<i> Victor Hugo’s Redux : </i>

In her books about her early life, M.F.K. Fisher talks about her parents dressing up and going out to The Victor Hugo to eat. It was obviously a big and very grown-up restaurant. It was, in fact, a downtown landmark until it moved to Beverly Hills in 1934 and ultimately closed.

A few years ago, Max au Triangle opened on the site of the old Victor Hugo. That, unfortunately, closed, too. Now there’s a new restaurant on the same site. It’s called . . . Victor Hugo’s, and it’s at 235 N. Beverly Drive, (213) 858-7292.

It’s hard to imagine that this contemporary room, done in white and dominated by a huge glassed-in kitchen, has much in common with an old-line Los Angeles restaurant. In fact, with its sleek and comfortable chairs, its lack of windows and its zinc-topped bar, this looks like a restaurant that belongs in modern mid-town Manhattan.

There’s nothing old-fashioned about the menu, either. You have here a trendy selection of appetizers such as mussels stuffed with goat cheese in a roasted pepper vinaigrette, grilled Japanese eggplant in a coulis of yellow tomatoes with mozzarella (the mozzarella was missing when I tasted the dish), salads, pastas and entrees such as grilled Norwegian salmon.

While this Victor Hugo’s may not resemble the old one, it is, in its own way, a big and very grown-up restaurant.