New Huntington, Old Image

There are those who think of the Los Angeles metropolis as one large neon-filled amusement park. They are wrong. There is, for instance, Pasadena, where life is civilized and old money still rules. At least, that’s the image of the place.

And no restaurant lives up to Pasadena’s grand aspirations for itself better than the newly opened Georgian Room at the Ritz-Carlton Huntington Hotel.

Much of the recently reopened hotel, originally built in 1906, was torn down and then rebuilt, almost as a replica of its old self--one that meets modern earthquake codes. The Georgian Room is one of two original ballroom spaces that remain on the grounds. The setting is more 1690s Paris than 1990s L.A. There are Louis XIV chairs, from which the civilized diner may note with interest a 17th-Century Flemish tapestry, or the room’s collection of stained-glass windows, which were uncovered and refurbished during the recent restoration.

To eat there are truffles, foie gras , lobster, caviar. The recession is studiously ignored here. The style is modern French--serious stuff but not too heavy. Terrines appear, some with mushrooms and prosciutto, some with vegetables and duck; John Dory gets an anise-based fish sauce; oxtail is elegantly wrapped in lettuce. It is nothing like the rustic grill food that Los Angeles restaurants are known for at the moment. The dress code isn’t exactly L.A. either--gentlemen are required to wear coats and ties. But then, this is Pasadena.