L'amour in Parkville

If an award were to be given out for the sexiest new restaurant in Kansas City, I would enthusiastically cast my vote for Café Des Amis, the French bistro on Main Street in Parkville. And not only because the place is cozy and intimate or because the three young, attractive owners -- French-born Emmanuel Langlade and Didier Combe and Kansas native Megan Sparks -- could all be perfectly cast in a new version of the Francois Truffaut film Jules et Jim. No, it's a combination of sexy characteristics -- the twinkling votive candles, shady outdoor deck, and lace curtains that flutter at the open windows all magically turn Parkville's hilly Main Street into a bit of Europe. My Midtown friend John, whose nose had wrinkled disapprovingly when I told him I was taking him to dinner in Parkville ("What's in Parkville?" he snorted), fell instantly at ease when we arrived and were seated at a window table with a view, through a veil of lace, of the pretty little antique stores and gift shops across the street.

"I know this sounds corny," he said, perusing the wine list. "But if I close my eyes, this could be France."

Even with my eyes wide open, the little restaurant didn't feel like Missouri. To get to the second-floor dining rooms, we climbed up a long series of steps (there is a handicapped-accessible entrance as well from a street behind the restaurant) and through a red-painted door. Inside, a big square room has been painted the color of buttercream, and little tables are draped in linen and white butcher paper. It's an odd, boxy space, but the building is 150 years old and these rooms were once someone's home. The place evolved, over the decades, into a German bakery and a tea room, among other things.

Almost Vermeer-like in their simplicity, the two dining rooms and the tiny bar area, painted the color of tomato paste, have little in the way of decoration, aside from the hanging metal light fixtures (painted by Sparks' mother) and those lace curtains. But it's a sexy room.

"No," corrected John, "it's a cheeky room. It lends itself to some stimulating conversation."

But he really meant sexy conversation, because he launched into the story of his recent seduction of a beautiful woman even before the charcuterie plate ($9.50) arrived. It was amazing to watch him greedily devour homemade paté on crusty French bread, thin circles of imported ham, and meaty bites of cold sausage and never miss a beat in his storytelling. It reminded me of writer Guy Davenport's account of the first time John Adams, America's second president, traveled to France and had his first French dinner: "He found the food delicious, if unidentifiable, but blushed at the conversation (a lady asked him if his family had invented sex)."

I was ready to blush at John's story, but luckily a plate of dark little escargots arrived in a white-hot bowl, sizzling with garlic butter and herbs ($5.50 to $9.50, depending on size). The very fragrance of the garlic butter diverted the conversation, at least temporarily, from sex. Escargots, the French word for snails, are the classic Gallic example of turning something cold and nasty into something hot and sensuous. French chefs can do the same with brains and sweetbreads, which aren't on the Café Des Amis menu. But more popular dishes, such as a sautéed duck with a green peppercorn demi-glace ($17.50) or a chicken roasted with lemons and herbs ($14.50) also arrive, hot and sensuous from chef Emmanuel Langlade's pocket-size kitchen.

Langlade and partner Didier Combe (who looks like a young version of French film star Alain Delon) are both natives of Aix-en-Provence, although they didn't know each other while in their birthplace.

"We met working at a restaurant in Texas," said Combe, adding that Aix-en-Provence "is a big city by French standards, but by American standards, it's a village."

By American standards, Parkville might be a village, although it's fast becoming the newest restaurant mecca in the greater Kansas City area, thanks to several very good eating establishments. The three-month-old Café Des Amis, or "Cafe of the Friends," is named for the triumvirate of quiet Langlade, energetic Combe, and the sleek, black-clad Sparks, who worked in the film business in Los Angeles before returning home to become a restaurateur. She glides through the dining rooms like Audrey Hepburn's bohemian waif in Funny Girl and has a self-deprecating wit that's as tart as the mustard and cilantro vinaigrette sprinkled on the salad of fresh greens ($5).

The old French proverb "The torch of love is lit in the kitchen" is true. On a previous visit to Café Des Amis with my friend Julia, we shared a plate of imported cheeses and fresh fruit ($9.50) and a silky paté in the bar as we watched amorous couples at other tables gaze longingly into each other's eyes as they pounced hungrily on plates of creamy risotto with sautéed broccoli and fresh green asparagus ($16.50). We agreed it was a scene straight out of Tom Jones, where the act of passionate eating imitates, well, you know what.