It's one of those restaurants you could pass a million times and never know was there. 900 Grayson has been on Grayson and 7th Street in West Berkeley for two years, but the spot is a busy corridor that feeds onto Ashby Avenue near the entrance to I-80, and most traffic speeds right by.

But pull over your car and enter the little red building, and you'll discover an oasis of scrumptious breakfast and lunch fare. Currently, the restaurant is only open during the day and it's closed Sundays, but its owners, brothers Anthony and Chris Saulnier and Joshua Pearl, recently secured permission from the city to be open at night. They plan to begin offering dinner in 2009.

At weekday breakfast and

Saturday brunch the menu is full of classic American fare, all with whimsical names. The Demon Lover, for instance, is a buttermilk waffle topped with spicy buttermilk fried chicken and cream gravy. It's a decadent dish that brings to mind the South. The Potter's Creek breakfast consists of eggs, scrambled soft with flecks of fresh herbs, deep golden hashed browns and Acme pan de mie toast. But even at breakfast you'll find a few sophisticated touches, as in the salad of thinly sliced Fuji apples with lemon-hazelnut vinaigrette that accompanies an Emmenthal omelet.

Soups excel

Lunch brings exquisite soups such as one made from fresh tomatoes that was garnished with little pillows of young mozzarella

cheese and a drizzle of basil oil. The soup had all the flavors of Italy's Caprese salad, but brought into new dimensions of texture. It's startling to find a soup worthy of fine dining in the same place that serves a rib-sticking hamburger and pulled pork sandwich (both doused in house-made barbecue sauce), but that's the beauty of 900 Grayson.

Its owners all hail from Sebastopol, and the Saulnier brothers came up in the French restaurant business. Their grandparents owned Chez Madeleine in Pt. Reyes Station and they later worked at their godparents' French restaurants in San Francisco. "We wanted a casual neighborhood place," said Anthony Saulnier. "After years of starched shirts and bow ties, I love being able to wear a T shirt and jeans." Both brothers wear jeans at their restaurant, as do waiters.

Pearl, who works as the restaurant's chef, has a strong camaraderie with his staff. A cook on his day off might be found at the restaurant's bar enjoying a few Budweisers, a beer supplied specifically for the workers because it's not on the menu.

Regardless of the laid-back vibe, and the kitschy nude oil painting tucked over the bar, the food here shows a refined hand in the kitchen. On the rare occasion that a dish doesn't succeed, the problem is usually with the base ingredient.

The flat iron steak is a case in point. The steak arrived cooked to exact medium-rare order, accompanied by flawlessly blanched asparagus (stem side peeled, of course), fluffy mashed potatoes and a harmonious, tarragon touched béarnaise sauce. The trouble was the meat was tough and not especially juicy. Some of those traits come with the flat iron cut, but that being the case they shouldn't have chosen it for this simple, seared preparation.

Burger a hit

Such shortcomings are not the norm here and the menu includes a range of items from a popular chopped Cobb to a salad of lemongrass kaffir lime prawns over rice noodles, to egg salad sandwiches at the to-go counter, to pappardelle pasta with crimini mushrooms and butternut squash. Many are the fans of the Grayson Burger, a little powerhouse of a hamburger that comes with Nueske's double smoked bacon, New York white cheddar, shoestring thin fried onions and barbecue sauce.

Service can be harried on Saturdays and during the lunch rush, but waiters are clearly hustling. At slower times, service is totally prompt. At the same time, diners are never rushed. 900 Grayson is the sort of place where you feel free to linger. The front offers baked goods, sandwiches and coffee drinks to-go, and feels more like a café. Customers share the day's newspaper at a narrow counter lined with stools that faces out the front window.

The dessert selection is small, but worth saving room for. It includes wonderful cookies made by the local pasta company Phoenix Pastificio. A seasonal fruit tart is made in house. In fact, it's assembled right before it's served, so the buttery crust stays crisp and the fruit, the last of the season's nectarines and blackberries on one visit, is freshly sliced. The tart filling is standard French pastry cream, not too thick, not too thin.

With a restaurant getting this many details simply right, it's no wonder the place has a following in spite of its unlikely location. Now if they would just open for dinner.