Bon Appetit and a Little Night Music : The Westwood restaurant’s addition of contemporary jazz/fusion in the evening is drawing a solid clientele

David Gimpel isn’t big on sitting still.

During a recent conversation in his office above the Bon Appetit restaurant in Westwood, Gimpel was a man in motion, shifting from a straight-back, tennis-shoed-feet-on-the-floor pose to a slouch with his legs spinning a nearby swivel chair. Occasionally he plopped his elbow on his desk and rested his head in his hand.

Gimpel’s demeanor mirrors his business life. “I need growth, I need

challenges,” the 30-year-old co-owner of Bon Appetit said.

And the Westside restaurant may do the trick. Bon Appetit sports a strong lunch crowd and a solid clientele in the evening for the contemporary jazz/fusion that Gimpel offers.

The restaurant, which Gimpel’s father opened in 1977 (on the heels of the first Bon Appetit, which the senior Gimpel started in Beverly Hills in 1973), was simply an eatery until 1984. And although the lunch trade was always good, not too many folks thought of the establishment as a dinner house.

“Many nights, we’d close at 9 p.m.,” David Gimpel said.

So, five years ago last January, he brought in the music on Friday and Saturday.

“I liked the idea of entertainment,” he said. “I knew that Westwood needed something different and that we needed to be competitive. The original intention was to be a cabaret, but I found I really didn’t care for singers.

“One of the early backup bands was led by a keyboard player named Gregg Karukas, whose little trio was a lot better than the vocalists he was backing,” Gimpel said. “I asked Gregg to come in just with his band, no singers, and we found it was a lot easier to work with. I didn’t have to be constantly manning the sound system and so on. And people really enjoyed it. So that was where I discovered contemporary jazz.”

In about a year and a half, the music scene at Bon Appetit eventually grew to seven nights a week, and Gimpel was booking many of the acts he now regularly features: guitarist Pat Kelley, the San Diego-based Fattburger, saxman Brandon Fields, drummer Alphonse Mouzon and Karukas. But it was in January, 1987, when Gimpel instigated a series of live-from-the-club broadcasts on KKGO-FM (105.1) that Bon Appetit really got on the map.

“Larry Carlton was our first act” on the broadcasts “and from the moment the first commercial aired advertising him, the phone didn’t stop ringing.”

Gimpel, who said he’s not the “greatest mainstream fan,” believes that jazz/pop fusion is the genre with which he and his customers are most comfortable. “We don’t go too far out,” said the man who also operates Nova Records, a contemporary jazz line with 29 releases, out of his offices at Bon Appetit.

“We favor a sort-of Kenny G-ish pop fusion sound, sometimes a little on the funk/R&B; side, but we shy away from real intense fusion. I like good original music that spotlights melody. I want to hear the musicians’ creative spark, feature them as composer, as artist, rather than as a player, so we don’t have people come in who just play cover versions of jazz/pop standards. We feature original music, the same kind of music I record on my label.”

Like most club operators, Gimpel receives a slew of demo tapes from hopefuls looking for a spot on his schedule. He gives them all a listen, though that listen may be as short as 10 seconds if it’s a shoddy offering. “When a group is ready to walk out into the marketplace, it should do it professionally, like with a nice demo tape, not a live tape recorded off a club gig,” he advised. “I get a lot of garage tapes with terrible sound quality.”

Bon Appetit serves continental cuisine from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m., and has had the same chef, Jose Martinez, for nine years. The entrees include poached king salmon with saffron sauce, fettuccine with grilled chicken and basil pesto, and Guatemalan-style chicken breast cooked in a spicy tomatillo/cilantro sauce. These are priced between $13 and $15. Early evening dinners, served from 5 to 7 p.m., are $7.95. There is also a wide array of meat and fowl dishes, pastas and salads. Cover charges vary from $5 to $12, depending on the group and the night.

After his talk with a visitor, Gimpel went downstairs to make sure that everything was going smoothly for the evening’s performer, guitarist Norman Brown. Around the room, which seats 80, about half the tables were occupied.

As Brown started playing his jazz/funk originals such as “Sweet Taste” and “Just for Fun,” Gimpel made adjustments with the sound system and then stood back, arms folded across his chest, and listened. As Brown held forth, more people arrived and others stopped outside the club and checked out Brown and his cohorts through the windows, which open onto the sidewalk.

Satisfied that things were going well, Gimpel chatted for a few minutes with friends, then walked down Broxton Avenue to his car. He’d been at the club since 8 a.m., and it was now past 10 p.m., and he was tired.

“I did get a nap in though, since I live right near here,” he said laughing. “Though I’m not always around at night, I do spend a lot of time here. But that may change soon. I’m moving from Westwood to West Hollywood. I just had to get farther away from the club so I wouldn’t be tempted to come back here to take care of things, like if a musician left something behind and wanted me to open up at 2 a.m., which I’d usually do. This way maybe I can separate myself a little bit, but the trouble is my new place will be too far away for me to go home and grab that nap.”