Hungry, Perplexed Diners Have a Wait Problem

A reader in Rancho Palos Verdes, who asks that her name not be used, raises once again the question of what to do when reservations aren’t honored on time. She had booked a table for five at Fennel in Santa Monica for 9:15 on a Friday night--a later reservation than she would have liked, but one that she accepted because she was entertaining out-of-town guests who were anxious to try the place. Unfortunately, she continues, the party occupying what was to be her table had arrived late for their own reservations and lingered over coffee--and she and her friends were not seated until 10:10.

“As hosts of our group, what should we have done?” she asks, adding that if it had been just her and her husband, they would have gone next door to eat. (There are four restaurants immediately adjacent to Fennel--Ivy at the Shore, Opera, the Red Sea, and Visconti.) Further, she inquires, “What should the restaurant have done? There appeared (to be) no other tables for groups our size in the restaurant and there were no unoccupied tables near each other. Should the restaurant have collected tables and pushed them together? Should they have insisted that (the lingering party) hurry?”

These questions are not easily answered. In earlier columns on this subject, I’ve advocated that customers made to wait too long for their tables should simply leave, taking their business elsewhere. I probably would have left Fennel myself after 15 or 20 minutes in this case. On the other hand, a good host tries to please his or her guests. If the guests in this case were hell-bent on Fennel, then perhaps the host could have obtained a realistic estimate of when her table would be ready, and then repaired to, say, Opera--which has a long, comfortable, superbly stocked bar, instead of the small, rather perfunctory stand-up one at Fennel--to wait.

As to what the restaurant should have done, the best answer is that--in the best of all possible worlds--it wouldn’t have booked the place so tightly to begin with. It might have deliberately kept a few tables open, even, to accommodate scheduling problems caused by the inevitable lingerers and late arrivals. Since this is a notion that most contemporary American restaurants apparently find unthinkable, Fennel should have tried to put some tables together (if it were physically possible)--or at least bought a bottle of champagne for the waiting party, to help ease the real pain of delay.

CHECKERED OUT: The kitchen at Checkers, the new luxury hotel scheduled to open soon in downtown Los Angeles, under the same ownership as the superb Campton Place in San Francisco, apparently has a revolving door. Only a month ago Elka Gilmore, former chef at Camelions in Santa Monica and chef/co-owner of the now-defunct Tumbleweed in Beverly Hills, was named executive chef of the hostelry. She no longer holds that post. “We just turned out to have a conflict of styles,” says Bill Wilkinson, president of Ayala Hotels, which owns the property. “I’m more conservative than she is. She has established a reputation for herself, and I think she wants to pursue her own projects. She and I just had different expectations.” Gilmore could not be reached for comment. He is currently interviewing for a replacement, Wilkinson adds--but, in the meantime, Bradley Ogden, longtime chef at Campton Place, “will get us open.”

COOKING POT-POURRI: Pascal Vignau, formerly with the Four Seasons Ritz-Carlton in Chicago, and Jean-Pierre Lemanissier, who was the last chef at the original Ma Maison, have been named as executive chef and restaurant chef, respectively, at the Four Seasons Hotel “at Beverly Hills” (as they say--meaning just across the street from Beverly Hills on Doheny). . . . Claudio Marchesan, who was executive chef for both the Spectrum Foods and Il Fornaio restaurant groups, has opened his own trattoria, Pane e Vino, in Santa Barbara. . . . And the wines of Santa Barbara County will be featured exclusively, for a limited time, at the Fish Company (formerly the Famous Enterprise Fish Company) in Santa Monica. Among wineries represented are Au Bon Climat, Sanford, Qupe (not “Quip,’ ” as the restaurant’s publicity has it), Byron, and J. Carey.

ON THE FRONT BURNER: All couples dining at Cafe Cafe in Westwood on Valentine’s Day will be given a free glass of wine and a chance to enter the restaurant’s “Most Romantic Couple” contest. Entrants will be asked to describe “how they met or another romantic aspect of their relationship.” The winning twosome receives a gift certificate good for dinner for two on a return visit. And on the Feb. 21, the same restaurant offers a $9.95-per-person pizza and wine tasting, featuring samples of eight “international” pizzas (Greek, with feta cheese and olives; Thai, with chicken in spicy peanut sauce; and so on) and eight California and Italian wines. . . . El Vez, the Mexican Elvis, performs his burning-love gyrations between rounds of miniature martinis and a passionate array of appetizers and entrees at City Restaurant, Tuesday, when the restaurant hosts the Valentine’s Day Celebratory Benefit for LACE (Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions). Price is $75 per person. Call (213) 938-2155 for information. . . . The American Institute of Wine and Food presents “Celebrations,” a showing of special occasion and holiday dining tabletop designs and menus, by an assortment of top L.A. designers and chefs, on Saturday and Sunday, Feb. 19. The exhibition is open to the public, and tickets are $10 at the door. A benefit preview on Friday, precedes the two-day exhibition. Tickets for this event are $75 apiece for the reception, and either $135 or $150 (depending on the restaurant) for the reception and dinner at one of the 14 top local eateries participating. The special occasions and holidays involved, incidentally, include not only St. Patrick’s Day, New Year’s Eve and such, but also the Feast of Ramadan, a Home Casino Party, and a Cast Party for Oprah Winfrey. Call (213) 473-5324 for more information.