Opening a New French Beachhead in L.A.

“The Italians are taking over Los Angeles,” says Joachim Splichal. “I think there is a definite need for an authentic French bistro.”

Splichal, who opened Patina a little over two years ago, plans to give the city just that: He is about to sign a lease on 3rd Street near Fairfax Avenue, where he plans to open a 120-seat bistro. He’ll call it Socca, after the thin flat cakes made from chickpea flour that are a specialty of Nice.

“Fennel,” he says, “started a little bit of a version of a bistro, but we want to try to do an authentic French bistro, with a Provencal touch.”

Although dinner checks at Patina average about $50 a person, Splichal says the restaurant is doing very well. But he admits it’s not a place that people can afford on a regular basis.

“Our customers go to the casual places all around town, and once in a while they come to us,” the restaurateur says. “Now we want to offer our clientele cuisine on a more moderate level, a $25 average check for dinner per person.”

Splichal says he wants his place to be like La Merenda, a tiny, legendary bistro in Nice where the husband and wife cook fantastic food. But Splichal says his food will be more like that of a brasserie in Paris--”all those oysters, those clams, the sea urchins, the shrimps.”

Octavio Becerra, the current chef at Patina, who has been with Splichal for the past seven years, will run the bistro. Becerra and Splichal will go to France to capture the entire spirit of a French bistro.

“Octavio will become a partner in the bistro,” Splichal says, “because I don’t want him to open the restaurant and then go somewhere else.”

SPARKS: “It’s as if I got off the wrong exit on the freeway and got back on and now I am getting off in the right neighborhood,” says John Strobel, who took over the former Yanks restaurant in Beverly Hills two months ago and turned it into a Latin restaurant, Fenix Cafe-Bar.

Now Strobel has changed his mind about Latin food and fired his chef and is turning his place into an American bistro. “I just wasn’t happy selling tacos and margaritas. I’d rather sell steak frites and good Pinot Noir,” he says.

Erika Smith, formerly a chef at Olive, has been hired to cook the bistro food.

“I want to have a simple menu, and if all we can get out of the kitchen 1,000% perfect is a Caesar salad and grilled chicken, then that’s all that will be on the menu,” Strobel says. “I spent a lot of time in my professional career being frustrated by the quality. I want to be a great restaurant, not an OK restaurant.”

BUSY: David Wilhelm (Kachina, Bistro 201, Barbacoa and Zuni Grill, all in Orange County), now consulting chef for 8225 Sunset Partners, is working on a new menu for Roxbury. He hopes to have it finished by the end of November.

“We will keep the most popular items such as the fried chicken with mashed potatoes,” a Roxbury spokesman says, “but most of the menu will be David’s.”

Wilhelm is also working on the menu for Cabo del Sol (originally named Coyote Restaurant), the Partners’ Southwestern restaurant, which is due to open in Wells Fargo Plaza in January. 8225 Sunset Partners has a few other projects planned as well: an untitled pizza-pasta place with wood-fired ovens, which will open on Santa Monica Boulevard across from the Red Car Grill in November, and a chain of healthy fast food Southwestern taco stands.

NOT YOUR AVERAGE IMPORT: Koso Hasegawa, owner of 13 Cafe La Boheme restaurants in Japan, is opening his first American venture, at 8400 Santa Monica Blvd. in West Hollywood, in mid-November.

Koh Kikuchi (formerly of Katsu and Maple Drive) has been hired to cook the Cal-Asian cuisine for the 150-seat Cafe La Boheme.

“The restaurant was envisioned as an avant-garde, Tuscan romantic environment,” the restaurant’s spokeswoman says. “Hasegawa’s bold stroke was to create a larger-than-life scale that will mix wild, colorful and various forms and patterns. . . . Paintings and sculpture will be used extensively . . . a massive fireplace . . . the colorful mosaic pond, the intimacy of the booths, the romance of the outdoor terrace, the ambience of the lounge. . . .” Whew.

JOE’S PLACE: Joe Miller, former chef at I. Cugini, Brentwood Bar and Grill and Cafe Katsu, quietly opened Joe’s Restaurant last week on the site of the former Rockenwager. The food is California-Asian.

“We’ve tried to keep the prices down,” says Miller’s wife, Monica. “With the economy the way it is, people are tired of having to pay $50 to $75 per person for dinner.”

CLOSINGS: The sign may say, “Closed for Remodeling,” but a local realtor tells us that the Rangoon Racquet Club in Beverly Hills is for sale.

A MEMOREX MOMENT?: “Crickets on tape? That’s one extravagance we overlooked,” says Pam Slate, manager of Wolfgang Puck’s new Malibu restaurant. This in response to the rumor making the rounds that the crickets on Granita’s patio aren’t real.

“Any crickets you hear at Granita,” Slate assures us, “are not simulated. It’s amazing how many crickets we have around here.”