Chinois on Post for Puck

Somebody has finally snared Wolfgang Puck. Ever since his Spago and Chinois on Main became established as two of L.A.’s best and most successful restaurants, Puck has been refusing offers of new restaurant partnerships and new restaurant deals in other cities.

“It’s hard enough to keep an eye on two restaurants in the same town,” he once told me. “How could I do justice to a restaurant in New York, or London or wherever, at the same time?” Thus, though he has accepted occasional consulting positions--he provides some staffing and advice for a Spago knock-off in Tokyo that he owns an interest in--Puck has always turned away opportunities for full-scale involvement elsewhere . . . until now.

Puck says that he has agreed to open a restaurant before the end of the year at the Hotel Cecil on Post Street in San Francisco (next to Donatallo and across from the Portman). And this is no mere consulting job. He will own a one-third interest in the restaurant and will have, he says, “basically all the rights--to hire and to fire, to do the menu, supervise the kitchen, everything.”

Puck’s partners in the enterprise are real estate merchant banker and developer Brad Blackman, who is one of the original principals in the Grand Champions complex, and the KIMCO Hotel Management organization, which operates such other San Francisco properties as the Vintage Court hotels (home to the famous Masa’s restaurant), the Bedford and the Villa Florence. Noted Bay Area restaurant designer Pat Kuleto (Fog City Diner, Lascauax, etc., in San Francisco, and the Buckhead Diner in Atlanta, among other places) will create the interior. Two veteran Spago chefs, Annie Breuer and David Gingrass, will cook.

The food at the new restaurant (as yet unnamed), says Puck, will be “modern San Franciscan” in style. “I don’t want to open another Spago or Chinois,” he adds. “Anyway, San Francisco is one of the only cities in America that really has a culinary heritage of its own. My idea is to go to the library up there and study what’s been done in San Francisco restaurants for the last hundred years or so. Maybe some of the old dishes are heavy and boring; I’ll see if I can adapt and update some of it. It could be like traditional French food and nouvelle cuisine: contemporary dishes based on old ideas.”

And why has he finally agreed to get involved with another restaurant after all this time? “You know,” he says, “San Francisco isn’t very far away, and a lot of our customers go there all the time. Anyway, we have so many talented people working for us now, it’s only natural that after three or four years they would want to go out on their own and do something different. This is a way for us to give them some freedom but still keep them in the family.”

PUCK REDUX: In other Wolfgang Puck news, the on-again off-again L.A. Brewing Company brewery and brewpub project in West Los Angeles, of which Puck is president (with attorney and former winery boss Jerry Goldstein and beer expert Andrew Hoffman as the other main participants), seems to be on again.

Necessary permits for the complex were granted by the Los Angeles City Council’s planning commission last year--but the granting of the permits was challenged by representatives of the Japanese American Citizens Council on the grounds that such an enterprise in the homey Sawtelle district of the city (which is heavily Japanese American in population) would encourage drunk driving, late-night noise and other problems in the neighborhood. After having heard the Citizens Council’s arguments, the city council voted, by a 2-1 margin, to disregard the appeal and, once and for all, grant conditional use permits for the project.

“One big hill is gone, “ says Puck. “Now all we have to do is find the money we need.”

OPERA NEWS: Ron Smoire has resigned as executive chef at Opera in Santa Monica, which isn’t even open yet. He and the restaurant’s proprietors have had differences of opinion about the menu, the design of the kitchen, and other details. “We agreed that it was better to part as friends now than as adversaries later,” Smoire says. “I’m still very excited about the project and the style of food; I’m very sorry that it didn’t work out.”

Opera principal Doug Delfeld (who, in common with the other principals, is also a partner in Trumps in West Hollywood) stresses that the parting is amicable. “We just couldn’t get together on some things,” he says. He is now interviewing for a new chef: “I hope we can find somebody as talented as Ron.” Opening night at Opera is still projected for late April.

AND NOW, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN: The Stoner Avenue Restaurant is new on guess-what-byway in West Los Angeles, featuring Greek, Yugoslav, Italian, American and still more kinds of fare--and also featuring an old friend, the English-style bar removed last year from the now-defunct El Padrino restaurant in the Beverly Wilshire Hotel. . . .

Balboa Cafe and Stars veteran Richard Frost has opened Chatters in Studio City, in partnership with Phil Richmond, former general manager of the Rose Cafe in Venice. . . .

The Pine Avenue Grill is new in Long Beach, under the same ownership as that community’s 555 East and Santa Monica’s Ocean Avenue Seafood; chicken-fried steak and pinwheel meat loaf are among the specialties, if you pine for that sort of thing. . . .

The Market City Caffe has opened in Pasadena’s Old Town complex, with Sal Casola and Chipper Pastron (ex-Gladstone’s, R. J.’s, Casola’s and Edie’s Diner) in charge. . . .

And Melange Seafood has dived into the restaurant fray in Encino, under the direction of former New Yorkers Harvey and David Kotler, with New Orleans-trained chef Philip Callahan in the kitchen.

MISCELLANY: Michael Rosen, who has worked as both a chef and a manager at Les Anges in Santa Monica (and who has also served in the kitchen at Restaurant Shiro in Pasadena), is back at Les Anges as head chef--replacing Dale Payne, who in turn took over briefly from Patrick Jamon, who is now in Hawaii. . . .

Siegfried Schafner, who has logged more than 15 years of culinary experience at an assortment of top hotels around the world, is the new executive chef at the Marina Beach Hotel in Marina del Rey. . . .

Chadney’s in Burbank is now celebrating its 15th anniversary with prize drawings and special low prices on selected menu items Sunday through Thursday. . . .

Milano West II in Agoura Hills cooks up four-course Italian regional dinners every Sunday through Thursday for $14.95 a head. Through the end of this month, dishes of the Piedmont region are featured. . . .

Sabroso in Venice has opened for breakfast Tuesday through Sunday from 8 p.m. until midday, serving homemade sweet buns, breakfast fodder. . . .

Champagne in West L.A. now offers lunch Tuesday through Friday from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., with a menu that includes sandwiches and salads as well as examples of owner-chef Patrick Healy’s more serious cooking. . . .

And Dan Tana’s in West Hollywood is 25 years old this year.