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A Mediterranean Village in Malibu?

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Lots of L.A. restaurateurs build new restaurants or expand their existing structures--but at least one plans to surround his establishment with an entire village. He is Daniel Forge, owner, with his wife Luciana, of Beau Rivage in Malibu. Ten years ago, says Forge, when he first bought his five-and-a-half-acre Pacific Coast Highway property at Corral Canyon, he planned to tear down the existing cafe on the site and build an elaborate new restaurant, complete with ocean-view banquet rooms. Practical considerations made this impossible, though, and he decided to remodel and slightly expand the cafe and open as soon as possible--which he did in 1981.

Now, Forge reports, he is ready to go ahead with an ambitious new two-part plan for improving the property. Phase one, he says, is to build a small addition onto Beau Rivage itself, housing a new bar and new restrooms. At the same time, he will install a full-scale wine cellar beneath the building. He plans to start work on the additions immediately after the holidays. Next summer, though, he will begin construction on what he describes as “a little Mediterranean village” next door to the restaurant. This will include about 20 shops, a cafe with simple food (“maybe a Mediterranean-style rotisserie,” he suggests), perhaps serving only breakfast and lunch, and an eight- or 10-room all-suite bed-and-breakfast-style hotel--about 20,000 square feet of building space altogether, he says, complete with a large plaza with a fountain in the middle. “I have all the permits, even from the Coastal Commission,” Forge adds. “It will take at least a year to complete, probably longer. It’s going to be very complex--not like a shopping center at all, but really like a European village, with towers, balconies, different colors, different kinds of roofs. We want to give it a real flavor of the Mediterranean.”

Meanwhile, it might be noted, Forge has introduced a new “Mediterranean Light” menu to Beau Rivage, featuring such low-fat, low-cholesterol items as eggplant terrine, fava bean soup, lamb Cypriot, and chicken cous-cous.

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HOLIDAY FEASTS: Surely one of the more unusual holiday dinners this year is the Indian Hanukkah feast to be served at Akbar Cuisine of India in Encino Dec. 24-26. Although there is a small Jewish community in India, the dishes offered by Akbar will not reflect that group’s cooking. Instead, says restaurant proprietor Anil Kapoor, his chefs will prepare standard American Jewish specialties in the Indian style. For instance, chicken livers cooked in the tandoor oven and then chopped; brisket of beef oven-roasted with Indian spices; pound cake topped with homemade mango ice cream. The entire five-course meal, including kosher wine, will cost $29.95 per person. . . . Magdalena’s in Bellflower presents its first Christmas Extravaganza on Tuesday, featuring a five-course meal with both French and Californian wines, plus a recital by the California Men’s Chorale. The event begins at 6:30 p.m. and costs $75 per person. . . . There’ll be a different sort of Asian accent at Trumps in West Hollywood New Year’s Eve, with a “Ginza/LA” party featuring an elegant Japanese/Chinese menu and Tokyo-style decorations. The tariff is $110 per person, not including tax, tip (an obligatory 18% service charge), or beverages. . . . The Rangoon Racquet Club in Beverly Hills, which traditionally offers Scandinavian-themed Christmas and New Year’s Eve dinners switches allegiance this year from Denmark and Sweden to their neighbor, Finland. In conjunction with Finnair, the restaurant will offer Finnish specialties, including gratinoituja simpukoita, kukon rintaa, and pohjoisen joulopudinki for Christmas and savusettu hirvi, hasselpahkinapihvi, and tayterry lampaana kyljys at year’s end--and, no, that’s not easy for me to say. Christmas dinner is $55 per person, New Year’s Eve $150. . . . And St. Mark’s in Venice plans to keep the festivities going on as long as possible on New Year’s Eve: After an eight-course banquet (including oysters, grilled Dover sole, traditional boudin blanc with black-eyed peas, among other dishes and Perrier-Jouet Champagne), guests will be served onion soup gratinee at 2 a.m.--and warm croissants and other pastries with coffee, tea, or cocoa at 3 a.m. A live R&B; band will perform. Seats are $150 per person. (An earlier six-course meal will also be served at 7 p.m. for $85 a head.)

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