A New Place for the Palisades Crowd

Mike and Kathie Gordon, proprietors of Trattoria Toscana in Brentwood, who recently opened a separate take-home facility near their restaurant called Rosti, now have yet another new enterprise: They have just taken over Lido in Pacific Palisades--which has been called a “social cafeteria for the rich and famous.” They are continuing to run the place under its old name temporarily while making changes in both decor and food.

“We’ve evaluated the Palisades area,” Mike Gordon says, “as a kind of non-urban residential neighborhood, not quite rural, but a good place for a country-style restaurant.” Thus, he says, he is remodeling Lido, adding antiques, “trying to warm the place up.”

The menu--supervised by Toscana executive chef Augustino Sciandri--will be similarly rustic, including such dishes as penne in rabbit sauce, risotto with sausage, ravioli with butter and sage and braised lamb shanks. “We’re aiming for a more relaxed atmosphere than Toscana has,” Gordon continues. “We want it to be the kind of place where Palisades residents can go without having a long wait or getting pushed around.” After the first of the year, he adds, the place will get a new name--Oli Ola ( o li o la could be translated as “here or there”). “The idea,” he explains, “is that people can go to this place or to Toscana.”

GALA FAREWELL: The party held Thursday at the Studio Grill in Hollywood was originally described as a “benefit roast” of the restaurant’s proprietor, Ardison Phillips. Indeed, Phillips was honored and at least toasted if not quite roasted at the event, which featured food from a number of area restaurants, and money was raised for two charity organizations. But the event turned out to be a farewell party as well. After 20 years in business (the restaurant was founded in 1970 by Phillips and the late Jock Livingston, who also opened Ports), the Studio Grill is closing on or about Jan. 6.

Phillips, who has also worked as an artist for at least a quarter of a century, is retiring from the restaurant business to work on his painting--and on his McKeon-Phillips Wine Co. (Susan McKeon is his wife). He has sold wines under that label for some years at the restaurant, but now intends to develop a full-scale winery. In about 4 years, he says, he hopes to have his own facility built in the Santa Maria area. Meanwhile, he will release Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Merlot and Cabernet wines from grapes grown in that region, San Luis Obispo and the Napa Valley. “We’re moving onwards and upwards,” he says.

NEW YORK NOTES, THE SEQUEL: The year is ending on a less than triumphant note for a number of Manhattan’s best-known restaurants: Highly-acclaimed chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten is leaving Lafayette, the upscale eatery in Manhattan’s Swiss-owned Drake Hotel. He plans to open a more casual, less expensive restaurant of his own in the Saatchi and Saatchi Building in the Printer’s Row district downtown. . . . After taking a summer-long hiatus and then reopening for about two months, Karen Hubert and Len Allison have closed their noted Huberts--which opened 15 years ago in Brooklyn, moved to Gramercy Park, and then, 3 years ago, tried to translate its creative American cooking to a posh Adam Tihany-designed Upper East Side location. Lack of business due to the sluggish economy was blamed for the closing. . . . The once super-hot 150 Wooster has also closed--and Women’s Wear Daily recently published an eloquent if rather naughty photographic comment on another new trenderia, Punsch: The shot, which WWD reported was taken at 9 p.m. on a Wednesday evening, showed two, count ‘em, two, customers in the entire restaurant (and, boy, I’ll bet those customers felt silly). . . . The famed theatrical restaurant Sardi’s, which was closed by its investors in July, has been subtly renovated and has reopened under the temporary court-appointed stewardship of its former proprietor, 70-year-old Vincent Sardi himself. Theoretically, Sardi is running the place only until it can be sold--but he has told reporters that he hopes to be able to put together a deal to buy it back himself. . . . And then there’s Gerard Pangaud, who once owned his own two-star restaurant in Paris, came to New York to open Aurora for Joe Baum, and went on to lend his name to two successive other establishments--Gerard’s Place and Pangaud’s--both of which quickly failed. As I reported in this space in November, after the latter closing, Pangaud announced that he was going back to France. At the last minute, he changed his mind and instead signed on as chef at one of this month’s 150 Woosters, the new Le Comptoir. He should have left town. Reviewing the restaurant several weeks ago in the New York Times, critic Marian Burros (who is temporarily substituting for Bryan Miller while he recovers from surgery) gave the place a “poor” rating, having encountered there, among other things, a “duck pate in puff pastry (that) tasted like meat loaf,” a sausage “encased in brioche dough with so much sugar it tasted like Hawaiian sweet bread,” and an unintentionally cold veal roast. And, she noted, “the most exciting thing about the choucroute, a special one evening, was the mustard that accompanied it.” Pangaud quit the day the review appeared.

YOU’RE THE TAPAS: Fino in Torrance has instituted a tapas night every Monday. As usual in America, the word “tapas” is used freely here, and though there are certainly some authentic Spanish-style tapas offered (for instance, tortilla Espanol , sardines, and mussels en escabeche ), the menu also includes such non-Iberiana as arugula with walnuts, salmon with saffron sauce and baked goat cheese on bruschetta. What is authentic here, though, are the prices--$1.50 to $4 (with only two dishes, both involving shrimp, at the latter price). This pricing, at least, preserves the true tapas spirit better than do several other tapas menus around town, where each item costs $5-$10--which isn’t tapas territory at all.

HERE’S COOKIN’ FOR YOU, KID: Fama in Santa Monica may well be the only upscale, contemporary Westside restaurant with a “Kid’s Menu.” Macaroni and cheese with peas ($4) and twisty noodles with meatballs and tomato sauce ($4.50) are among the offerings. Infant specialties (pureed carrots or potatoes, for example) are also available, and the kitchen will happily warm up bottles of formula upon request. Fama also provides highchairs, booster seats, crayons and colored pipe-cleaners for its younger guests--and, adds Fama co-owner Mary Rockenwagner, “the upside of having a slightly noisy restaurant is that the other customers don’t notice too much when someone’s baby squawks”. . . . And the Oaks on the Plaza restaurant at Pasadena’s Doubletree Hotel now sets up a special Sunday brunch buffet table for children in addition to the usual grown-up selection. Everything from baby food in jars to peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwiches and fried chicken fingers is offered. The price is $9.95 for children between the ages of 5 and 12, with children under 5 admitted for free.