PIZZA & PASTA’S HOT, BUT SUSHI’S NOT

Barbecue, pasta and home-delivery pizza are on the upswing in America today; freshly baked cookies and sushi are declining in popularity. “Hamburgers with a variety of toppings, served in establishments that offer alcoholic beverages” are holding approximately steady.

Those are among the facts revealed by the National Restaurant Assn.’s second annual survey of “Consumer Preferences for New Restaurant Concepts,” based on a study conducted nationwide in April by the Gallup Organization. In 1985, to be specific, 34% of the 2,000-plus citizens polled by Gallup had tried barbecue in the first three months of the year; this year, it was 47%. Pasta went from 35% to 46%, home-delivery pizza from 40% to 47%, freshly baked cookies from 29% to 26%, sushi from 7% to 5%, and those hamburgers-with-special-conditions from 33% to 34% (a rise, it’s true, but hardly enough to build an empire on). Gallup also asked respondents which “concepts” they’d like to try: First choice was premium hand-dipped ice cream; second was barbecue; third--go figure it!--was freshly baked cookies.

RIGHT CHEF, WRONG COAST: The restaurant world was buzzing a few weeks back when the usually accurate trade publication Nation’s Restaurant News published a report that Jonathan Waxman--ex-chef of Chez Panisse in Berkeley and our own Michael’s and now co-owner of Jams, Bud’s, and Hulot’s in New York--was about to become the country’s “first bicoastal chef” through his involvement with Michel Richard’s about-to-open Citrus restaurant in Hollywood.

In fact, Waxman has never had anything to do with Richard or with Citrus in any way--and Richard is quite capable of running his own restaurant, thank you. The misunderstanding apparently arose through an NRN conversation with restaurant investor Marvin Zeidler, who is a partner both of Richard’s and of Waxman’s. Waxman is about to become a sort of bicoastal chef, though--but the second coast is the far side of the Atlantic. He and gentleman wine importer Melvyn Master, who run the three New York restaurants together, are about to sign a lease on a property on (or as they say over there, “in”) Albermarle Street off Picadilly in London--where they plan to open an English version of Jams.

I don’t wish to kick a good magazine while they’re down, incidentally, but reports in the same publication recently that Claude Segal--former chef of Bistango on La Cienega--had been signed as chef of the new Bistango at the Atrium complex in Orange County are not correct, either.

NEW TABLES IN TOWN: Siam West Thai Garden Restaurant served its first pad thai noodles (etc.) in Long Beach Sept. 3, after being blessed by a Buddhist monk imported for the occasion. . . . Sauvignon is new in Santa Monica, on the site of the old Raphael’s. The chef is Duc Huynh, formerly at Pigalle on Fairfax and the Au Chambertin restaurants in Santa Monica and Santa Barbara--and son of Au Chambertin founder Lap Huynh. . . . Jili’s is new, offering pasta, pizza, steaks, burgers and sushi (!) in Calabasas. . . . Le Vallauris has reopened in Palm Springs, with George Doussopoulos and chef Michel Depras (formerly at the Westwood Marquis Hotel) joining Paul Bruggemans as associates. A new takeout and catering service from the restaurant is also being launched. . . . Benito Prezia, owner of Italia Ristorante in Santa Monica, has opened Pesano Ristorante Italiano on South Fairfax near Pico.

TABLE TALK: La Societe de Bacchus et Epicurus holds a Russian feast and wine-tasting (not, presumably, including Russian wine) next Sunday at 6 p.m. at the Burbank Airport Hilton Hotel--whose chef, incidentally, is the talented Roland Speisser, long at the Tower downtown. Call (213) 656-2742 for information. . . . Chez Melange in Redondo Beach is organizing a “Great Grape Stomp Field Trip” on Saturday: A bus leaving from the restaurant will transport stompers to the Ballard Canyon Winery in the Santa Ynez Valley where they will get in on the grape harvest, have dinner and taste local wines--all for $75 per person. . . . Lawry’s California Center, near downtown L.A., participates in the neighboring Southwest Museum’s Fifth Annual Festival of Native American Arts next weekend, offering a “Fiesta Fantastica” package deal--$10 for lunch, admission to the festival and free parking and shuttle service between the center and the museum. Tickets are available at both places. Lawry’s has also begun a series of Saturday afternoon jazz concerts, through the end of the month, from 2 to 5 p.m. Cocktails and hors d’oeuvres will be available. . . . More jazz, tomorrow and next Sunday from 5:30 to 9:30 p.m., at Orleans in West L.A. A variety of gumbos will be served up, as will jazz of a traditional New Orleans nature.

END OF AN ERA: The original Studio Grill in Hollywood opened its doors for the first time 50 years ago last Monday. Current proprietor Ardison Phillips bought it in 1970, with the late Jock Livingston (who went on to found Ports down the street) as partner. One sign of the old Grill has remained at the restaurant all these years, even as Phillips has developed his own idiosyncratic brand of contemporary Californian cooking--literally a sign, the plastic Pepsi standard hanging outside the door. In observation of the establishment’s 50th (sort of) anniversary, though, Phillips has now taken down the sign at last, replacing it with a new logo he himself designed (he is also an artist)--a depiction of a trencherman tipping a glass. The old sign isn’t gone forever, incidentally: It is now displayed inside in the bar.