RESTAURANTS : CAIOTI: ED LA DOU DELIVERS IN CANYON

There is something creepy and wonderful about Laurel Canyon. Creepy because it feels stuck in a ‘60s time warp. Wonderful for the same reason. Joni Mitchell and Jackson Browne and John Mayall et al. may have moved on, but their vibes remain, along with various longhairs and rock ‘n’ rollers who still frequent the funky brick Canyon Country Store for wine and the latest Rolling Stone. There’s even a burned-out vet in a 10-gallon hat who lives in a cardboard box in the woods nearby and who roams the streets at night, shouting.

Downstairs from the country store is a knotty-pine, brick-walled restaurant that has gone through various incarnations over the years, from hangout of Humphrey Bogart and Robert Mitchum to current ‘80s designer pizza parlor, Caioti.

Outside, the vet raves and inside we watch weird tropical fish in a tank, listen to Billie Holiday, Cat Stevens and Bob Dylan on the sound system and wait for our food. The waitresses seem to be in no hurry. They look mellow, like they’ve been doing yoga all day. The delay, however, is not entirely their fault. The kitchen is tied up with takeout orders. Sixty percent of Caioti’s business is delivery to people who, understandably, don’t want to leave their homes among the treetops.

The food is worth waiting for, though. One appetizer--grape leaves stuffed with marinated goat cheese, served with roasted peppers and whole basil leaves, is, for $3, the most delicious bargain in town. The designer pizza is also some of the best there is, and no wonder. In the kitchen is Ed La Dou, who was the first pizza chef at Spago, then executive chef of the California Pizza Kitchen. He is known as a pioneer in pizza topping experimentation--barbecued chicken, goat cheese and all of that. It is said that he wanted to do trail mix pizza, but the staff at Spago hooted him down.

Now, left to his own devices, La Dou does what he wants, and what he wants is a relaxed, casual, neighborhood restaurant that serves interesting, good food--cheap. There are pastas ($5.25-$7.25), salads and other interesting appetizers (grilled shrimp with chili pesto, baked Japanese eggplant, smoked chicken salad) and entrees ($7.25-$11.25)--things like grilled pork tenderloin, chicken, lamb and beef filet, which come with sauteed baby vegetables and pasta.

Some of the food--like the Jamaican Curried Goat Stu (sic)--is more interesting than good. The goat stew is a sickly sweet glop punctuated by tough little pieces of goat. The Mississippi River Catfish with hot lemon pecan sauce was also too sweet for my taste. But the filet of beef was just fine--a good piece of meat, tender and full of flavor, grilled a perfect medium rare, served with grilled onions, roast garlic and Gorgonzola sauce--like the other grilled meats, a satisfying meal.

Pastas went by without much notice or praise. It’s the pizza I’ll go back for--roast garlic pizza with shallots and onion and smoked Gouda; smoked chicken pizza with roast peppers and goat cheese; barbecue chicken pizza; prosciutto and goat cheese pizza. La Dou also invites customers to design their own pizzas and offers a list of ingredients, some of the strangest of which are pineapple, walnuts, whole clams and pesto, in addition to the more traditional sausage, pepperoni, prosciutto and anchovy. No trail mix, though.

Amy Pressman, who formerly worked with Nancy Silverton at Spago, and was pastry chef at the Parkway Grill, is now supplying desserts. One night, she produced a layered concoction of marzipan and gooey chocolate and crunchy praline-ish things that was worth going off any diet for.

La Dou has plans to open similar restaurants--good food that doesn’t cost an arm and a leg, he says--in sites he’s looking at in Santa Cruz, Malibu, Monterey and Australia. Meanwhile, he is applying for a beer and wine license for the Laurel Canyon location.

Caioti, 2100 Laurel Canyon Blvd., (213) 650-2988. Open daily, 5 p.m-midnight, (delivery and take-out, too). Street parking. No alcohol. No credit cards. Dinner for two, food only, $20-$30.