FOOD GETS 2ND BILLING AT NIGHTCLUB

UPDATE: OSMAN ELIMSA, FAMOUS CHEF: THE STORY: QUIT JOB, MOVED.

Or, at any rate, that’s part of the story. Last time we saw the talented Osman Elimsa, he was at the Palm Garden in the Newport Sheraton, mesquite-grilling everything from lamb chops to rabbit and putting marvels such as date-mint chutney on the side. Now, a glance at the Palm Garden menu these days shows somewhat tamer listings, so perhaps the story that Elimsa has left the Sheraton is not unexpected news.

What is unexpected is where he has moved. He has gone from a fanciful, brightly lit hotel restaurant with palm leaves painted on the walls to a smoke-filled nightclub called Chez Dante’s with red leather booths and wallpaper that looks as if it were antiqued with coal dust. From a corridor off the lobby to a corner of a little shopping plaza. (You’ll never find it from its street address--you have to drive down Martingale a few yards to see the sign.) From a place full of hotel guests to one full of regulars who come to drink and listen to the jazz singer and her cool piano stylings into the wee hours.

Foodwise, it’s also a considerable change--from mesquite-grilling with a bit of California craziness to making familiar Continental stuff. This move actually represents something of a return to Elimsa’s roots, as he has worked at a number of Continental palaces, among them Ambrosia, Chez Cary and Hemingway’s. Unfortunately, that doesn’t leave me with much to say, since Continental cuisine is by design a style of cooking you don’t develop strong feelings about.

Still, I can tell you that there are some very good things on this menu. The best is an appetizer of coral scallops (though I didn’t happen to see any coral, i.e., roe)--big, sweet scallops in a very nice Chablis and cream sauce with fresh thyme and basil. A couple of the pastas are pretty good, too--ravioli stuffed with feta, dill and chives in a Parmesan-thickened cream sauce (the pasta is a little chewy, though) and four-color fettuccine with baby shrimp in chive cream sauce.

The best entree is probably breast of pheasant--very pleasant pheasant in a somewhat mysterious sauce that the menu says contains chestnut puree. It comes with an even greater mystery--a little pot of cooked apple filled with what I suppose is red currant jam. The menu unhelpfully calls it red currvn or something. (There are many misspellings on the menu, more proof that the whole world needs a copy editor.)

The baby rack of lamb, with rosemary and tarragon sauce, is good, too. Trout usually strikes me as the piscine equivalent of skim milk, and I hardly ever order it, but the troute Monte Carlo here isn’t bad at all. It comes with shrimp in a white wine sauce with shallot and coriander butter, according to the menu, but I’d swear I tasted saffron. The beef medallions--two small fillet steaks--are sort of Continental with a whiff of Mediterranean, arranged on rounds of fried breaded eggplant and topped with artichoke hearts filled with bearnaise sauce.

But I’m starting to bend over backward here. We’re already entering the fairly extensive Gray Zone. The roast duckling ( flambe, although you aren’t obliged to watch the fire) is drab. Grilled chicken breast comes with a nice, surprisingly peasanty tomato and oregano sauce depth-charged with garlic, but it’s also surprisingly tough. Lobster Thermidor, with its load of mushrooms, is rather neutral. And I was positively sorry I ordered veal galantine because of the tyrannical port and cranberry sauce that came with it.

I should point out that there are a couple of interesting Oriental dishes at lunch. The best is lamb “Baspours” (I’m sure that’s supposed to be “Bosporus”), a typical Near Eastern combination of roast lamb with fried eggplant slices in a mild paprika sauce. The Oriental spinach and cucumber is a refreshing sort of all-vegetable sushi--julienne cucumber wrapped in a thick layer of spinach leaves in sesame oil vinaigrette with a bit of walnut. “Turkish Ladies’ Delight,” though, turns out to be a sandwich rather like a hamburger.

There’s no getting around it: Chez Dante’s is essentially a nightclub. It’s a nice one, I’d say, with tasty music, a congenial and sophisticated clientele and a couple of waiters who seem to know and enjoy their business. I’m positive that Elimsa has considerably raised the standards of the food it serves and thereby made it an even more desirable place to go. Still, the music is the main attraction, and what you eat here is more or less background food. It makes me wish I were a music critic rather than a restaurant writer.

CHEZ DANTE’S

1701 Corinthian Way, Newport Beach

(714) 955-0622

Open for lunch Monday through Friday, for dinner Monday through Saturday. American Express, MasterCard and Visa accepted.