SMALL PACKAGE, BIG THINGS

In a plain storefront just off Monrovia’s quaint Myrtle Street, two fledgling restaurateurs and a talented chef just out on his own are trying to create a serious little restaurant. Inside Devon, housed in an 1890s carriage house, the setting is severe, with only a wash of color on the walls, whimsical contemporary lighting and a few abstract paintings. And the menu at lunch and dinner is limited to a handful of choice appetizers and main courses.

The host is anxious to please, but he shows a lack of experience. He pours half a bottle into one wineglass. We wait for first courses. We wait for entrees, which arrive before our empty plates have been removed. No one thinks to bring more bread with the cheese course, a beautiful Stilton.

Be patient. Bring someone you’d really like to visit with. Believe me, when that bowl of mussels (called mouclade) is set in front of you, you’ll be so absorbed in coaxing the plump mollusks from their shells and scooping up the white wine and garlic broth that all will be forgiven. This is the best mussel dish I’ve had in recent memory. Tomato cappuccino, a fetching bowl of chilled fresh tomato and basil soup with a foamy cap of steamed milk, seems to carry the essence of summer in each sip. Perky baby greens for a salad come straight from the restaurant’s organic garden and are dressed in a good, mustardy vinaigrette. Who would have expected this level of cooking?

Another night, I splurged on the caviar service, choosing osetra over beluga. Delicate crepes freckled with black truffles is a lovely idea, but they’re never going to be as satisfying as a fat little blini dripping with butter. And the caviar could have been better quality; I suspect they’re just not selling enough. Finding carpaccio of ostrich on a menu in Monrovia is a surprise, though this may not be the best way to use the lean bird-of-the-moment. Its meat is too chewy and has too little inherent flavor for carpaccio, despite a clever soy and black pepper dressing. Using goat cheese as an ingredient is equally fraught with peril: It’s the gummy goat cheese spread on fried won-ton skins that does in the mille-feuille de chevre.

Next to the mussels, the dish that most impressed me was a special of red snapper in a dill and chive sauce. The fish is fresh and flavorful, and the gossamer sauce is a dream. Fat shrimp in a light tempura batter with a sprinkling of sea salt are beguiling, too. Red wine drinkers can deliberate over a beautiful beef filet in a silky red wine sauce perfumed with sage or charred Colorado lamb chops in a clear brown sauce lightly accented with mint. The kitchen also sends out a small plate of buttery scalloped potatoes and ribbons of carrot and zucchini with each entree.

Father-and-son owners Richard and Gregory Lukasiewicz have as chef Pedro Simental, who was sous-chef at Shiro in South Pasadena and shows a lot of ability. When Simental emerges at the end of the night, it’s not to take a star turn around the tables but to have a glass of wine with friends.

For such a small restaurant to have a wine list that includes two pages of half bottles (and not just any half bottles, but older vintages of Mayacamas Cabernet, some nice Ports, German dessert wines and Penfolds’ late harvest Semillon) is phenomenal. This has to be a Cabernet fancier’s private cellar. How else to explain the 14 vintages of Dunn Vineyards Howell Mountain Cabernet and a dozen vintages of both William Hill Cabernet and Niebaum Coppola’s Rubicon?

They’ve also hired quite a good pastry chef, who, the host hastens to mention, is a graduate of Le Cordon Bleu. Jeffrey Johnson makes a deep, dark chocolate terrine in a terrific creme anglaise with frosted pistachios. There’s a butter-rich orange cake, too, served with a ball of vanilla bean ice cream and a thick, warm apricot sauce.

When this review was written, Devon’s menu was titled “Summer.” It may have changed since. Not to worry. Whatever Simental is cooking should be interesting. But unless someone takes firm control of the dining room, customers’ patience may wear thin--and that would be a shame.

DEVON

CUISINE: French-California. AMBIENCE: Sophisticated storefront restaurant. BEST DISHES: Tomato cappuccino, mouclade, red snapper in fresh dill and chive sauce, Colorado lamb chops, chocolate terrine. FACTS: 109 E. Lemon Ave., Monrovia; (818) 305-0013. Closed Sundays and Mondays, and Saturday at lunch only. Dinner for two, food only, $48 to $90. Corkage fee $10. Parking in lot next door.