Fennel Owners Considering a <i> Brasseria</i>

There have been rumors recently that Fennel, the popular new Santa Monica French restaurant at which a quartet of top chef-restaurateurs from France share cooking chores on an alternating basis, plans to clone itself.

That’s not quite true, says Fennel proprietor Mauro Vincente (who also runs Pazzia on La Cienega and Rex Il Ristorante downtown). But he admits that he and his French associates are investigating the possibility of spinning off from Fennel “a kind of brasseria “ -- an Italian-French brasserie.

“The idea,” he says, “would be to have a casual, less expensive place, with Italian chefs doing pizza and pastas and French chefs, the same ones involved with Fennel, doing meat and fish. We are considering several possible locations in Santa Monica--but the project is probably a year or two off.”

EXPENSE ACCOUNTING: About this time four years ago, the Reagan Administration, as a part of its massive tax reform program, proposed to limit business meal deductions to $15 per person for lunch and $25 per person for dinner, plus 50% of the amount over that figure. The American restaurant industry was vehemently opposed to the measure, predicting that it would force scores if not hundreds of upscale eating places out of business.

At the time, I asked half a dozen prominent L.A.-area restaurateurs with substantial expense-account clienteles--Patrick Terrail of the since-closed original Ma Maison, Tony Bill of 72 Market Street, Jimmy Murphy of Jimmy’s, Wolfgang Puck of Spago and Chinois on Main, Piero Selvaggio of Valentino and Michael McCarty of Michael’s--how they thought the measure would affect them.

As it happens, the $15/$25 formula did not become law, but a measure limiting business meal deductions to 80% of the amount actually spent did , as of 1987. In honor of the tax season we just squeaked out of, I asked those same six operators how the limitation had in fact affected them. Here are excerpts from their comments four years ago, together with their replies today:

Piero Selvaggio, Valentino: (THEN) I personally don’t think the tax proposal will pass . . . but if it does, we’ll get used to it. It won’t have any real effect in the long run. (NOW) I may have been wrong about the measure passing, but I was right about it not having any real effect. Maybe there’s a little more awareness of cost, a feeling of being a little bit careful about spending on a certain bottle of wine, but people who want to entertain still entertain--and if they can get away with charging it to business somehow, they will.

Michael McCarty, Michael’s: (THEN) “Expletive deleted! Expletive deleted! I think the whole idea is terrible . . . It’s going to hurt a whole lot of restaurants . . . I don’t want to sound like a crybaby, but if the proposal passes, I’d have to seriously consider whether we could continue to do business as we do now. (NOW) I can’t imagine anybody in the restaurant business telling you with a straight face that business is great today--but whether it’s the business-meal deductions or the Wall Street crash or new health habits or just the fact that a lot of our old customers are having children and staying home more, I don’t know. I’m sure the deduction limits have had an effect, but it’s not as drastic as I had feared. But if you ask me, food and wine should always be deducted, just like the mortgage! It ought to be an American right!

Jimmy Murphy, Jimmy’s: (THEN) I hope it won’t go through . . . (A) lot of jobs are created through business meals in restaurants like ours. (But) I’m sure people will find ways around it if it does pass. (NOW) I don’t think the limitation has affected us. Our business has been steady. It doesn’t seem to have had a noticeable effect.

Tony Bill, 72 Market Street: (THEN) The (proposed) limits seem in line with the average checks at my restaurant. (But the measure would) put a severe cramp in my style when I go to other restaurants. (NOW) I haven’t noticed any effects at all. Life goes on, without missing much of a beat.

Patrick Terrail (formerly Ma Maison, now food and beverage manager for the recently opened Ma Maison Sofitel Hotel and director of a new version of Ma Maison immediately adjacent to it): (THEN) I don’t feel either way about the proposal, really, (though) some other, more expensive restaurants . . . are going to get hurt. (NOW) (My restaurant is) too new at this point to be able to have any standards of comparison over the past few years. But I’ll tell you something interesting: If you called half a dozen of my customers at random and asked them what the deduction limits were, I’ll bet most of them wouldn’t even know. I’ll bet most of them have forgotten all about it.

Wolfgang Puck, Spago; Chinois on Main: (THEN) At the beginning, I think people will complain a lot, but they’ll adapt . . . They’ll still go out. (NOW) I haven’t noticed any effects of the limitation at all. We had the best year we’ve ever had in 1988. I think these limits are something people just learn to live with. You know, gas prices keep going up, and still you drive. No matter how expensive gas is, people don’t want to car-pool.

A SNOOTFUL OF BLUE: Forget cigarette smoke, overzealously applied perfume, and the odor of burnt food. There’s a new old factory menace showing up in restaurants today--glass cleaner. I mean that usually-blue, usually-ammoniated liquid that always seems to get squirted onto the glass-topped table next to you just about the time your swordfish arrives. The odor of the stuff is all-pervasive. A haze of it can sting your eyes, burn your throat, and leave a nasty metallic taste in your mouth.

By definition, it doesn’t show up at restaurants with tablecloths, but it can appear unexpectedly in some very pricey places--as it did to me recently, for instance, in the middle of an otherwise superb dinner at the ultra-posh Rex Il Ristorante downtown, where the substance was applied not to a glass-topped table but to one of shiny black marble. Maybe restaurateurs don’t realize just how unpleasant a snootful of glass cleaner can be. Well, I’m hereby telling them. Cut it out, you guys. Clean the glass later--or try warm water and mild soap on a soft rag, or maybe a weak vinegar solution. OK? Thank you.

RESTAURANT NEWS: Trumps in West Hollywood hosts a cooking class and wine-tasting event for the California State University, Northridge, extension program on May 7 from noon to 3:30 p.m. The recipes of Trumps’ executive chef Michael Roberts and the sparkling wines of Scharffenberger Cellars will be featured. Cost is $65 per person. Call (818) 885-2644 for details. . . . 1000 Wilshire in Santa Monica spotlights the food and wine of Chile on May 8, with a four-course Chilean banquet priced at $55 a head. Traditional Chilean music and folk dance will also be featured. . . . The El Torito restaurant chain, which began as a single eating place in Southern California but which now numbers some 177 units around the country, celebrates the 35th anniversary of its founding this month. . . . The legendary Sardi’s in New York City has been sold for $15 million to the Atlantic City-based Broadway Holdings Inc.--which reports that it will use the Sardi’s name for a hotel and casino in Atlantic City itself and open spinoff Sardi’s restaurants in several other cities around the United States. . . . And three woman wine makers and two woman wine writers will be the guests of honor at a special $55-a-head dinner at Chez Melange in Redondo Beach, beginning at 7 p.m. on May 23.