La Fontaine owner and chef Hasan Yildiz knows Northern Italian food: he should, after an eight-year run as head chef at downtown Mountain View’s beloved Vaso Azzuro, which specializes in the cuisine.

Northern Italian fare favors richer sauces, more butter and more cheese than Southern dishes do—after all, the country’s northern neighbors include the dairy strongholds of Switzerland and France. As at Vaso Azzuro, Yildiz focuses on Northern Italian cuisine at his new Mountain View restaurant, La Fontaine, but mixes it up a little by adding French dishes to the menu.

The simple, white-tablecloth elegance of La Fontaine, ensconced in a small building along Castro Street, struck me as almost a throwback to a time before casual-upscale became the norm. The staff was friendly and knowledgeable, and the food was served quite promptly despite a busy night.

The French and Italian offerings by and large don’t overlap. The dishes stick to tradition, the Italian more so, which makes sense given Yildiz’s intimate history with the food. The French dishes stray a little more from their original inspiration, but still retain the essence of the classic dishes.

I started with the eggplant gratin. For $7.95, La Fontaine’s appetizer comes with thickly sliced eggplant, diced tomatoes, is topped with two kinds of cheese and uses olive oil instead of butter (more traditional for a gratin).

I also ordered the carpaccio parma appetizer ($8.95). The subtle, light flavors of thin slices of uncooked filet mignon are offset by the heavy tanginess of horseradish, capers and a whole lot of arugula.

For an entree, I looked to the French side of the menu for the coq au vin, for $17, a wine-braised chicken stew. La Fontaine serves theirs over a bed of noodles. The chicken was stuffed with a healthy dose of oregano and thyme, and the creamy sauce was not unlike that of beef stroganoff, which isn’t a bad thing, though I could have used a little less thyme in the chicken.

The La Fontaine d’ete ($14), an in-house original, features thick pappardelle pasta, tossed with olive oil, arugula, cherry tomatoes and bacon. The bacon was thick-cut and was the primary source of flavor.

The dessert menu skews Italian. I opted for the panna cotta, for $7.95, which had a creamy vanilla custard flavor, and was topped with a sweetened berry sauce and a handful of berries. Also for $7.95, I tried their dessert special, which they called the “Terrifying Tiramisu.” It is a tiramisu gelato with chocolate shavings on top. It’s served with a shot of rum and an orange slice—the booze is meant to be poured on top at the diner’s discretion. It was an atypically playful menu item, compared to the rest of the more traditional, sophisticated food offerings.