Pasta, Pizza With a French Accent

Not long ago, Le Bilboquet, 133 N. La Cienega Blvd., Los Angeles, (213) 652-7060, was an Italian restaurant called Bice Pomodoro. But Bice Pomodoro was not a success--though the dining room did have a swell tomato-happy look conceived by Adam Tihany ( pomodoro means tomato in Italian).

The Bice corporation seems to have decided that if Italian pasta and pizza didn’t work, maybe French pasta and pizza will. Now Alain Hasson, former maitre d’ at the attitude-heavy Mr. Chow in Beverly Hills, is running the show, and you hear a lot of French accents.

Where Bice Pomodoro served Parmesan, Le Bilboquet gives you marinated goat cheese. A Bandol red wine sauce goes on beef medallions, salads are made with mesclun, and lavender perfumes the lamb loin (Pomodoro might have used rosemary). The pizzas have Frenched-up names (La Riviera, Cote D’Azur), and there’s even pissaladiere , though it’s mucked up with roasted peppers. One non-French touch: The wine list is short and uninteresting, even for a new restaurant.

Not everything has changed. The same basic Adam Tihany design remains, but the tomatoes are gone--except on the old tomato-design plates Pomodoro used. And service is still in the confused new-restaurant state that Pomodoro never seemed to shake.

But the Bice management must be pleased that a Euro-trendy crowd has already discovered the week-old place. One guy attempted to amuse his date by playing mumbletypeg . . . with a butter knife. More conventional entertainment is offered in the form of live jazz music. Twenty years ago you might have gotten an earful from a wandering violinist in a fancy French restaurant. At Le Bilboquet, there’s a wandering sax man.