CLASSY COOKING A LUMPY BONUS.

Byline: Larry Lipson Daily News Restaurant Critic

Entering Lumpy Gravy, the Frank Zappa-inspired cafe-club on Beverly Boulevard, you're not sure if it's supposed to represent the inner or outer sanctum or a science-fiction dream sequence.

There are spacecraft, one suspended from the ceiling, another pointing up from the floor in the rear of the dining room near the open kitchen and next to a magazine-book stand.

Also suspended, this time over the kitchen area, is a giant colorful flying insect. And propped up on one wall is a robot riding an old-fashioned bicycle.

There's a stage facing in from the storefront window, and above it is a row of television screens showing tapes of either moody abstract stuff or risque movie videos.

It's a ``trip,'' all right, but the bonus is the classy cooking of young David Fouts, recently of Bambu in Malibu, who delivers a range of satisfying plates, from a nifty breast of duck cut in thick, round, juicy medallions with cranberry-studded mashed potatoes ($14.95) to a homey, Hungarian-style chicken paprikas ($9.95) with spaetzle-type galuska dumplings.

He makes a fine butternut squash soup as a du jour offering (cup $3.95, bowl $4.95), or you can try one of four substantial noodle bowls from a typical angel hair version with tomato and basil to a soupy udon in ponzu sauce rendition with tomatoes and cilantro at $5.95 each.

He also does udon noodles with wild mushrooms and a peppery soy sauce effectively for the same price and turns to Asia with soy dipping sauce and a novel guacamole rendition for his pretty plate of tuna-filled dumplings ($6.95).

Moving to main courses, you're more likely to find a pearl with your oysters than to run across a menu these days that doesn't list a grilled salmon entree.

The Fouts version, though, is a definite standout. He sears a fair-sized salmon filet that has been crusted with a tingling coat of ginger and black peppercorns and perches it on a bed of just-as-perky red lentils along with a colorful scattering of nicely roasted vegetables. And the price is about as good as you'll find anywhere for a dish of this stature, only $10.95.

Of course, if you want to really expand on this (or any other dish, for that matter) order a side of mashed potatoes and gravy ($2.95), and you'll realize immediately that one has no lumps - that's the gravy - and the other may have a welcome few - that's the spuds.

Fouts adds cilantro to the mashed in his handsome appetizer spring roll offering ($5.95). In this creation, he wraps applewood-smoked chicken, poblano chiles, ranchero cheese and sun-dried tomato paste in thin wonton-type dough, slant-cuts them and points them dramatically upward out of the potato surrounded by chipotle sauce making them look like downtown's Westin Bonaventure Hotel building.

Continuing on the potato trail, his crisp, double-fried pommes frites accompany a good-tasting, garlicky New York steak for a reasonable $13.95, garnished with a tomato and arugula mixture.

The fare of Fouts fits both adventurous and conservative palates.

It's the entertainment here that plays it pretty close to the edge.

The restaurant: Lumpy Gravy.

Where: 7311 Beverly Blvd., Los Angeles.

When: Open for dinner only from 6 to 11 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday, from 6 to midnight Friday and Saturday.

Behind the scenes: David Fouts is the chef.

Recommended items: Soup, udon noodles in ponzu, baby bluefin tuna dumplings, applewood-smoked chicken spring roll, grilled salmon with cilantro mashed potatoes, chicken paprikas, New York steak frites, breast of duck with cranberry mashed potatoes.

How much: Starters from $3 to $7, sandwiches and bowls from $5 to $8, entrees from $9 to $16, desserts $5 each. Admission fee charged to entertainment viewers. Beer and wine. MC, V, Discover.

Wine list: Carefully chosen offering of 34 labels fairly marked up includes more than a dozen wines under $20, some as low as $12. The Grgich '94 zinfandel is wonderful wine ($22), and you can live it up over the holidays by popping corks of well-made Chateau St. Michelle bubbly at $12 a bottle here. Sake martinis are spiced with wasabi $4.50, and there are some intriguing brews (try the Belgian Delirium Tremens, $5.50) in bottle or on tap. Corkage is $2 ($8 if duplicated on the wine list).

Reservations: Suggested. Call [phone].

Our rating: Three and a half stars for food; three stars for service; three and a half stars for wine.

CAPTION(S):

2 Photos

PHOTO (1) Lumpy Gravy general manager Scott Johnson, left, and executive chef David Fouts offer food for both adventurous and conservative palates.

(2) Keeping the robot company are yellow fin tuna, left, smoked chicken spring roll and a brownie.

Gene Blevins/Special to the Daily News