Fenouil Here but Not Here, <i> Comprenez</i> ?

The April edition of Elle says that the French seafood bistro Fenouil (Fennel), located in “a former gas station on Ocean Avenue” in Santa Monica, offers decor that is “strictly Mediterranean, meaning lots of open windows overlooking the sea, and bright, colorful flowers,” and that the food it serves is “a rare combination of simple and refined, a sort of nouvelle classique .” I disagree. I think the place is plain, ugly and uncomfortable. Why, it doesn’t even have tables and chairs. And open windows? Hah! The whole darned front of the place is open. And there isn’t a flower in the place. As for the food, well, it’s so simple and refined as to be virtually nonexistent. And, incidentally, saying that the place is located in a former gas station is a rather nasty and quite undeserved swipe at the perfectly acceptable steakhouse, Sterling’s, that in fact used to occupy the site.

What’s the problem here? How can Elle and moi be so far apart in our opinions? Simply because--contrary to that stylish periodical--Fenouil doesn’t exist yet. As I write this, it is an empty shell of a place, and the men who are to be its chefs are still in another country, thousands of miles away. It won’t be opening, in fact, until June at the earliest. We should probably be happy, though, that it is opening at all.

Fenouil has been a long time in the making. About three years ago, Mauro Vincenti, proprietor of downtown’s Rex Il Ristorante, announced that he would build a place called Apres-Moi, at 755 N. La Cienega, and staff it with four well-known French chefs who would work the place in alternating one-month shifts. The original foursome included Michel Rostang of the Paris restaurant of the same name; Yannick Jacquot of Le Toit de Passy, also in Paris; Jean-Paul Lacombe of Leon de Lyon, in Lyon; and Michel Chabran of Chabran in Pont-de-l’Isere. Shortly after Vincenti’s announcement, ground was broken for the restaurant; but construction proceeded slowly, and the fate of the project seemed in doubt at times.

Subsequently, Vincenti rethought his original concept and had the idea to use the same core group of chefs for a more casual place to be called Fenouil, in Santa Monica rather than on La Cienega. Eventually, Lacombe dropped out of the group (at least temporarily) to be replaced by Andre Genin of Chez Pauline in Paris. Several other noted chefs, including one whose restaurant bears three stars, are said to be waiting in the wings as alternates.

Meanwhile, back on La Cienega, Vincenti is still developing a restaurant at No. 755--but it will be an Italian place, featuring the talents of a highly skilled young chef from Bergamo named Umberto Bombana. The place will be called Pazzia--which is Italian for lunacy or folly.

MISCELLANY: Le Savarin, a French-flavored bakery also serving breakfast, lunch and late afternoon snacks, has opened on Brighton Way in Beverly Hills. . . . Bistango on La Cienega now has live, French-style entertainment, with a casual buffet on the side, Sunday afternoons from 3 p.m. to “qui saura” (whatever the heck that is). . . . La Famiglia in Beverly Hills is now open Sundays. . . . Chadney’s in Burbank has introduced a Sunday jazz brunch from 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. . . . Al’s Steakhouse in Santa Ana now offers regular customers a chance to join a “Frequent Feeder” program: Anyone dining four times at the restaurant receives a fifth meal free. . . . Twelve three-person teams vie for honors in the first Future Chefs of the South Bay Competition at El Camino College on April 23, with Wolfgang Puck, John Sedlar and Robert Bell (of Chez Melange in Redondo Beach) among the judges. . . . And in other South Bay news, 22 restaurants in the area will participate in the 1988 South Bay Gourmet Sampler to benefit the South Bay Free Clinic on April 24 from 1 to 4 p.m. at the Radisson Plaza Hotel in Manhattan Beach.