Eclectic Menu Shines at Holly Street Bar

Star-hunting diners who prowl the Westside, haunt Spago and the Beverly Hills Hotel’s Polo Lounge are skipping what may be a prime spot for celebrity viewing--Pasadena. The last time I ate at the Holly Street Bar and Grill over there, I just missed Robert Stack. Stack was filming at City Hall, which is a short walk down Holly Street, and he’d also been in the previous week.

Shortly before that, Michael Landon took over the restaurant itself for a morning shoot. The room was darkened to create the illusion of night, but the food on the tables was no illusion. It was chosen from the menu and produced in the restaurant kitchen. (If you want to eat like an actor, order the angel hair pasta with tomato, basil and garlic; the ravioli stuffed with chicken and spinach; the grilled filet mignon with black pepper; the fresh salmon with tomato coulis; the grilled swordfish steak, or the grilled chicken marinated with rosemary and garlic.)

Or just ask for what may be the best dish here--Anne’s tabbouleh. Anne Nassif owns the Holly Street Bar and Grill. Her antecedents are Lebanese, and she knows what she’s doing when she mixes this healthful bulgur wheat-based salad. It has good lemony flavor, and it’s nicely served on a bed of lettuce garnished with olives and cubes of feta cheese.

There’s an unctuous, albeit plain, black bean soup that will set things right on a cold day. And the lamb chops offered one night could only be described as superb. That means they were cooked to the proper rosy hue and well-seasoned with feta, basil and lots of garlic. The chops aren’t on the regular menu, but they ought to be.

Speaking of garlic, the fettuccine Alfredo here contains as much of the redolent bulb as Alfredo might have used in a week. Garlic fans, obviously, will adore it. It’s an unconventional version, incorporating mushrooms and pine nuts along with cream and cheese. Another attention-worthy pasta combines angel hair with shrimp, chorizo, tomato and black beans. The chicken-stuffed ravioli are pretty, scalloped circles overlapped on a bed of tomato sauce. Sorry to say that the linguine with seafood was dry and somewhat pasty, not the equal of the others.

The eclectic menu includes, of all things, a taco of the day. Sometimes there is beef satay with peanut sauce, and always there is pizza. The taco du jour (lunch only) is a trendy thing made with blue corn tortillas. The filling I had was grilled yellowtail. On other days it might be beef, chicken or a combination of fresh vegetables. The up-to-date quesadilla is stuffed with smoked Gouda, pancetta and green chiles and comes with salsa, guacamole and marinated cucumbers.

There is plenty of food for traditionalists--hamburgers and club sandwiches at lunch, char-broiled New York steak, grilled chicken and beef rib eye at dinner. Desserts are not this restaurant’s strong point. Creme brulee and bread pudding are the only two made there. The former came to disaster one day when the staff, anxious to please, tried to make it to order and I wound up with warm custard soup.

The Holly Street Bar and Grill has a reputation apart from its food. Pasadenans like to startle their friends by revealing that the building was once a mortuary. If it’s any comfort, the dining room was the garage; the patio where mourners met after services is now a charming outdoor dining area, and the one-time church is occupied by other businesses.

The restaurant is pleasantly contemporary, an expanse of cool gray with peach accents. The walls hold a changing art exhibit, and there is a varying program of live music nightly. The Nassifs--Anne, her daughter Alexis, and husband Sabin--circulate busily and sons Chrisopher and Paul also help keep an eye on things. The chef changed recently, but the menu remains the same, and the restaurant seems to draw a steady, satisfied crowd.

Holly Street Bar and Grill, 175 E. Holly St., Pasadena; (818) 440-1421. Open Monday through Thursday from 11 a.m. to midnight; Friday to 2 a.m.; Saturday 9 a.m. to 2 a.m.; Sunday 9 a.m. to midnight. Reservations advised. Takes all major credit cards. Valet parking. Dinner entrees $10.25 up, lunch entrees $7.50 up.