Really Big Grossers

Guess what the largest-grossing independently owned restaurant in Southern California is.

Wrong.

Whatever you guessed, I can almost guarantee you that you didn’t come up with the right answer. According to the “Directory of High-Volume Independent Restaurants,” published recently by Lebhar-Friedman Inc. of New York (which is also responsible for the invaluable restaurant trade publication called Nation’s Restaurant News), only one independently owned California eating place south of the San Francisco Bay Area took in $10 million or more last year: Brophy Bros. Fish Market in Santa Barbara--an establishment, I am ashamed to confess, that I had never even heard of until a few months ago.

The identities of some of our region’s other top-grossing non-chain restaurants surprised me too. Sure, Spago is in there, in the $6-million to $7-million range--but the No. 1 money-winner in L.A. is Starkey’s Deli, in the $8-million to $9-million category. Other Southern California hot spots include Billy Reed’s in Palm Springs, F. McClintock’s Saloon and Dining House in Shell Beach, Maxwell’s in Huntington Beach, and in Los Angeles itself--City, the Pacific Dining Car and Junior’s, all sharing $6-million to $7-million territory with Spago. Nicky Blair’s in West Hollywood and the Ritz in Newport Beach check in at $5 million to $6 million.

If there is a pattern here, or a lesson to be learned, I can’t quite work out what it might be. But it is clear from the Lebhar-Friedman list that critical acclaim and dollar volume don’t always sit down together at the same table.

WHERE ARE THEY NOW?: Gordon Drysdale, former executive chef at Ravel in the Sheraton Grande Hotel downtown, has been signed to oversee the kitchen at Bix, the long-awaited new San Francisco eating place about to be opened by the Fog City Diner/Mustard’s/Tra Vigne/Rio Grill crew. . . . David Schy--another Sheraton veteran who took over for Roy Yamaguchi at the lamented Le Gourmet in the Sheraton La Reina Hotel near LAX and is also a veteran of the Grand House in San Pedro, El Encanto in Santa Barbara and other local establishments--is now in charge of matters culinary at the South-of-the-Border-themed Hat Dance, the latest hit in Chicago of Rich Melman (of Ed Debevic’s fame). . . . And Melvyn Master, formerly co-proprietor, with Jonathan Waxman, of Jams (now called Jonathan Waxman), Hulot’s and the recently closed Bud’s in New York City, and of Jams in London, has just opened his own new place called Mel’s Restaurant & Bar in Bridgehampton, N.Y. The menu, Master reports, offers “the sort of stuff we all like to eat,” including grilled fish, hamburgers, crispy duck with plum sauce, individual pizzas, and chicken with chips (i.e., French fries). What Master, who is also a wine importer, calls “sort of summary wines and fabulous cocktails” are featured as well. As for persistent rumors that he is about to open another restaurant in New York City, too, Master says, “At the moment, I feel a bit beat up by New York, and I certainly don’t want to suddenly start opening more places right and left. I want to get Mel’s going first. Then, when everything’s running smoothly, I might do something really wacky and open in some place like Palm Beach . . . or I might do something in New York City after all.”

DINER’S DATE BOOK: Chef Roland Gibert prepares a five-course dinner Tuesday at Califia, in the Radisson Plaza Hotel in Manhattan Beach to accompany five wines from the Raymond winery. The $60-per-person price tag includes tax and tip, and festivities begin at 7 p.m. . . . Alternatively, for $45, on the same date, you could sample a four-course menu with four wines from Groth at Roger’s Marina Cafe in Marina del Rey. . . . If your tastes are a bit more basic, you might want to consider the Anaheim Hilton and Towers’ second annual Pasta Cook-Off, Wednesday at 11 a.m. in the hotel’s Pavia Restaurant. Celebrity pasta chefs will include Tommy Lasorda, Yogi Berra, Joseph Campanella, Vince Ferragamo, Lou Ferrigno and Annette Funicello, among others.