Just Take the London Bus to Chez Jay II

Restaurateur Jay Fiondella’s longtime dream of sailing his 65-foot pirate ship in the South Seas may have ended when the homemade vessel fell off a boat-hauling trailer and capsized on Culver Boulevard recently, but the man who once financed the search for the sunken Andrea Doria’s booty still has a few flamboyant schemes in the works.

This spring, his Santa Monica bar/eatery, Chez Jay, moves from the little tropics-look building on Ocean Avenue that it has has occupied for about 30 years (the property is owned by the neighboring Rand Corp., which needs the room to expand) to a new building slightly to the south. The original establishment will remain open for business as usual until the move . . . literally. On the evening that Chez Jay II is ready for opening, owner Jay Fiondella plans to welcome diners to the old restaurant and take their orders. Then he’ll load them into a rented double-decker London-style bus for the short trip to the new premises--where their dinners will be served.

REYNALDO McDONALD: This column noted not long ago that McDonald’s was testing pizzas at some units in Indiana and Kentucky. Now, according to the Wall Street Journal, the mega-chain plans to introduce McPizza to all 8,000-plus U.S. McDonald’s. But don’t throw away Domino’s phone number quite yet: The pizza roll-out will take from one to three years. . . . And, meanwhile, even as the McRib sandwich makes a reappearance at McDonald’s all over the country, four chain outposts in Jacksonville, N.C., are testing yet another new product--a Carolina BBQ sandwich.

ROCKIN’ FUNGUS: Rockenwagner in Venice, noted for its special menus based on seasonal products, celebrates mushroom season with five or six added dishes nightly--for instance, home-cured gravlax with porcini and extra virgin olive oil, mushroom mousse with truffle vinaigrette and mache salad; and mixed wild mushrooms with ricotta-filled ravioli and chive sauce. Rockenwagner has also recently instituted a nightly four-course prix fixe dinner for $35 a head.

TALKING TURKEY: This column doesn’t usually mention Thanksgiving activities--on the grounds that probably every restaurant in town either plans a special dinner for the occasion or will close for the day. But this item deserves special mention: Lawry’s the Prime Rib will feature a full-blown turkey dinner this Thanksgiving Day, marking the first time the landmark restaurant has offered the bird since 1944. At that time, due to wartime meat rationing, Lawry’s was restricted to serving prime rib only once a month . . . and served turkey on other nights.

AND NOW, LE PETIT SPAGO: Remember that modest Italian restaurant in London we reported about some time ago called Spago? (No relation, of course, to our own illustrious restaurant of the same name.) Now a colleague writes from Reims, the capital of the French Champagne country, to tell me of another Spago there--a fast-food pizza and pasta place, in this case. Among the specials are a Salade Spago, with tuna, rice, corn, olives, cheese and a dressing of creme fraiche, lemon juice, and vinaigrette; and a Pizza Spago, topped with French-style cream cheese, egg yolks, onions, tarragon and bacon. California Cuisine it ain’t.

TABLE NOTES: Pasadena’s Crown City Brewery--a microbrewery and restaurant--has just introduced Doo Dah Beer, in honor of the community’s annual Doo Dah Parade. . . . The celebration of the bicentennial of the French Revolution originally announced for Nov. 5 at the Culbertson Winery in Temecula, has been postponed until Dec. 3--and Claude Segal of MaBe added to the stellar list of chefs to participate. For more information call (213) 545-5252.