Au Revoir, La Couronne

Veteran Southern California restaurateur Lud Renick opened La Couronne, a contemporary French-style restaurant in Pasadena, nearly five years ago because, he said, “We wanted to create the kind of place I had enjoyed in Europe but seldom found here.” Unfortunately, Renick said, “I think I know why I seldom found it.” La Couronne closes its doors for good at the end of June.

The expensive, super-refined restaurant lost money from its opening day, he said, and finally he just burned out. “We tried to take the Fredy Girardet approach to dining,” Renick said, referring to the extraordinary Swiss chef whose restaurant in Crissier, near Lausanne, is widely considered by those who like to rank such things as the best restaurant on the Continent. “Girardet was our idol.”

The sous-chef , Daniel Juriens, and other key kitchen personnel were, in fact, imported directly from Girardet and, after about a year, Juriens took over for Rolf Nonnast (former chef at Scandia, among other places) as head chef, which he has remained.

“We never relaxed our standards,” Renick said. “I would have perhaps been happier in the long run with a bit more California-izing in our cuisine, but I had to respect the chef’s wishes. He resisted making salads, for instance, but the plain truth is that people around here want salads.” Still, Renick has no regrets about refusing to compromise; he regrets only that the results of this refusal were never properly appreciated. “I might not have gone to La Couronne myself very often if I hadn’t owned it,” he said, “but I darned well would have enjoyed it when I did go.”

If you’re starting to feel sorry that you didn’t patronize La Couronne more often, or maybe that you’ve never been there at all, the place is still open, with the whole staff, including Juriens, still hard at work through May 28. After that, the space will be available for June, without Juriens but with the rest of the staff intact, for private parties, corporate affairs, and so on, serving prix fixe menus only.

As for Renick, he wants to travel, enjoy his new home in Sun Valley and apply his restaurateuring energies to his older, far more casual Pasadena classic, the Chronicle, in which he retains an interest. Juriens plans to return to Switzerland to open a restaurant of his own on Lake Geneva. With his partner, Greg Doerschlag, Renick is currently trying to sell La Couronne--to an appropriate new owner, he hopes. “Whatever we do,” Renick said, “we want to do it in style. We want to be proud of whatever happens here. We’d be unhappy if we had to settle for just another big cafe.”

PINYIN IN THE NEW YEAR: In a note on various local Chinese New Year’s celebrations in this space recently, I wondered aloud when somebody was going to tell me how to write the traditional greeting of the season--which is rendered in old-fashioned Wade-Gilles transliteration as “ Gung Hay Fat Choy “--in the contemporarily acceptable Pinyin form of Chinese. Katherine Sung of Beverly Hills has responded to say that it’s “ Gongshi fa tsai .” Merci bien.

THE SEA WOLF: Hard by revelations in this column last week that Wolfgang Puck has agreed to open a restaurant in San Francisco’s Hotel Cecil comes news that the increasingly potent Puck is about to sign a deal for still another place--this one in the Malibu Colony Plaza shopping center. Puck’s partner in the enterprise will be Roy Crummer, president of the Reco Land Corp., developers of the site. Puck reportedly plans to specialize in Mediterranean-style seafood at the new restaurant, which is as yet unnamed. Opening is predicted for May, 1989.

CALENDAR: Guido’s in West Los Angeles offers the wine of Wente Brothers at a seven-course dinner Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. The price is $65 per person, all-inclusive. . . . Maison Magnolia, near USC, throws a full-scale Oscar Night dinner party April 11 and an elaborate Mother’s Day repast May 8, each costing $100 a head, wine included. . . . Yanks in Beverly Hills will service Oscar Night stay-at-homes with buckets of fried chicken for two, four, eight or more, prices as yet undetermined. . . . Delius Restaurant in Long Beach serves five courses and a selection of wines from Robert Pepi and Ficklin on April 12, 13 and 27. The $55-per person dinners begin at 7:15 p.m. . . . Susan Feniger and Mary Sue Milliken of City Restaurant and the Border Grill will offer a cooking class at the Epicurian Cooking School in West Hollywood on Wednesday. Information: (213) 659-5990. . . . And Let’s Get Cookin’ in West Lake Village presents master chef Jacques Pepin, April 11-13, teaching sessions at 10:30 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. Information: (818) 991-3940.