The neighborhood surrounding La Coupole isn't quite that colorful, but it certainly has its share of characters. Through the delicate lace curtains that separate the riffraff from the raised-pinky tea sippers, we spotted a purple mohawk, a person who obviously had no home, and a group of gang wannabes.
From the heightened ceiling that gives the place its name ("the cupola") to the brick walls, hardwood floors and smart art, La Coupole smacks of fancy-schmancy, and it seems the ideal setting for a celebratory lunch or romantic dinner. But the restaurant only makes you feel as though you're splurging, because the moderate prices belie the intense preparation that goes into the food. The result is something special indeed: bistro-style, with a heavy undercurrent of good, old-fashioned French cooking lightly sprinkled with nouvelle. It helps that the food is being prepared by a Cordon Bleu-trained chef, Mark Alexander, who came to the four-year-old restaurant in October. Under the watchful eye of owner and Frenchman Pierre Muraz, Alexander quickly made the menu his own, sending out dish after dish of impeccably cooked and attractively arranged cuisine. Lunch, when an entree runs an average of $7, is no less aesthetically pleasing than its pricier dinner counterpart ($13.50 average). A galette (usually a term for a thin, flat cake made of pastry that's stuffed and cut into wedges) of salmon ($7.10) appeared as a flaky salmon fillet folded into a triangle and housing a mixture of green and red peppers, carrots, onions and zucchini, all baked and served atop a shallot-rich cream sauce that somehow managed to be light and luscious at the same time. La fricasse de volaille au cidre ($6.90) featured four slices of chicken breast gently sauteed and served with apple slices and a cream-tinged apple-cider reduction that could inspire you to start speaking flowery French. Both lunch entrees were adorned by slices of chilled beets, julienned carrots and various fresh herbs. An endless supply of warm French bread and a square of sweet butter come with the meal. The waitstaff is just as generous with their attention. In fact, even at the lower-tip lunch, the waiters were on such good behavior that it was easy to quickly forget the office you'd left behind--particularly if you came from an office where everyone was hissing and spitting and calling each other names.
Which is precisely what we were treated to on our dinner visit to La Coupole. Since the Chieftains awaited us at 7:30 p.m., we arrived as the restaurant opened and were witness to the usual polishing of silver and setting of tables, as well as to a shouting match between an obviously errant waitress and a very angry French manager type. Even though they were twenty feet away, their spat was so intrusive that we couldn't hear our waiter reciting the specials. Indignant, he walked over to the pair and asked them to shut up. No such luck--although we liked our waiter better for trying. Even this episode couldn't spoil our excellent meal, however. We started with la soupe a l'oignon gratinee ($4), the classic French onion soup; La Coupole's version consisted of a very mild veal stock filled with sliced onions and French bread and covered with a mixture of provolone and Parmesan. The stock was the only disappointment of the evening; it simply didn't have the flavor necessary to carry off the soup. That wasn't a problem with les escargots de Bourgogne ($6.50), six scrumptiously soft little snails in a killer creamy garlic sauce enhanced with white wine. Just as flavorful were les moules marinieres ($6.50), a deceptively simple dish of green mussels steamed in white wine studded with shallots and parsley. The appetizers were accompanied by French bread, which came in handy for sopping up the liquid from both the mussels and escargots (I could have eaten linoleum in that sauce) and my entree, le pot-au-feu de poisson ($15.50). Traditional pot-au-feu involves the long, slow cooking of meat and vegetables in water; here, a jumble of seafood swam in a white-wine-kissed broth invigorated with shallots and fresh herbs (mostly parsley). The mussels, salmon, shrimp and scallops were imbued with this aromatic essence, and the aioli (a pungent garlic mayonnaise) on the side tied it all together. Equally impressive was le carre d'agneau ($16.50), three exquisitely grilled lamb chops awash in a sauce of lavender, goat cheese and red wine. Lavender, which can vary widely in potency, had been added in just the right amount to get noticed but not demand all the attention. The goat cheese had been thinned out to add more body than flavor, but still was a welcome presence in what tasted like a Burgundy-splashed reduction. The tender chops came with a side of potato gratine, a generous pile of soft spud slices layered with Gruyere and buttered breadcrumbs.
While the meals were incredibly filling, we managed to save room for the delectable desserts that pastry chef Peter Stisser carves, forges and constructs, mostly out of chocolate, fruit and butter. L'assiette gourmandise ($7) is a sampler of five or six selections from the dessert list. We wound up with a slice of obscenely rich chocolate mousse cake with what on the menu is called a light creme anglaise but which was about as light as cream and butter; le gateau au fromage et chocolat blanc (a longer way of saying white-chocolate cheesecake) served with a semisweet strawberry coulis; le pain perdu, which technically refers to French toast but actually was a bread pudding well spiced with cinnamon and vanilla; and la tarte maison, that day an almond tart spiked with Amaretto. We also split a slice of le gateau au chocolat noir ($4.50); providing some relief from the dense but fabulous wedge of flourless, dark chocolate cake was a slightly tart coulis of raspberries.
