Instant Past at Mason’s

Is the Los Angeles dining scene about to change? If Mason’s (11500 San Vicente Blvd., West Los Angeles, (213) 826-5666) turns out to be a success, the answer is probably yes, for this is an entirely new trend in dining.

Call it instant tradition. Walk in the door and you walk right into a Ralph Lauren ad. In front of you is the library. To your left is the bar, looking for all the world as if Sherlock Holmes had just strolled off in search of his pipe. The fireplace is aglow, illuminating deep, cozy armchairs, throw rugs and paintings that look as if they have been hanging on the walls since the last century. The dining room, on your right, is scarcely more modern; here the walls are painted with pastoral scenes of sheep grazing in front of castles.

And yet almost nobody, including the owner (celebrity son and celebrity husband Morgan Mason), bothers to dress for dinner. And the menu, despite its decorous demeanor (there’s a painting of a dog on the cover), is hardly a blast from the past. Appetizers include marinated tofu with broccoli and peppers, peppered tuna on arugula and tortilla soup. There is a panoply of pastas. Chicken comes in lime-horseradish cream, duck in an orange-balsamic dressing.

Still, there are a few old-time touches to the food. There’s a lot of meat on this menu, and side dishes include four kinds of potatoes that are good enough to make the sort of people who appear in those Lauren ads forget their diets.