Delicatessen Developing Jazz Flavor : Legends offers deli fare and on Friday through Sunday evenings, it adds musical performances to the menu

Legends of Hollywood is a delicatessen, but it doesn’t look much like one.

High up on all four walls, colorful murals depict the early days of California with scenes of Spanish haciendas, conquistadors, missions and their padres. In a front corner, near the cash register, a gentle waterfall cascades down a stone facade, leading to plant-adorned pond populated by several large koi.

Maybe more like a ‘50s Mexican restaurant with an Asian touch than a deli.

And while the eatery has about 15 comfy red Naugahyde booths and a room-length counter with an eye-pleasing curve, owner Bob Marks points out that the place lacks one item that characterizes almost all delis: a display case full of cold cuts, cheeses and the like.

“You know, with that smell of the pastrami and the corned beef, and with the salami hanging down,” says Marks, who has operated the establishment at Whitley Street and Hollywood Boulevard on the Walk of Fame since 1986.

If Legends, as its owner and customers have come to call it, doesn’t seem at first glance to be a deli, it certainly doesn’t look like a jazz club. But, sure enough, Friday through Sunday evenings, when musicians step up to the cozy east window-front bandstand that Marks built last year, that’s what it becomes.

Take a Friday not long ago. Marks, a 40-year-old drummer-singer who has been leading bands since he was 16, was there with his Hollywood Boulevard All-Stars, with Ray Pizzi (reeds), Steve Solomon (keyboards) and Mark Shelby (bass). During the second set, Pizzi used his breathy, expansive sound to fill all the melodic nooks and crannies of “Body and Soul,” then took off on a happy romp through “There Will Never Be Another You,” supported admirably by his band mates.

The scattering of people in the booths and at the counter moved in their seats, invigorated as the musicians segued into “But Beautiful,” for which Marks sang the tender lyric, followed by “Alone Together.”

“The music here is pretty good,” musician Victor Geronimo, 21, said after the set. Geronimo sat with his companion, Cat Coty, a singer and dancer, in a booth near the bandstand. “We come almost every weekend. When I hear jazz, I feel like a fish in water.”

“And the atmosphere is pleasant,” Coty said. “You feel comfortable, like you’re at home.

“And I like watching the people,” she added, nodding toward the street.

Another couple that enjoyed the music was Chris Montez, a guitarist-singer who had several solid-selling records in the ‘60s, and Beverly Monetta, a coordinator for Buena Vista television.

“I came down to see what the players have to say, to get ideas for my vocal approaches,” Montez said. His “Let’s Dance” was No. 4 on the Billboard pop charts in 1962, and in 1966, “Call Me,” “The More I See You” and “There Will Never Be Another You” were 22nd, 16th and 33rd, respectively.

“I really liked Ray Pizzi,” said Monetta.

Pizzi, a veteran Los Angeles-area woodwind artist and Friday night regular since Marks began his music policy in June, 1990, feels the same way about the room. “I love playing on the boulevard,” he said, standing at the back of the club, talking to two friends, trumpeter-pianist Steve Fowler of the Fowler Bros. AirPocket band, and reed artist Vince Denham, who is touring with singer-songwriter Michael McDonald.

“Jazz belongs on the street, in a window. It’s like New York,” he said.

The high-ceilinged one room of Legends gives Pizzi an acoustic charge. “You can play really soft, and the sound spreads,” he said.

Most Fridays and Saturdays, Marks, a native of Philadelphia who moved to Los Angeles when he was 12, spotlights a quartet, featuring such artists as saxophonists Pizzi, Jay Migliori, Alexei Zoubov or Wilbur Brown and pianists Frank Strazzeri, Dwight Dickerson, Tad Weed and Steve Solomon. He’s open an occasional Thursday--”We had standing room only for guitarist Jon-Pall Bjarnason a few weeks ago,” he said--and on Sundays, he presents an all-comers jam session.

At a recent session, the front of the restaurant fairly teemed with musicians, among them trumpeters Jonathan Dane and Tony Gieske, a music critic for the Hollywood Reporter; saxophonists Zoubov and Dennis Berger, and a Japanese guitarist, Ginshi.

The fellows stormed through such standards and jazz classics as “Footprints” and “Green Dolphin Street.”

“The session is a great way to hear different players, and to play,” said Berger, who leads a quartet, with Henry Franklin the usual bassist, Fridays in the Strings lounge of the Holiday Inn Crowne Plaza Hotel near Los Angeles International Airport.

All in all, one can hear a lot of music in a restaurant that Marks once said would never have entertainment. “People kept asking me when I was going to have music,” he said. “I said, ‘Never.’ I know how musicians are. I’ve been in the business 25 years. But then the ‘90s came along, and I changed my mind.”

And he’s glad he did. “It’s beyond my wildest expectations the way everyone, from locals to musicians to the media, are supporting us,” he said.

Marks, who made his professional debut at 12 as a boy soprano in a chorus at the Hollywood Bowl, has played drums in lounges in Las Vegas, Reno and Lake Tahoe, worked with singer Jack Jones and owned a talent agency. He opened the restaurant on a fluke.

“I had sworn I would never open a restaurant. I had seen so many guys lose their shirts,” he said.

Nonetheless, in July, 1986, Marks opened Legends after the closing of another Hollywood Boulevard eatery, the Star delicatessen.

“My girlfriend’s sister had owned that, and when it closed, there was no deli on the boulevard. And when I heard about my current property, which used to be called Johnny’s Steakhouse, becoming available, I thought I’d open a deli, make it ‘the Canter’s of Hollywood,’ ” he said. “It seemed like a natural.”

Marks negotiated a 15-year lease and moved in in July, 1986. At first, he operated 24 hours a day. “But all I was attracting in the late hours were bums and street people,” he remembered. “So after six months, I tried opening at 8 a.m. Then I discovered that no one ate breakfast in Hollywood, so I started opening at 10:30 a.m.” The restaurant is open at 10:30 a.m. daily and closes at 11 p.m. Monday through Thursday, and 1:30 a.m. Friday through Sunday.

The menu features typical deli fare, with a few steaks also available, all at reasonable prices. Sandwiches average $5 to $7 and steaks range from $5.95 to $12.95. A few celebrity-name sandwiches, such as the Jack Klugman Hot Pastrami sandwich, are offered. “He comes in and gets one now and then,” Marks said. When not manning the bandstand, Marks can often be found in the kitchen. “Cooking is my second love after music, and many of the items on the menu are my recipes,” he said.

Marks charges no cover for the music, but asks that customers comply with a two-drink minimum. Beer and wine are served, averaging $2.50 a glass, and soft drinks cost $1.50.

The man operating the deli-steakhouse-jazz club has no plans for any sudden changes. “I just want to continue what I’m doing for as long as it lasts,” he said.

Legends of Hollywood , 6555 Hollywood Blvd . , Hollywood , (213) 464-7780. Open 10:30 a.m. daily, closing at 11 p.m. Monday through Thursday, and 1:30 a.m. Friday through Sunday.