Busy Bruce Marder Leaves DC3 Cockpit

Has Bruce Marder left one of his own restaurants? As it turns out, DC3 wasn’t actually his. And now owner David Price says that Marder’s management contract has been discontinued. “Bruce and I are still pals,” says Price. “He just has so many projects, he couldn’t be at just one place.”

Marder will continue to consult on the DC3 menu. “It was a mutual thing,” says Marder, who has a lot of other things on his mind. Besides attending to his other restaurants (Rebecca’s, West Beach Cafe and Broadway Deli), Marder has a few future projects. “We (partners Michel Richard and Marvin Zeidler of Broadway Deli) have signed a lease for a new Broadway Deli in Encino, and we’re negotiating one on Sunset and Crescent Heights, in the shopping center where Schwab’s used to be.” Marder plans a second Rebecca’s in the same shopping center. “And we’re talking about opening another Broadway Deli in the new Biltmore Galleria in Scottsdale, Ariz., too.”

Meanwhile, Price says DC3 is alive and well and will continue to run as before, “with the accent on contemporary art and the style of food and beverage service that Bruce is famous for.” Bill Hufferd will continue as chef. Price has hired Gerhard Tratter, former senior director of Canadian Pacific Hotels and Resorts, to replace August Spier as manager. “August just found the job was kind of getting to him,” explains Price. “He’s a pal too, and I expect good reservations at Schatzie (where Spier is now manager), if and when it opens.”

ON CALL: And when will it open? Spier says that original chef Lisa Stalvey has been replaced by Michael Rosen (who was laid off from Maple Drive last month), at Arnold Schwarzenegger’s still unopened Schatzie on Main. Staffed, and scheduled to open 3 1/2 months ago, the restaurant is still closed. “It looks gorgeous, but it is just sitting there, waiting for a liquor license,” says an industry source, “and I don’t think Arnold likes the idea of paying people for not working.”

EYES ON THE PRIZE: “The DiRoNA will be the most respected and best recognized restaurant award throughout North America,” says the press release sent out by the organizers of the Distinguished Restaurants of North America.

“The Best of the Best Dining Awards are the only legitimate restaurant awards in the United States,” say the organizers of those awards.

Best of the Best Dining Awards (Bobs) are brought to you by a Milwaukee-based organization called the International Restaurant Rating Bureau, which held its awards banquet last week at the Beverly Hilton. The Bobs were created by John Thomas of the Rating Bureau, and organized by food and wine expert Robert Lawrence Balzer (a contributing editor of Los Angeles Times Magazine who writes about wine), after the demise of the Travel/Holiday awards, which were also run by Balzer.

The Distinguished Restaurants of North America awards (DiRoNAs) are also an offshoot of the Travel/Holiday restaurant award program. Sponsored by American Express Travel Related Services and Hiram Walker & Sons Inc., and headed by Tom Margittai, co-owner of New York’s Four Seasons restaurant, the winners will be announced in May at the National Restaurant Assn. Show in Chicago.

A different set of awards will be bestowed by the California Restaurant Writers Assn. (CRWA), a statewide group. They’ll announce this year’s winners on March 23 at a banquet at the Stouffer Concourse Hotel on Century Boulevard.

And finally, the James Beard Foundation will bestow the James Beard Chef Awards on May 4 at New York City’s Lincoln Center.

BARGAINS: Mondays are no longer slow at L. A. Nicola in Silver Lake. Go for Monday dinner, and anything on the regular dinner menu is half price. . . . Tulipe, the Melrose Avenue French restaurant, now offers a $20 prix-fixe menu, including soup or salad, a choice of meat or fish and dessert, Monday through Thursday.

CLOSINGS: Jamaica West, on Lincoln Boulevard in Venice, known for its great rum drinks and curry goat, closed its doors. . . . And who says no one is irreplaceable? Shep’s Deli, a fixture on Pico near Overland in West Los Angeles for more than 15 years, has closed. The sign in the window says, “We would like to thank our loyal customers and we wish you well. We are closing due to the manager and owner’s health and because his presence was necessary for us to succeed.”

ON THE FIRE: Engine Co. No. 28 has a new “office catering” menu. The menu includes many of the most popular dishes (meat loaf sandwich, grilled chicken salad, rice pudding) at lower prices than the regular menu. A minimum order of $20 is required, and orders must be placed by 10 a.m. The hitch? No delivery; you have to go pick up your order. . . . Third Street’s l.a. Trattoria has a new, lower-priced lunch menu to go with its lower-case name. And owner Giuseppe Miele is about to open Antica Pizzeria, a Neapolitan pizzeria adjacent to the restaurant. . . . Mumms, a North Hollywood home-style restaurant, is now offering a complete Braille menu. . . . Biff’s coffee shop in Reseda has changed ownership and is now called Bage’s. “But the new menu,” says a restaurant spokeswoman, “will still include some of the old Biff favorites.”

STILL GOING: “Since the article was printed about Rex Restaurant in Newport closing, we have had a problem,” says Mauro Vicente, the owner of swanky Rex Il Ristorante in downtown Los Angeles. “People with gift certificates are calling us wanting to know what to do.” So we repeat: Rex Il Ristorante is not related to the late Rex of Newport, and continues to serve swell Italian food in an elegant atmosphere.