Waterloo & City gastropub is coming to Culver City

Thierry Perez, former co-owner of Fraîche, says he is planning to open Waterloo & City in Culver City by the end of this month or the beginning of 2010.

Perez says he has partnered with Carlos Tomazos, who had been manager at Gilt and had worked at Per Se, both in New York.

The third partner and chef, who asked not to be named because he hasn’t notified his current employer, describes it as a British-style gastropub with a predominantly Italian and French menu.

“He’s English and I’m French,” Perez offers as an explanation. The chef formerly worked at Quo Vadis in London, as well as at prominent restaurants in Los Angeles.

A preliminary menu runs the Ital-Franco-Brit gamut: smoked salmon terrine with toasted brioche; fluke crudo; potted duck confit; grilled quail with chopped liver on toast; trotter and ham sausage; spaghetti alla Bolognese.

“There’s something for everybody,” Perez says.

New in Pasadena

Mexican restaurant Ix Tapa Cantina opened this week in Pasadena’s Old Town. The 7,500-square-foot restaurant has a full bar, DJs, dancing, live entertainment and -- need it be said? -- flat-screen TVs. To facilitate what owner Jack Huang calls the “fun factor,” the restaurant is celebrating its opening with giveaways, such as a drawing for a vacation to Ixtapa, Mexico.

On the same stretch of Colorado Boulevard, the Pasadena outpost of Peruvian restaurant Choza Mama (also in Burbank) has opened in the former Hooter’s space.

Ix Tapa, 119 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, (626) 304-1000; www.ixtapapasadena.blog. Choza Mama, 96 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena; (626) 432-4692;www.choza.

-- Betty Hallock