Goodby L.A. Ole; Hello Atlas

Mario Tamayo, co-founder of the once super-hot Cha Cha Cha in far southeastern Hollywood and also of Cafe Mambo nearby, has a new, large-scale project in the works: By mid-October, he will open the Atlas Bar & Grill, where L.A. Ole now stands in the Wilshire District’s ornate Pellissier Building--better known as the Wiltern. (L.A. Ole remains open, doing business as usual, through Aug. 29.)

Tamayo says that the Atlas, which he will run in partnership with the Ratkovich Co., owners of the building and of other renovated landmark properties around Los Angeles (including the soon-to-open Chapman Market not far from the Wiltern), will feature “transcontinental cuisine.” That means, he explains “an eclectic sort of menu, sort of Californian, but with Latin and Asian flavors.” Victoria Granof, formerly in the kitchen at Trumps, among other restaurants, will be executive chef. Designer Ron Meyer is doing the interior.

Though the Atlas will be primarily a restaurant, Tamayo adds, he also plans to present music and comedy performances on an occasional basis.

“In Los Angeles,” he says, “going out to dinner is the whole evening to most people, and most people don’t go to clubs afterwards--so I thought I would add that element of entertainment here. I want to make the Atlas a really fun sort of venue, with a bit of wit to it--not a place that will take itself too seriously.”

Meanwhile, says Tamayo, who gave up operation of Cha Cha Cha by court order after a dispute with his one-time partner, chef Toribio Prado, he will continue running Cafe Mambo and his clothing store, Modern Objects. “I own and operate both of them,” he says. “I also own but don’t operate Cha Cha Cha, and I’m not sure what will happen there. We are still in litigation.”

VIKING FAREWELL?: Another of L.A.’s old classic restaurants, Scandia on Sunset Strip, has closed--at least temporarily. The venerable Danish/Continental establishment, once one of the best restaurants in town, has locked its doors and left a message on its phone machine saying that it will reopen after Labor Day. Sources in the industry, however, say magazine publisher, Robert Petersen, plans to sell the restaurant he’s owned for more than a decade. More conservative Scandia watchers say the restaurant, at the very least, will undergo a substantial management change.

CLAWS: “Lobster is never really cheap,” says Hans Rockenwagner, proprietor of Rockenwagner’s in Venice, “but it is most reasonable at this time of year.” With that in mind, Rockenwagner is now offering, in addition to the regular menu, a small menu devoted exclusively to lobster dishes. Among the items served are lobster lasagna with a “checkerboard” of pasta, and lobster salad with avocado, home-cured tomatoes and spicy walnuts. The lobster menu will crawl, er, run until early September at least . . . Meanwhile, also in celebration of the current seasonal plentitude of lobster, the Bistrot Terrasse at Le Meridien hotel in Newport Beach presents a weekly Maine Lobster Cookout every Sunday from 4:30 p.m. The cost is $22 per person, including a grilled one-and-a-half pound lobster, Caesar salad, baked potato and corn on the cob.

HOT STUFF: If you’re a spur-of-the-moment kind of chili fan, you’ll probably want to head right over to the Perkins Palace parking lot in Old Town Pasadena for the Pasadena Chili Cook-Off and Antique Car Show ‘89--held today from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Among the participants will be such restaurants as Roxxi, the Rose City Diner, the Crocodile Cafe and Johnny Reb’s, plus the Pasadena Fire Department, Bristol Farms markets and chili expert Layne Wootten. Tickets are $7 each, with proceeds going to the Guadalupe Home for Boys. . . .

FOR THE RECORD: The UCLA Extension Division of Culinary Arts Open House, to be held next Saturday, the 26th, begins at 10 a.m., not 10 p.m. as noted in this column last Sunday. Call (213) 206-8120 for details.