CRITIC'S NOTEBOOK

The wine bistro is across the street from the Metro Gold Line.

By S. Irene Virbila, Times Staff Writer

You know a neighborhood is in the throes of gentrification when the baby boutiques start moving in. Headed for a night out at a new wine bar in South Pasadena, I found a parking space in front of a window displaying a single sleek black baby stroller with roll bar and touches of pink. But I didn't need that to tell me South Pasadena is changing.

The neighborhood already has an excellent wine shop, a couple of homespun bakeries, a French gourmet shop and a video store for serious cinephiles. And now, 750 ml. Say what? That's three quarters of a liter, the typical volume of a bottle of wine. And 750 ml is a wine bistro.

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Owner Steven Arroyo has a knack for developing offbeat locations into wildly successful restaurants. He's behind Cobras & Matadors, the Mexican boîte Malo, and he plans to expand into the farther reaches of downtown L.A. with Church & State across the street from Royal Claytons. And as of two weeks ago, 750 ml on Mission Street, across from the Metro Gold Line station.

Arroyo always gets the edgy, urban look just right. Here, he's lucked into a vintage corner building with big steel-framed windows and a broad sidewalk in front, where tables will be set out in summer.

Inside is a study in industrial chic, with glossy brown-toned subway tiles on the walls and retro light fixtures with clear bulbs and naked filaments that glow gold. Bentwood bistro chairs are pulled up to a long communal table, and a handful of smaller tables covered in brown paper are tucked into the corners of the room and against the windows. It's comfy and welcoming, with servers who know about food and wine.

The wine list offers 16 wines by the glass and 50 wines less than $50, but just one all-purpose wineglass. The selection, culled from both Old and New Worlds, includes a lovely Gruner Veltliner from Austria, a spicy California Cabernet Franc and a Carignan made from 126-year-old vines.

The menu is short and sweet and slated to change frequently. The chef, Greg Bernhardt, has worked at Vida, Le Dome and Grace. Cobras & Matadors already does the tapas thing, so 750 ml is going for the more conventional appetizer/ main course format. The style is mostly French, with accents from elsewhere in the Mediterranean.

To start, consider the baby artichoke salad with rocket, thin slices of bresaola (air-dried beef) and a Southern Hemisphere version of Reggiano cheese. Duck confit is delicious and, oddly enough, served as a very hearty first course. But I don't quite get the frisée salad that accompanies it: A sharp sweet dressing means the salad isn't as wine-friendly as it could be. Fistfuls of mache with Bosc pear and a fig vinaigrette should do nicely, though.

By the time I arrive that night, the kitchen is already out of steak tartare, so I move on to a perfectly nice piece of seared foie gras, about the size of a Triscuit, that goes for $18. Somehow, I don't think that quantity for that price is going to fly in South Pasadena. 750 ml is intended to be a moderately priced wine bar where you can stop in for a glass of wine and a bite to eat on the way home from your commute.

The very hungry can dig into a cassoulet made with white beans that have soaked up every delicious bit of broth. They're wonderful on their own but, still, I kept poking through the beans looking for something more than a few shreds of duck confit and some lardons. Call this version cassoulet lite.

Any wine bistro worth its rouge has got to have steak frites on the menu. Here, it's a slender cut of rib-eye served with a heap of golden frites and a tiny crock of bearnaise sauce. Red wine drinkers get two other good choices: braised beef shoulder with Taleggio-laced potato fondue and roasted quail stuffed with a little foie gras and served over noodles and wild mushrooms.

For dessert, look to a classic chocolate pot de crème or an oddball individual lemon clafouti with freeze-dried Russian cherries that's really more like a pancake than the traditional deep-dish version.

If you have some time, say 20 minutes, you can opt for a soufflé. Why hurry home when you can soak up the scene at 750 ml, watch the occasional train speed by, followed shortly thereafter by commuters talking into their cellphones, seemingly oblivious to the pleasures that lie just across the street at this promising new wine bistro.

virbila@latimes.com

750 ml

Where: 966 Mission St., South Pasadena

When: 5 to 11 nightly. (Lunch starts in May.) Wine and beer. Street and lot parking.

Price: Appetizers, $12 to $15; main courses, $18 to $28; desserts, $8 to $9.

Info: (626) 799-0711