Fennel Merger Pays Dividends

Once Fennel was famous as the restaurant of the jet-set chefs--where one or another of the several Michelin-starred chefs who were partners in the place flew in from France every few weeks to take a turn at the stove. Now Fennel is part of another experiment--it’s moved to West Hollywood and merged with the elegant Italian joint Pazzia, making the place essentially a restaurant with a split personality.

Walk up the restaurants’ joint entryway--which so far has only a Pazzia sign--and the maitre d’ greets you with a question that seems more like a riddle: “Pazzia or Fennel?”

Answer “Fennel,” and he’ll lead you to a small but charming room filled with marble-topped tables, vintage French travel posters and blackboards scrawled with the specials of the day, maybe rabbit compote or cote de boeuf for two.

Answer, “Pazzia,” and he’ll sneak through the sliding glass panel that separates the two restaurants, arriving at the official Pazzia doorway (six inches from Fennel’s) with an expectant look that says, “You see? I will lead you to Pazzia too.” It all seems like something out of an old-time vaudeville act.

But once you settle down on the Fennel side you see the advantages of eating food from a kitchen that serves two restaurants. You get the same good terrines, soups and salads that you might have had at the old Fennel, plus some of the great thin-crust pizzas and pastas from Pazzia’s Italian menu. The main courses (and the abbreviated, overpriced wine list) are strictly French though--a tender leg of lamb slow-cooked for seven hours in red wine, firm-fleshed half-smoked salmon served with some of France’s famous green lentils from Puy, a simple rotisserie chicken with tarragon juice. Desserts run to the creme caramel , the apple tart and the petit pot au chocolat . When it’s time for espresso, though, you’re happy to know that the Italians are in charge.