Food on the Fault Line

In the last month, Los Angeles has witnessed the opening of several theme restaurants. There is Knockouts, a restaurant devoted to boxing and other sports suitable for viewing on big-screen TV. There is the Shark Club, a club restaurant where shark fins surround the dance floor, shark meat shows up on the menu and the waitresses must call themselves “Sharkettes.” And set on the edge of the runway at the Santa Monica airport, there is Typhoon, a sort of ‘90s version of Kelbo’s where the drinks are big and glaring.

The newest of these is Epicentre, a restaurant that insists on reminding us that Southern California is on shaky ground. There are cracks in the walls, a mural of City Hall crumbling to the ground, and a ceiling, an open metal grid that reveals the restaurant’s wiring and ductwork, that is reminiscent of a set from any ‘70s disaster movie. Actually, the designers held back a bit--cracked pillars reveal not twisted steel, but glass bricks.

On the menu, appetizers are “epitizers” and desserts are called “aftershocks.” For the most part, the food is straight-ahead and populist: fish, chicken, steak and pasta. But there is San Andreas soup--white bean soup and black bean soup, separated by a creme fraiche “faultline.” And then there’s the dish called “Curry on the Richter Scale,” which comes spiced to order--you choose from 1.0 to 10.0.

But the scale seems to run low. One customer who ordered his curry at 8.6 was heard grumbling: “This tastes more like a 3.0.”

Epicentre, at the Kawada Hotel, 200 S. Hill St., Los Angeles, (213) 621-4455. Entrees $8.75-$17.75.