Dinner at 8 in a Grand (Avenue) Hotel

Checkers, 535 S. Grand Ave., Los Angeles, (213) 624-0000, is so new that when you ask where the restrooms are they hand you the key to one of the hotel rooms upstairs: the restaurant’s restrooms are not quite completed.

For the most part, however, the restaurant at Checkers feels as if it has been here for a while. The room itself has a staid and settled feeling, very reminiscent of that of its sister hotel, San Francisco’s Campton Place. The menu is reminiscent of Campton Place’s too, if only because it does not seem to offer typical hotel fare.

For starters there are appetizers such as a roasted onion with an aioli made of pinenuts, or seviche of

scallops with bits of orange and chile resting on a sort of spaghetti made of cucumbers. There is a Caesar salad that is heavy on the garlic and the anchovies. Entrees include grilled salmon with walnuts and asparagus, saltimboca of rabbit with morels, a simple grilled chicken, loin of lamb. The dessert list, which is long and enticing, includes strawberry shortcake, devil’s food cake and tapioca brulee. Prices, given that this is a luxury hotel, are not excessive; appetizers start at $4, entrees are mostly in the mid-teens and desserts average $5.

It’s still early, but probably not too soon to say that this is a welcome addition to downtown dining.