Bellflower Loses Its Finest Restaurant

Amy and Stephen White have closed Magdalena’s, the nouvelle French restaurant they opened in Bellflower eight years ago. “The main reason for going out of business,” says Stephen White, “was our trying to do another restaurant, (Amis) in Long Beach. The restaurant took 2 1/2 years to open, exceeded its budget, then we lost most of our business when construction on an MCA movie theater complex began next door.” The 11-month-old Amis closed its doors last year.

Business was down at Magdalena’s as well, due to a reduction in business accounts from neighboring aerospace companies. “Edington Oil was a major account,” says White, “and they went belly-up last year. And we’d had several parties from McDonnell Douglas every day. They have cut out business expenditures. It hurt.”

White, who has filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, has signed a two-year contract as director of food services at a large conference center outside of Santa Cruz. “We need to stabilize our lives and get out of the rat race for a while,” says White. “It’s tough, my parents are losing their house because of this, and we have over $200,000 borrowed from family and it is wiped out as well. I mean you can’t drag people in your door and say ‘You are going to sit down and spend $50, and enjoy your meal.’ ”

RIDING OFF INTO THE SUNSET: The Los Angeles International Culinary Institute (LAICA) and its two restaurants, the Equestrian Bar and Grill and the Classroom Restaurant, have closed. “Economically, it didn’t work,” says Raimund Hofmeister, president of the institute, which opened just nine months ago at the Los Angeles Equestrian Center in Burbank. “The people involved were not willing to carry any more of those economic risks and will try to liquidate the business.”

But Hofmeister has not given up on the institute. He has put the classes on hold and is looking for new financing. “I put too much sweat and effort into this,” he says. “Now we will try to reopen and get things back on the track.”

SEVENTH STREET BLUES: Downtown’s Seventh Street Bistro will close its doors on Friday. Chef/owner Laurent Quenioux would not comment on the closing, but six weeks ago he told The Times that he was getting fed up with downtown and the high rents. “You pay $35 a square foot for what?” he said. “On the Westside you can find space for $1, $2 a square foot.” Quenioux made an offer on the now-shuttered L’Ermitage last month but was turned down. Industry sources say that he is close to signing a lease at another Westside location.

EVOLUTION: The owners of Bellini’s Trattoria and San Francisco Saloon, both in West Los Angeles, have bought the Darwin restaurant in Santa Monica, which closed abruptly in 1988. They plan to turn it into a reasonably priced ($8 to $15 range) Italian trattoria. “We got a good liquor license with very few restrictions, which gives us some flexibility,” says Blaine Ivy, a partner in the yet-unnamed restaurant. The liquor license goes into effect in August; until then, the restaurant will probably be open for breakfast and lunch. Ivy says they will make only cosmetic changes. “They cut down half the rain forest for the wood in that place,” he says, “so that will remain largely intact. We just want to lighten it up.”

AFTER A WHILE ...: Crocodile Cafe will open on the site of Santa Monica’s Belle-Vue restaurant in December. “The lease is signed,” says owner Gregg Smith. Smith and his brother own Pasadena’s Parkway Grill and Crocodile Cafe, a Crocodile Cafe in Brea and a Crocodile Cantina in Glendale. “We are still negotiating with Santa Monica,” he says. “It’s a difficult city to do business in. It is really brutal down there.”

“We want to open six Crocodiles in the next two years,” says Smith. “They are our expansion vehicles.” The Crocodile Cafes feature a mix of fresh pastas, pizzas and salads, with an average dinner check of $10.25 per person. Possible future Crocodile locations include Toluca Lake, Burbank and San Diego.

PIZZA MAN: Are you an ex-New Yorker looking for homemade lasagna and pizza by the slice? James Caan (“For the Boys” and the soon-to-be-released “Honeymoon in Vegas”) and Cathy Moriarty (“The Mambo Kings,” “Soap Dish” and “Raging Bull”), to the rescue. The New Yorkers will open Mulberry Street Pizzeria on Beverly Hills’ Canon Drive next month. Says Caan’s spokeswoman, “They want it to be a hangout for all their New York actor friends.”

PATIO PRODUCER: Don’t have the clout to wangle a table at Morton’s on a Monday night? How about the entire patio? Morton’s outside patio, which seats between 40 and 60, is now available. For some time the restaurant has been trying to get the city of West Hollywood to let it open the patio, but has been turned down because of strict parking regulations. “The city changed the regulations,” says Morton’s Valerie Van Galder, “and we now meet these new requirements.” For the moment, she adds, the patio is open only for private parties.