To look at it, you'd think that La Bohème is the most utterly charming eatery imaginable. It feels like you have stepped into a Paris time capsule, some bistro in a neighborhood that hasn't changed a whit since the French Revolution.

The place is tiny, just 32 seats at 12 tables and the decor is at once classic and whimsical. Portions of faux cottages jut from the walls, the tilted roofs just lopsided enough to make you check your bearings. French and European adornments clutter sideboards and decorate surfaces, polished copper gleams here and there, and red and blue patterned tablecloths add to a sense of festivity.

Still, the feeling is one of intimacy - with the close tables and hovering staff. This is a highly personal place, frequented mostly by regulars, particularly folks on the restaurant's mailing list, who have gotten to know the restaurant's owners and staff.

With the cuisine and the owners' yearly visits to Paris, this is also a gathering place for Francophiles. Alan and Kati Lewis have owned La Bohème for almost 20 years, and under their guidance, the place is still going strong, in a low-key sort of way.

La Bohème is the only restaurant in our area which serves only a prix fixe menu. There's only one entree served each evening ($23.75 including soup and salad), and there are no other choices. To find out what's cooking on any given evening, you either call up - or pick up a monthly menu at the front door, or you get on La Bohème's mailing list. The final alternative is to hit the restaurant's Web site (http://www.laboheme.com).

Despite the ageless Gallic charm, La Bohème is very high tech, absolutely ready for the millennium. Co-owner Alan Lewis is a passionate Webbie, who has created a Web site which averages 145 hits a day. Increasingly, he finds that customers wander in with La Bohème's monthly menu in hand, which the customers print off their home computers.

In addition to the menu, La Bohème's Web site includes a history of the restaurant, a profile of Chef Bernard Kerleguer, the current wine list, and a previous restaurant review from the Herald. There's even an album of photos from the owners' trips to Paris - and, perhaps more practical, a collection of recipes, including creme brulee, mushroom soup, curried carrot soup, and salmon bisque.

Lewis has registered La Bohème with various search engines (Yahoo, Lycos, Magellan, etc.), as well as linking up with various compilations of restaurants. Lewis - who sometimes serves as host and sometimes as waiter - can talk about the topic in considerable detail.

The food at La Bohème leans toward French regional cuisine, with a lesser emphasis on classic French dishes. For example, in one recent sevenday stretch, the kitchen prepared the following entrees in daily succession: lamb with bacon, rosemary and wine sauce; roasted range chicken au jus; tournedos Rossini; duck marinated in red wine and cooked with mushrooms, vegetables and bacon; range veal with capers and lemon; beef with shallots, onion and red wine compote; and prawns, scallops and mussels with white wine and herbs.

On the evening of our visit, the waitress brought us a salad garni, served family style for the four of us. The mixed greens were topped with salami slices, red onion rings, olives, carrot shreds, Parmesan cheese and a terrific garlicky tomato vinaigrette. La Bohème has been serving this same dressing for 25 years - piles of garlic with red wine, red wine vinegar, lemon juice, olive oil, Dijon mustard, and various herbs.

Next came Mediterranean fish soup, served in a covered copper tureen. It was good cold-weather fare, not too fishy, with lots of veggies and chunks of salmon and Chilean sea bass in a light broth, accented with juniper berries and dill. In France, soup is an integral part of the meal; soups are a consistent strength of this kitchen.

Our entree on the date of our visit was from the Bearn region, just east of Bordeaux. The chef cooked chunks of veal, simmered with onions and smoked ham, in white wine. Each of us helped ourselves to servings of rotelle pasta, baked with Parmesan topping and slices of zucchini, served family-style.

Desserts ($4.95) - all made in-house - include apple crisp, creme brulee, almond flour chocolate cake, chocolate mousse, and poached pears the pears sometimes cooked with pinot noir and black currant preserves and sometimes with chardonnay plus anise and saffron.

Occasionally, the dessert list includes fallen chocolate cake, a decadent choice - when the diner cuts into the cake, the hot chocolate interior flows out onto the plate.

Its wine list is clearly one of La Bohème's strengths boasting an unusually broad selection for so small an establishment. Most of the aged Bordeaux and Jordan cabernets have been consumed since I was last here, but there's still plenty to choose from, ranging from inexpensive Central Coast labels (J. Lohr 1996 Johannisberg Riesling at $14) to 1985 Chateau Margaux ($225) to an unusually lengthy vertical collection of Williams Selyem pinot noir ($48-$175).

The wine list is the creation of co-owner Kati Lewis who is the current president of the Carmel Business Association, as well as being on the board of directors for the Carmel Bach Festival and the Sunset Center for the Arts.

The warning at the bottom of the wine list proclaims that & U.S. federal and state 'health' warnings are known to cause chronic self-doubt and destructive insecurity in previously healthy and welladjusted individuals.&

If you like wine-related decorative touches, don't miss the 1920s vintage Czechoslovakian art glass chandelier featuring colorful clusters of crystal grapes - which hangs just inside the front window.

One night two years ago, the chandelier fell from its moorings, smashing against an empty chair. The restaurant was able to fix the damaged chandelier, and the man who was sitting at the closest table when it crashed has since become a regular. Nothing like a bit of drama to hook a customer.

Martin Meursault (a pen name) is a local dining enthusiast. He invites your comments and suggestions, in care of Table Talk, The Herald, P.O. Box 271, Monterey, CA 93940

Monterey County Herald, GO Section November 12-18, 1998

La Bohème Restaurant
Dolores Street at 7th, Carmel, California 93921
(831) 624.7500

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