RESTAURANT REVIEW : New Scandia a Continental Delight

That Scandia sign on North La Cienega--isn’t it the same red sign that used to sit over the famous Scandia on Sunset Boulevard? What’s it doing there? Has Scandia reopened?

I asked my restaurant-knowledgeable friends, but nobody knew anything about it. They said things like: “The original Scandia closed down, didn’t it?” And: “It can’t be the same people who own it, can it?”

When I was growing up, Scandia, with its Continental-Scandinavian fare, was one of the places you went to eat when it was a really big occasion such as your grandparents’ 40th wedding anniversary, your sister’s engagement party, your dad’s new job. Most of the graduates in my high school class aspired to eat their pre-prom suppers there.

In recent years, as the L.A. restaurant world underwent a revolution, Scandia became an anachronism. It closed a few years ago.

So what is this Scandia on La Cienega with the familiar red sign? We finally stopped in for dinner one night to find out. We walked past a deserted patio area decorated with international flags and into a dark, shiny bar area where, shortly, a young, friendly Danish woman led us to a booth.

The modest dining room was an old-fashioned dark, mirrored room, with lots of plants and wooden lattice work. There were elaborate gold light fixtures and a huge beaded chandelier, although most of the light came from well-placed spotlights. Only two other tables were occupied: At one, there were five businessman in white jackets; at another, an older gentleman with a middle-aged woman. Listening to the general sounds in the dining room, we found that mostly Swedish was being spoken.

The menu was large and ambitious and sprinkled with cartoon Vikings in their horned hats. One side of the menu featured appetizers, sandwiches and Scandinavian specialties--little meatballs, Danish hash, herring and salmon. On the other, there were more expensive entrees, desserts and Viking beverages--aquavit, beer and vodkas.

The appetizers proved to be huge plates of food: each one certainly ample enough for two. Gravlaks, a generous heap of rather thick-cut salmon cured on the premises and served with a sweet homemade mustard dill sauce, was so large that I took more than half of it home. Two of us were unable to eat all of the Scandia combination plate: three kinds of pickled herring, more gravlaks and a hard-boiled egg.

Our waitress had recommended the venison filet, which turned out to be another generous plate of juicy, tasty meat in a good Continental-style cream sauce with black currant jelly. I ordered off the other side of the menu, from the Scandinavian Specialties column, and had Jansson’s Temptation, a kind of creamy, rich scalloped potatoes spiked with anchovies that was a salt lover’s dream.

Most of the deserts were sherbets and ice cream, but the freezer had gone on the blink, so we had the apple cake, a thin square of buttery cake topped with apples and cinnamon in a good vanilla sauce.

We returned for dinner on Norwegian National Day, and there were little Norwegian flags taped to all the table tops. The bar was busy, as usual, but the dining room was nearly empty at the dinner hour.

From our meal that night, we concluded that fish definitely seems to be the preferred and preferable substance at Scandia. I had the ultra-simple and delicious steamed sea bass, which was poached and served with butter and a little heap of freshly grated horseradish. There is such a fondness for fish here, even the beef tastes like it, as we discovered while eating Nordkalotten , a steak filled with smoked salmon. Frankly, it was unnerving to cut into a perfectly cooked piece of red meat and get an unmistakably aquatic flavor.

As we ate and the hour grew late, the bar filled with people, most of whom spoke Swedish and seemed to know each other. A few more couples strayed into the dining room. We asked the waitress: “Is this any relation to the old Scandia?”

“We think of it as a continuation,” she said. “We bought the sign and the menu. The former owner died, of course, but his wife still comes in here to eat.”

Scandia Restaurant and Bar, 747 N. La Cienega Blvd., Los Angeles, (213) 652-9998. Open for dinner, Monday-Saturday. Full bar. Valet parking. All major credit cards accepted. Dinner for two, food only, $50-$87.