Branching Out of a Famed Family Tree

La Serenata de Garibaldi in Boyle Heights is consistently called one of L.A.’s best Mexican places. Other restaurateurs, Mexican artists, movie folk and business people show up from all parts of town every night to eat owner and chef Jose Rodriguez’s fresh seafood and complex sauces. The 7-year-old restaurant is so successful that it now appears it is going to branch out.

Last week, Rodriguez’s brother Antonio, an immigration lawyer and community activist, and Liz Chavez, a programming manager for KCBS-TV, announced that they would open an offshoot of the Boyle Heights restaurant in the downtown Grand Central Market. It was to be called La Serenata on Broadway.

But Jose Rodriguez, who insists that his brother’s restaurant is not connected in any way with his own, wasn’t happy about the news. “That place has nothing to do with my restaurant,” he said.

“The quality of the food at Grand Central won’t match my father’s food,” added Jose’s son, Marco. “Antonio is trading on the good will of our name. He has never been an owner; my father is the creator of this restaurant. Antonio comes here and eats, that’s all.”

“I don’t want to fight in public,” Antonio Rodriguez now says, “so we are going to call our place Rodriguez on Broadway. La Serenata was built by a family. You have to recognize Jose’s central role, his creative aspect and his qualifications as a great, imaginative chef, but to say that the family has no right to the place is not right.” He adds, “All the guy had to do is call up and say, ‘Antonio, let’s sit down. This is happening, I don’t agree with it.’ ”

John Shegerian Sr., vice president of the Yellin Co.’s Grand Central Market, says that he was told by Antonio Rodriguez that the restaurant will be a collaboration of the entire Rodriguez family. He adds that they are thrilled to have the restaurant in the market. “We think it is a great vote of faith in Grand Central Market.”

The chef at Rodriguez on Broadway will be the Rodriguezes’ nephew, Benjamin Ontiveros, an award-winning chef from Baja California who worked for several years at La Serenata. He will be serving chicken, fish and beef with four sauces: chipotle , red pepian , green pepian , and cilantro. There will be handmade tortillas and fish tacos. The meat, fish and produce will be bought at Grand Central Market, “providing we get a good price and everything is fresh,” says Antonio Rodriguez.

LEAVING ON A JET PLANE: Chef Jeanette Holley has left O’toto, the hip Melrose Avenue restaurant that opened just 18 months ago, and signed on as chef at a yet-unnamed restaurant in Ste. Maxime, on the French Riviera. “The staff wasn’t very good, and I just wasn’t happy there,” Holley says of O’toto. “I’m leaving Feb. 13 to work for Stephan Bezzani, a Frenchman who used to own a boulangerie in Manhattan Beach and moved back to France. He bought a restaurant, hired me to be executive chef, and offered me a partnership.” The food? California cuisine.

Meanwhile at O’toto, Preech Narkthong, the former general manager, is acting chef until a replacement for Holley can be found. “Jeanette’s leaving was a great loss to us,” says manager Rio Hamilton, adding that the food will stay pretty much the same. “The poor thing was here from 8 in the morning until 11 at night, six days a week. She just burned herself out.”

OPENING: Many Westside restaurants have moved over the hill to open Valley branches. Now the reverse motion is starting: Michael Fekr, chef/co-owner of the popular Il Mito in Studio City, is about to sign a lease on an Ocean Avenue location in Santa Monica. Fekr will divide his time between the two locations. “The deal has not been finalized yet and Michael doesn’t want to give any specifics,” says a spokeswoman for Fekr. “Let’s just say its going to be a different concept and it’s a perfect place.”

According to the spokeswoman, Fekr (he worked at Westside restaurants Sostanza, Locanda Veneta and Chianti Cucina) came to the Valley to prove himself. “It’s taken a lot of re-educating--dragging people--to the Valley. Writers just wouldn’t come. We’ve sent out drivers to bring people to the restaurant. A year and a half later, it’s day and night. Sometimes there are 120 for lunch.”