RESTAURANT : He Wasn’t Dropping In for Breakfast

“When my dad opened up he heard someone in the restaurant screaming for help,” says Roger Hayot, owner of Authentic Cafe. “So he goes into the kitchen and sees two feet dangling from inside the chimney flue. A man was painfully straddled on a couple of steel pipes blocking the bottom of the shaft. I’m sure it gave him a rude awakening.”

Both the fire and police departments showed up. The former cranked up the hook and ladder and pulled the would-be burglar out with a crane; the latter took him away in handcuffs. “I didn’t quite understand why he dropped in in the first place,” says Hayot. “He wouldn’t have gotten anything except maybe a good meal.”

MORE BREAD: Granita finally opened in Malibu. The beer is bubbling in West Los Angeles. The Spago in Las Vegas is getting built and due to open in the spring. The Spago in West Hollywood will be 10 in January. And now the ever-energetic Wolfgang Puck has found a new project to keep him busy--a bakery.

“Our five restaurants each make their own bread, and we felt it would be more economical and easier to have one central plant make all of our bread,” says Tom Kaplan, manager and co-owner of Spago. And then he adds, “I would imagine if we do a bakery, we’ll have a retail outlet and maybe a cafe.”

Although no lease has been signed, Kaplan speculates the bakery/cafe will be open for business as early as the first half of the year. “We will be looking for an industrial-type space where you can just kind of walk in and set up the equipment,” he says, “and there’s no liquor license to worry about.”

Another thing Puck won’t have to worry about is hiring someone to bake the bread. “There are a handful of people at each restaurant who have expressed interest,” says Kaplan. “We would ultimately pull from that pile, but I don’t think Wolf has decided whom it would be.”

What the bakery will not be is another Barbara Lazaroff special. “Barbara will be involved in a remodel of Spago,” says Kaplan, “but I think she’s going to try to relax a bit if she can.”

AT LAST: “We’ve got all our permits, passed our health inspection, and if things go well, we should have our first investor dinners this week,” says Andy Nakano of Bikini. John Sedlar’s international/Continental Santa Monica restaurant, originally set to open in early July, is going to open next week at 506 Santa Monica Blvd. Sous-chef is Hisashi Yoshiara (formerly of Tra Fiore and Cafe Jacoulet); the pastry chef is Lorraine Tajiri, formerly of Stringfellows in Beverly Hills. For reservations, call (310) 395-8611.

DESIGNATED DRINKERS: From a press release from Laguna Beach’s Surf & Sand Hotel announcing a new Sunday brunch menu: “Seven cooked-to-order main courses, complemented by a selection of fresh seafoods and salads, an elaborate dessert buffet and endless (within reason) Champagne.”

ON THE FIRE: Pane Caldo Bistrot has a new owner, a new look and a new menu. Paul Scalisi, who managed Pane Caldo eight years ago under founding partner Silvio De Mori, has bought a share of the restaurant. “Il Giardino and Pane Caldo are owned by a very big corporation, but Paul is now Pane Caldo’s principal owner,” says a spokeswoman. The menu has almost doubled in size, prices have dropped about 20% and much of the original staff, trained by Scalisi, has returned. . . . Andreas Knapp has been named executive chef/director of food and beverage for the Century Plaza Hotel, replacing Raimund Hofmeister, who left the hotel earlier this year to head the new Los Angeles International Culinary Institute. The Austrian chef’s new menus--a combination of American, European and Asian influences--will be in place by the end of the year.

BARGAINS: The Dim Sum Delirium, an all-you-can-eat special, through the end of January at Chopstix/Encino only. At lunch, choose from 18 menu different items for $4.95; at dinner you may order anything off the menu for $7.95. Children eat for $3.95 at both lunch and dinner. . . . Live Maine lobster dinner, including soup, fried rice, vegetable and tea for $9.99, Monday-Friday, 3-10 p.m. at Ocean Seafood in Chinatown.