The crab cake appetizer is made with Jonah crab and a celery root remoulade and served on a bed of seasonal greens with a hot pepper rouille sauce.

THE PROVIDENCE JOURNAL / Sandor Bodo Sandor Bodo

Le Central, an airy French bistro on busy Hope Street in Bristol, offers a cool oasis on a hot summer’s day or night.

There’s a tempting menu with a Parisian flair — Moules au Feu, Croque Monsieur and Tagliatelle au Pistou — and local seafood offerings, such as Crab Cake Remoulade, Lobster BLT and Grilled Atlantic Salmon Nicoise. The surroundings are comfortable and evoke a European café, with black and white floor tiles, café curtains on the big street windows, ceiling fans and a long service bar casually manned at lunch by owner/chef Jesse James.

Can the East Bay meet the Left Bank? Apparently, the answer is “yes,” at least within these walls.

James opened Le Central in November in the space formerly occupied by Café la France. He took a circuitous route to Bristol bistro owner. After growing up on Cape Cod and beginning his restaurant career as a dishwasher, he worked in kitchens in Boston and Italy and eventually owned two restaurants in San Francisco in the ’90s. Moving back east, he settled in Little Compton and dove back into the business when the space became available.

Since my visit in early July, a summer menu has been introduced and prices have, surprisingly, gone down in several instances. Like many restaurateurs, James wants to create a neighborhood spot where diners are comfortable eating out several times a week, not just on Saturday nights. That means keeping prices under $20 for any item.

The menu is on the small side, with less than 10 choices of first courses and even fewer entrees. But the dishes are well-selected, ranging from the Bistro Burger ($12.75) to Poulet Roti (lemon roasted chicken for $16.50) to lamb chops served with ratatouille ($19.75) to an array of seafood including a regular special of local black sea bass. In the cooler months, James makes his own duck confit.

He also makes his own sausage and pasta, both of which were such a perfect part of my luncheon dish of Tagliatelle Crème de Saucisse ($12). The long thin pasta was tossed with a red pepper and cream sauce and topped with spicy hunks of garlic sausage and a delightful bit of spinach. The dish is now off the menu, but another dish features fresh pasta with pistou — the French version of pesto sauce.

James likes to play with the classics which explains his Lobster BLT (market price, and $13.50 the day of my visit). He keeps the tomato but adds arugula and applewood-smoked bacon. The bread is a light, airy brioche from the Bristol Bakery. We found plenty of lobster in the sandwich, but the flavor of the bacon effectively drowned out the other flavors.

Much more successful was the Crab Cake appetizer ($9.50 now) made with Jonah crab and a celery root remoulade. It’s served on a bed of seasonal greens with an exceptional hot pepper rouille, a spicy sauce of chiles, garlic and olive oil.

A salad of endive and beets ($7 now) offers chilled roasted beet chunks and succulent leaves in a walnut-cider vinaigrette. A sprinkling of loose nuts adds crunch to this palate-cleansing pairing.

Dessert was a treat with an excellent chocolate bread pudding ($7). James came up with the dessert when he saw the extra brioche rolls left over one day. Lucky for us. You don’t have to even like bread pudding to appreciate the wonderful texture from the brioche perfectly blended with rich chocolate and served in an oversize cup for a single serving easily shared by two polite diners.

The apple tart ($7) was wonderfully sweet yet balanced with cinnamon in a nice flaky pastry. It would have starred on any other table if it didn’t have to compete with the bread pudding.

The wine list is heavily French with glasses ranging from $6 to $9.75 for the J. Faiveley Pinot Noir from Burgundy that I enjoyed. Bottles range from $19.50 to $72.

James may well be a pioneer in the concept of BYOB, however. Though he has a wine and beer license, he found diners looking for a cocktail. So now diners bring in a bottle of their favorite vodka or gin and James has the mixers to make whatever cocktail they desire. He has room to store the bottles until they come to the restaurant again.

Everything is welcoming there on the Left Bank oasis on Hope Street.