Side Street Elegance: Hermosa’s Covinten Cafe offers a serene, upscale experience
By Richard Foss
By Richard Foss
One of the most frequent questions I get from readers is a recommendation for a peaceful place for a dinner and conversation in normal tones. Bonus points are offered for a classic environment and a menu of character, and of course wine should be available.
To those requests I have had few answers until recently. While it’s what many diners want, it’s not what anybody has been building lately. The exception is in a nondescript building on a side street just north of Pier Avenue that has a dual identity. By day it’s a coffeehouse and bakery, distinguished mainly by the unusually ornate and stylish interior. By night it’s a French-inspired restaurant that seats only a few diners per night for leisurely meals in a softly lit room.
Covinten Café soft-opened in the last days of 2025 as a breakfast and lunch spot and bakery. Owner Mary Roy was born in Bangladesh and moved to France to learn baking. She creates some of the pastries in an off-site kitchen and brings them in daily. Covinten quickly acquired a following for their coffee, sandwiches, and the clubby decor that includes chandeliers, couches, and a Persian carpet.
A lamb shank is dusted with herbs and garlic before cooking and served atop mashed potatoes, a classic French preparation. Photo by Richard Foss
Covinten received their beer and wine license in June and opened for dinner on weekends only, serving a short menu of French-inspired dishes. The mood of the room is different in the evening, elegant instead of incongruous. Any time you visit the place won’t be packed — Mary staff do all the cooking and also serve tables, so they only accept a few reservations per night.
The menu is short — currently two starters, two salads, and six entrees. Items change occasionally and are centered on a French/Italian axis. One of the exceptions was a “coastal prawn cocktail” appetizer, six very large prawns arranged around a huge martini glass filled with what was described as a bloody Mary style sauce. The prawns had been coated with a housemade seasoning reminiscent of Old Bay, which has a kick thanks to red pepper and horseradish. The sauce was a different take on the same theme, and the description was accurate – I know because I had it packed to go and made a bloody Mary when I got home. It was delicious. Covinten doesn’t have a liquor license, but they’re missing a bet by not offering this with soju for those who would like a spicy low-alcohol cocktail.
That prawn cocktail was the only overtly New World item on the menu and the only spicy one. Other dishes exhibited complex but gentle seasoning. The red cabbage salad with green apple, walnuts, goat cheese, and berries was a model of rustic French flavors, each ingredient fresh and distinct but tied together with the red wine dressing. The orzo and labneh salad straddled Middle Eastern and Greek traditions, with fresh spinach, dried cranberries, kalamata olives, and the tart soft cheese infused with lemon-olive oil dressing. It wasn’t fancy or fussy, just good simple Mediterranean cooking.
We enjoyed these with glasses of Vouvray from their limited wine menu – three reds and three whites, quality choices at standard markup. They also have a few beers, and on one visit my wife tried a “Coastal Haze” mocktail of butterfly pea flower tea, coconut water, and a flavored foam. This was too sweet for my tastes but refreshing after an unusually hot day.
Whatever beverage you choose, you will have some time to enjoy it, because the pace of meals here is leisurely. There is soft jazz on the music system and a silent movie playing on a big screen, but you’ll have some time for conversation over the course of the evening. The topic might be about the silent movie – on one visit we were transfixed by a Swedish love story between a princess and a vagabond, while on another we were amused by Jacques Tati, the French of Charlie Chaplin.
On our first visit we tried a whole pompano with a mustard and ginger sauce and an order of green velvet spaghetti – pasta in a pesto sauce with zucchini, tomato, and burrata. My wife and I had ordered based on our own preferences but ended up sharing both dishes. The fish was large enough to share, though there was nothing on the plate with it but one large mushroom, a sliced strawberry, and a garnish of parsley. The pasta had a complementary flavor, creamy and rich and a nice foil to the tangy mustard, ginger, and herb broth on the fish plate. Something else should be on the plate with the fish to balance the meal, some rice to mop up that delicious sauce or some grilled vegetables, but the spaghetti worked nicely if you consider this a dinner for two.
On the next visit our party of three selected the grass-fed sirloin Bordeaux, a braised lamb shank, and porcini mushroom risotto topped with chicken tikka. I don’t remember seeing chicken tikka paired with risotto before, but it’s a brilliant idea. I’m not generally a fan of chicken tikka, a fusion dish invented at an Indian restaurant in Scotland, but the gently spiced tomato-based sauce has similarities to Italian cooking and works great in this setting. The portion of chicken is small, and at the time you order you are given the option of having a larger portion for eight dollars extra. Since you can’t know how much there is before actually seeing the plate delivered, this seems odd. There was enough on my plate to flavor the dish, but those who prefer a high-protein meal may want to get the upgrade. You are also offered toasted baguette for an extra two dollars, but I don’t know why anyone would want extra toast with a rice dish.
If you want a high-protein meal, the beef Bordeaux is an option. We received a flavorful steak cooked to medium, the way Europeans prefer it – if you prefer rare or medium rare, order accordingly. There was a small portion of grilled vegetables under the meat, but a little rice or potato would have helped complete the plate. There was no such problem with the lamb shank, a massive hunk of tender meat that arrived atop mashed potatoes with two grilled carrots on the side. The lamb had a classic coating of herbs de Provence with a little garlic and pepper, the portion was enough for two light meals. The potatoes were a bit of a surprise – many restaurants swamp these in cream and butter to make them as fluffy as possible, but these had a dense texture and served as a platform for the au jus sauce that was served on the side. The tempranillo offered by the glass was a nice accompaniment to the lamb and steak, while the Rhone blend worked better with the risotto.
Several desserts are offered, most imported from Italy, but we tried an item made in house, caneles de Bordeaux. This rice-based confection looks like a tiny bundt cake with a chewy center, and has flavors of rum, caramel, and vanilla. It was a delicate morsel of sweetness to finish our substantial meals.
Dinner at Covinten is in line with other places near the beach – we spent about $60 per person before tip with one glass of wine each. The experience is like nothing else in the area, and though evening dining is a work in progress, they have their own niche in the South Bay scene.
Covinten Café is at 87 Fourteenth Street in Hermosa. Tue-Fri 7:30 a.m. – 2 p.m., Fri 7:45 a.m. – 2 p.m. and 6:15-8:30 p.m., Sat 7:45 a.m. – 5 p.m. and 7:15 p.m. – 9 p.m., Sun 7:45 a.m. – 4:15 p.m. Street parking, wheelchair access good. Quiet environment, some vegetarian items. Corkage $25. (310) 465-0886. Covintencafe.com. ER
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