CRITIC'S NOTEBOOK

Fraîche in Culver City has only been open for days, but its menu is well-seasoned.

By S. Irene Virbila, Times Staff Writer

The casually dressed sophisticates on the broad outdoor terrace in front of Fraîche in Culver City look as if every one of them has been sipping wine and nibbling oysters or two-tiered fruits de mer platters at a favorite table for years. Judging from them — and the tightly orchestrated service — you'd have to be a savant to guess correctly that Fraîche has been open only a number of days.

Finally, a restaurant that opens with all its ducks, so to speak, in a row. Fraîche is the project of chefs Jason and Miho Travi and manager Thierry Perez, who built much of the interior themselves. Jason Travi has manned the stoves at La Terza, Meson G and Spago, among others. His wife, Miho, trained as a pastry chef and has worked at Spago and Sona. Perez did a short stint as sommelier at Providence.

ADVERTISEMENT

Fraîche's menu could be called rustic Mediterranean, which gives the chef plenty of room to indulge in pastas, steak frites and favorite dishes from his travels. Plates are small but not exactly dainty, with bold flavors and combinations of ingredients. The one-page menu holds a little something for everyone, whether you're just stopping in for a glass of wine and a bite, or have plans to spend the entire evening eating and drinking. Can't find a seat on that coveted terrace? Not to worry: The tall French doors bring the outdoors in.

What's good? Baccalà (salt cod) prepared three ways — whipped with Yukon gold potatoes, crispy with an aioli flavored with Basque peppers, crudo with sea beans and tomato. Warm, sautéed wild mushrooms are strewn over a salad of red endive and frisée. There's also a lovely farro salad with English peas, roasted peppers, herb salad and Tuscan pecorino. The guy knows how to write a menu. Almost everything sounds good.

He developed some formidable pasta skills working at La Terza. I love the simplicity of "luna," round ravioli filled with sheep's milk ricotta and bitter greens in a light tomato sauce. And his passatelli in brodo — noodles made of bread crumbs in a rich, grandmotherly chicken broth dotted with pulled chicken and fava beans. Another standout is his tortelli stuffed with braised rabbit in a sage brown butter with fried artichokes.

Travi and his cooks, all wearing red bandanas on their heads, work quickly in the open kitchen, sending out bar food, hangar steak with hand-cut fries, Kurobuta pork chop with violet mustard, and black cod with artichokes and tomatoes. When they're this busy, this early, there are bound to be some kinks, sure; but this place is already strong enough to pass for a restaurant that's been open a while.

Fraîche has another trump card in Miho Travi. Consider her "strawberry and rose" dessert, a chiffon cake roulade filled with sweetened mascarpone and her own strawberry jam, crowned with a disk of strawberry mousse and served with rose-flavored ice cream. Her Paris-Brest, a wheel-shaped pastry, is worth noting for its dreamy almond cream filling and halo of spun sugar.

With Ford's Filling Station, BottleRock and Tender Greens just down the street, Culver Boulevard now has a restaurant row that's drawing folks from all over Los Angeles. Think about it: You can have a drink at one spot, an appetizer somewhere else and dinner at another. That's real city living.

virbila@latimes.com

Fraîche

Where: 9411 Culver Blvd., Culver City

When: 5-10:30 p.m. daily; bar and lounge open until 2 a.m.; bar menu served till midnight. Full bar. Parking in city lot around the corner on Cardiff Street.

Price: Salumi and charcuterie, $5-$25; appetizers, $5-$13; pasta, $10-$14; main courses, $17-$25; desserts, $7-$10

Info: (310) 839-6800, www.fraicherestaurantla.com