Splichal to Take Takeout to the Limit

More than one local restaurateur has been heard complaining lately about how much all those new upscale takeout operations around town have cut into their business. At least one star of the L.A. restaurant scene, though, has decided to get into the takeout game himself--Joachim Splichal of the top-rated Patina in Hollywood.

“People call us all the time asking for takeout--movie studios that say, ‘We’re on stage, can you do lunch for 20 quick?’ and things like that.

“We’re really not set up for it right now. So I decided we should open a small, exclusive takeout operation separately from the restaurant, but somewhere near. We’re looking for a location right now, and hope to have it ready before next year’s summer season. We’ll do all kinds of boxes--Hollywood Bowl, picnic, lunch, childrens’ lunch, whatever. We’ll even do in-flight meals for private jets. And we’ll have a wine shop at the same place, with very special selections. So many of our customers at Patina are real wine lovers that it should be easy to market the wine shop here.”

EATING MUSHROOMS: La Toque on the Sunset Strip celebrates its 11th anniversary starting tomorrow with a special “Mushroom Week,” through next Saturday. “It seems to be a pretty good mushroom season this year,” says La Toque owner/chef Ken Frank, “and we’ll be serving at least 10 varieties of wild mushrooms nightly.” And he’s talking about real wild mushrooms--cepes, cauliflower mushrooms, bear’s heads, chanterelles, and such--not cultivated “wild” ones like shiitakes and enokis. The four-course menu is $36 per person--”with an optional upgrade available for white truffles,” Frank adds.

ON THE CIRCUIT: The Santa Monica Bay chapter of the California Restaurant Assn. holds its 10th annual “Taste of the Bay” (an unfortunate name considering what’s floating around out there Monday at the Miramar Sheraton Hotel in Santa Monica. The Brentwood Bar & Grill, Knoll’s Black Forest Inn, Orleans and Jacopo’s are among the restaurants scheduled to participate. Proceeds benefit the Children’s Home Society of California, FAITH and Family Services of Santa Monica, and tickets are $25 each. . . . Hans Rockenwagner of Rockenwagner’s and Fama, Ken Frank of La Toque and Jody Denton of Eureka are among the Southern California chefs and restaurateurs who will participate in an oyster-shucking contest at Ocean Avenue Seafood in Santa Monica on Wednesday from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. Admission is $10 per person and includes oysters, beer and wine, with proceeds going to Heal the Bay.

DIALING FOR DINERS: One of the great luxuries of dining out in many of L.A.’s old-school restaurants used to be that, upon request, a telephone would be brought to your booth, plugged into a handy phone jack, and left there for your convenience--often without the calls you made (assuming they were local) even being charged to your bill. This practice has almost completely died out, of course. Hardly any restaurant has booths anymore--and with noise levels as they are in most places today, who could hear to talk on the phone anyway? Besides, anybody who wants to talk on the telephone during dinner these days probably has a cordless phone, and probably can’t wait to show it off. This said, it must now be reported that the Green Street Restaurant in Pasadena has just instituted a “request a phone” service. But it’s not like the old days. A cordless phone is brought to your table upon request, with billing for the calls you make calculated by a computer and added to your bill.

THE STRANGER: Jacques P. Camus has resigned as vice president and managing director of the Westwood Marquis Hotel and Gardens. In his 10-plus years with the establishment, Camus helped turn the hotel’s Dynasty Room into a serious restaurant, and became well-known in the local restaurant community for his hospitality to visiting chefs and his support of Meals on Wheels and other such organizations. The official announcement of his departure says that Camus will remain connected with the hotel as an outside public relations man and consultant, and that his resignation takes effect November 30th. However, a call to his office on October 27th (“Mr. Ca . . ., Executive Offices”) revealed that he would “be out of town for the next month.” Camus himself says that his continued relationship with the Westwood Marquis is “possible, probable, debatable,” and that he is taking some time off to consider possible future activities. “It could be a hotel, it could be PR,” he says, “but in any case I will certainly stay in L.A.”