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RESTAURANT REVIEW : Premieres Needs to Iron Out Its Script

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SPECIAL TO THE TIMES

Premieres sits on the northwest corner of Hollywood and Vine. It’s also in the heart of Hollywood’s theater district, which made my playwright friend Henry extremely happy.

“Finally,” he said, “a big restaurant right among all the theaters.”

Premieres, open just more than six weeks, is big; it seems that there is seating for several hundred. But when we walked into the restaurant, the place was nearly empty.

The dining room reminded me of a large train station in Europe; there was a certain bareness. The walls were pale orange; the furniture was gray. No pictures were hung except in the bar.

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I was surprised to find the prices high: Appetizers run from $6.50 to $12 each, entrees from $14 to $24. But as our waiter told us, we were eating in a restaurant with a first-class chef--Gerard Melou, who came from La Serre in Studio City.

“Just wait until this place gets off the ground,” Henry rhapsodized. “Can’t you just see this place filled to capacity with people on their way to see a play . . . my play?”

Our waiter recited the evening’s specials: “Dinners include a vegetable and some form of starch. Oh, and the portions are good. We’re not nouvelle here.” He also advised us to leave room for dessert--the chef brought his pastry chef from La Serre, as well.

When the first courses arrived, I was delighted. The presentation was fetching. There was marinated salmon on mixed greens that were fresh and varied. On a goat cheese and tomato salad, the cheese had been grated in an unusual and appealing pattern. And the waiter was right: Portions were generous.

We dug in and ate in silence for a few minutes.

“Maybe next time I’d get my salmon without the marinade,” Henry said. “Or this kind of salad dressing.”

“At least the ingredients are good,” I said.

“Yeah,” said Henry, his voice trailing off.

When the entrees arrived, we cheered up. The plates were downright gorgeous. One held walloping big hunks of poached salmon partially elevated by small potatoes and arranged in a bright culinary mandala around an artichoke heart filled with pretty red chopped vegetables. On the other were two medallions of filet mignon in contrasting sauces, united by a thick, free-form line of mashed potatoes. “This is as good as some theater right here,” Henry said.

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Then we ate. Show tunes filled the silence. After a few minutes, we exchanged plates. After a few more minutes, we switched back and somewhere in the middle of it all, I realized that we were both steadily engaged in the same activity: scrupulously scraping the sauce off the meat.

“The chef sure likes peppercorns, doesn’t he?” said Henry.

Peppercorns, indeed, were represented to a near overpowering degree in both the salmon and the steak sauces. Only the “white” steak sauce was palatable, in that it was the least assaultive. Also, both fish and steak, handsome cuts as they were, were overcooked.

We had no trouble saving room for dessert. Henry’s creme brulee , while glassy-topped, had not thickened and closely resembled the pool of creme anglaise under my berry tart. Henry’s visions of a theater hangout faded.

Since there was much promise in Premieres’ cooking, I returned. I was happy to discover that the chef doesn’t overcook everything , but the sauces still need work. A feuilette with wild mushrooms and wildly wonderful large scallops was swamped in a dark winey sauce that tasted strongly of something like Marmite. The leek coulis that was supposed to accompany the chicken breast at lunch turned out to be a thick and overly sweet caramel sauce with some shredded leeks in it. The shrimp “Cote d’Azur” consisted of heavenly shrimp in a heavy, curiously pungent red sauce. Some great andouille sausage spiked an otherwise overly rich cream sauce on the Cajun tagliatelle .

During lunch one day, I overheard a woman talking to her date over the feuilette with scallops. “It’s pretty good, isn’t it?” she said. “I think this is a very good restaurant, I eat here a lot.” When the waiter came to take her order, I couldn’t help it, I eavesdropped. I thought that she might know a secret thing or two about the menu that I hadn’t yet discovered. “I’ll have the salmon of the day,” she said. “And tell the cook, please, no sauce.”

Premieres of Hollywood, 1707 Vine Street, Hollywood. (213) 461-6659. Lunch Monday through Saturday 11:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.; dinner 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. Full bar. Valet parking. American Express, MasterCard and Visa. Dinner for two, food only, $55 - $85.

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