A prime cut of New York on the West Coast

Ooo la la, what a transformation! Walking into the new Manhattan export STK Steakhouse without knowing where you were, you’d never take this for the short-lived Bridge or, long before that, the beloved Italian Alto Palato. Instead of Bridge’s kitschy glamour, New York-based entrepreneur Jonathan Segal of One Group is going for a chic, minimalist look, which is almost an exact duplicate of the scene-driven STK in New York’s sizzling meatpacking district. (That would be white brick walls, sinuous white faux-leather banquettes with close-packed tables and dramatic flower arrangements of branches and white orchids in meter-tall glass vases.)

In the Bistro Bar, the cool crowd lounges, sipping cocktails and slyly checking on who’s here and who’s not. Up a few steps is the main dining room with lovely globe lights -- like fireflies caught in a glass -- floating overhead. Servers push the cocktails, and if you don’t go for that, move right to the bottled water (sorry, no filtered tap water). It gets poured around once and practically before we can take a sip, someone arrives with another (unasked for) bottle, ready to fill up our glasses.

All eyes swivel as each new group is seated among STK’s dedicated see-and-be-seen crowd. At one table, a youthful looking mom picks at her organic arugula salad with avocado and winter citrus while her teenage daughter and friends concentrate on looking polished and alternately text friends and check the room for somebody tabloid-worthy. I didn’t see any of them take a single bite.

STK’s menu offers some twists on the steakhouse format with some unusual first courses and, as our waiter puts it, a “female-friendly” section of wee steaks from 6 to 8 ounces. Ravenous he-men, I would guess, are the clients of the largest steaks, a 24-ounce Porterhouse and a 26-ounce bone-in New York. The menu fails to mention whether the steaks are prime or not, but I asked: prime -- and the New York strip I had that night tasted like it. The bargain is the 12-ounce skirt steak at $30, a really delicious cut of beef.

A kiddie theme runs through the menu from appetizers (shrimp rice crispies, scallops with puffed rice or French toast with foie gras) to dessert (pb & j sundae, anyone?). Nobody is going to feel intimidated by this menu built around meat and roasted heirloom potatoes. There’s even a meat and potato soup. What will vegetarians do? Eat salad, of which there are six. Or an order of the creamed spinach made with mascarpone. And for anybody who doesn’t eat red meat, a giant seafood platter will do. Or maybe the snapper in shiitake brown butter or big eye tuna with mushroom bordelaise sauce.

And soon, once the exclusive Coco de Ville -- a venue inside the steakhouse with its own private entrance -- is ready to accept celebrities, maybe the gang of paparazzi posted out front will have something to shoot. The night I was there, they were looking awfully hungry. But maybe one of those girls who didn’t eat a thing took pity on the poor guys and gave them her doggie bag.

--

virbila@latimes.com

--

STK STEAKHOUSE

WHERE: 755 N. La Cienega Blvd., West Hollywood

WHEN: 5:30 p.m.-midnight, Sun.-Thu.; 5:30 p.m.- 1 a.m., Fri.-Sat.

PRICE: Appetizers, $11 to $18; seafood platter, $20 to $60; steaks, $18 to $75; other main courses, $24 to $32; desserts, $10.

INFO: (310) 659-3535; www.stkhouse.com