Ventura Diners Are Right in the Palm of These Chefs’ Hands : Open only two weeks, husband-and-wife team’s French country restaurant is lining them up.

Ventura’s newest restaurant, 71 Palm, has been a labor of love for chef-owner Didier Poirier and his wife, Nanci. The two have been renovating a 1905 Craftsman bungalow for months, in preparation for the opening two weeks ago. And from the looks of it, things are taking off much faster than expected. On a Saturday night, the French country restaurant is packed both upstairs and down. And every one of the coveted tables on the open-air porches on this balmy Indian summer night is taken, too.

The kitchen and the wait staff were swamped. It’s a good thing Poirier had the foresight to invite his brother, who is a chef in Montpellier in southern France, to come help out for the first couple of weeks, as well as enlist the aid of the chef he apprenticed with as a teenager.

By 8 p.m.--mon dieu!--the kitchen already had run out of roast chicken. Fortunately, there was still plenty of the earthy veal short ribs and a garlicky lamb shank braised with plump white beans.

Poirier, who was a chef at the now-defunct Fennel in Santa Monica and most recently at Barzac Brasserie in the Valley, is turning out a fine country-style pa^te, escargots sauteed with mushrooms and a pretty salad of endive and Roquefort. It’s grandmotherly French cooking, accessible and moderately priced.

In the midst of the festive frenzy that night, Nanci Didier holds her 6-week-old baby in her arms, chatting with friends and well-wishers. The couple also has an 19-month-old at home. The touch of family life adds a warm note to this promising new restaurant.

BE THERE

71 Palm Restaurant, 71 N. Palm St., Ventura; (805) 653-7222. Open daily for dinner; lunch begins next week. Parking in lot. First courses, $4.75 to $7.75; main courses, $7.75 to $14.95.

It’s grandmotherly French cooking, accessible and moderately priced.