diagonal with the crisped skin and delicious fat at the top. It’s served very simply with grilled peaches, figs and almonds, and perfumed with basil and mint. The juices are flavored with a little Beaujolais for a light, summery touch.

There’s a good Kobe-style flatiron steak, always a flavorful cut, served in a light Cabrales (Spanish blue cheese) sauce with roasted potatoes and a garlicky green chimichurri. Cabrales isn’t as pungent as Roquefort, so the sauce is quite restrained as blue cheese sauces go. But the steak is completely overshadowed at our table one night by the wild New Zealand salmon. First of all, it’s a great piece of fish that has been roasted just to the point that it’s still shivery and translucent inside. Its satiny texture and haunting flavor go beautifully with the earthy braised artichokes heaped on top.

Coe has some fun with the sides too. Vegetarians could make a pretty satisfying meal of two or three of them. Halved fingerling potatoes are flavored with garlic, paprika and, interestingly, cumin. Spinach leaves sauteed with garlic in olive oil and served with a squeeze of lemon are drop-dead delicious. And Blue Lake beans tossed with creme fraiche, tarragon and shallots are elegant enough to order as a first course.

Coe has put together a good little wine list, which is something he enjoyed doing at Nick’s. The shame is that most of this crowd is more fascinated by cocktails than his savvy wines by the glass. There’s a Pighin Pinot Grigio from Friuli, a Trimbach Riesling from Alsace and a Merlot from Toasted Head wines in California, as well as half a bottle of Gosset nonvintage brut Champagne.

Wines by the bottle include Spanish Albarino, Austrian Gruner-Veltliner and white Rhone to Oregon Pinot Noir, Australian Shiraz and California Zinfandel. 310 also serves a small selection of sake and has Chimay ale from Belgium on tap.

Desserts from former Patina pastry chef Thomas Gerard land on point, especially the extravagant bananas Foster. To serve it, the waiter brings out a platter with scoops of vanilla-bean ice cream and proceeds to ladle the bananas and burnt sugar and butter sauce over, right from the saucepan. Add in a bowl of freshly whipped coconut cream, and nobody at the table can resist.

Seeing creme brulee on a menu is exciting to only the most deprived dessert eaters, i.e., anybody who’s been lost out there in the diet desert for months. Think again. This one arrives in a tall coffee cup, a silky, deep-chocolate pudding scented with orange and sporting a lacy burnt sugar cap. Pineapple with litchi whipped cream doesn’t work, though; it’s too sweet.

The restaurant at 310 Lounge & Bistro is such a find, it would be a shame if the bar scene kept the dining crowd from enjoying Coe’s assured California cuisine. The setting may be a bit unconventional, but the food is solid and the service, maybe because it’s so unseasoned, uncommonly pleasant. And as silly as the decor may be, the food is serious. Go figure.

*

310 Lounge & Bistro

Rating: **

Location: 3321 Pico Blvd., Santa Monica; (310) 453-5001

Ambience: Den-like lounge and club with bar to the left, dining room to the right, and a row of curvaceous tall-backed booths that hold four or more at the back. The scene is young and late-night, which means before 9 the restaurant can be half empty, a good thing if you want to have a conversation over dinner.

Service: Very pleasant and helpful, zero attitude

Price: Small plates and appetizers, $4 to $14; main dishes, $19 to $34; desserts, $7 to $9

Best dishes: Oysters with apple mignonette; seared scallop and mushroom salad; warm asparagus with morels; crab ravioli; wild salmon with Parmesan gnocchi; chicken breast with prunes, olives and chorizo; duck breast with grilled peaches and figs; Kobe-style flatiron steak; bananas Foster; chocolate orange creme brulee.

Wine list: Sensible, wide-ranging list with an interesting selection of wines by the glass. Corkage, $15.

Best table: One of the high-backed booths at the rear

Details: Dinner, 6 p.m. to midnight Monday to Wednesday; 6 p.m. to 1 a.m. Thursday through Saturday. Closed Sunday. Full bar. Valet parking, $5.50, but on weekdays, at least, ample street 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.