RESTAURANT REVIEW : Hidden Eatery Makes Most of Its Spago Ties

One of my stage-struck lawyer friends is forever dreaming of an evening at Spago, on the off chance that she will rub elbows with the likes of Warren Beatty or Jack Nicholson.

But when I invite her to Shane Hidden on the Glen, a pint-size strip-mall Spago at the top of Beverly Glen, she hesitates. She isn’t after the delicious pizzas, salads and grilled meats you can eat in a place like this; she’s after, well, a cheap thrill.

So tonight, I promise her a celebrity. She agrees to meet me at 7.

Wolfgang Puck’s Spago has spawned a variety of pretenders, but none yet comes close to the original on the subject of glitter. But Shane Hidden on the Glen is a place that succeeds on brio and sheer fun, while managing to serve food quite reminiscent of the excellent fare from Spago.

Thank this restaurant’s unique pedigree for any resemblances. First off, the restaurant’s spunky, desert-hued Southwestern decor is the work of Barbara Lazaroff, the brilliant designer responsible for three of Puck’s other restaurants--Chinois, Eureka and Grani. Lazaroff, who is married to Puck, uses a palette that Renoir would envy, and anything she touches turns into a multimedia show. (The iridescent tile snake around the pizza oven is alone worth a visit.)

Second, chef Michael Kurland and proprietor Gerard Izard are Puck alumni in their own right. Kurland was trained at Ma Maison, the restaurant where Puck first came to light, and later worked at Chinois. Izard worked as a captain in Ma Maison during the restaurant’s glory years, the late ‘70s and early ‘80s. That may be why this cheerful Frenchman can make everybody feel like a celebrity.

Even us. As soon as we walk in the door, Izard charms the socks off my friend. But first things first: We’re here to eat.

The moment we are seated, a basket of homemade focaccia, cut into small, steamy wedges, captures her attention. We actually nibble our way through a good salad of warm radicchio mingling with bacon, creamy feta cheese and some crunchy spears of fresh asparagus with a tangy mustard vinaigrette before she begins to scan the room like a spy from People magazine.

“Where’s that celebrity you promised me?” she asks. I pretend not to hear.

I generally skip pizzas and pastas at this restaurant, but not because I don’t like them. Pastas here tend to have rich sauces, such as a mustard, dill and butter sauce on the salmon ravioli, and a plateful is more than I can handle.

My favorite pizza here, the one with with duck sausage, feta and herbs, is almost too filling to have as a middle course, and another standby, known as pizza “Deli,” is just too strange for occasional visitors. Chef Kurland put this last pizza on the menu (it’s topped with smoked cod, lettuce, tomato and cream cheese) as a sort of joke, a reply to the more famous smoked salmon pizza served at Spago. Wouldn’t you know--the regulars here have flipped for it.

My attention is actually focused on the entrees that have appeared at our table. The sausage in the lamb sausage with couscous is store-bought and reeks of excessive cumin, but I like the texture, grainy and crumbly. The couscous underneath is perfectly cooked. My friend even has good things to say about the tri-tip steak, which comes with a garlicky potato augratin and is tender and smoky, sliced razor-thin and cooked blood-rare, just as she requested.

The lime and rosemary grilled chicken is wonderful, with its moist flesh and crackly skin. And the shoestring potatoes that come with it, a flurry of them mixed with crispy fried onions, are worth fighting over.

For dessert, I taste a dense, fudgy, coffee-flavored Mexican brownie and an average tarte tatin, before diving into a sumptuous banana split, made with amazing vanilla bean and mocha ice creams and covered with fresh fruit and chocolate sauce. Then the Earth moves. In walks Warren Beatty.

My friend can hardly contain herself, and she kisses me with abandon on both cheeks. I’m not dumb enough to guarantee you celebrities if you dine at this place, but I promise you’ll like the banana split.

Suggested dishes: warm radicchio salad, $7.25; pizza with duck sausage, $11; lamb sausage with couscous and mint cucumber salad, $10; grilled chicken, $14.50; banana split, $5.

Shane Hidden on the Glen, 2932 Beverly Glen Circle, Los Angeles, (310) 470-6223. Lunch 11:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m. Monday-Friday; dinner 6-11 nightly. Beer and wine only. Valet and self - parking. All major credit cards accepted. Dinner for two, $35-$60.