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Call of the Conga

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Perhaps the most succinct way to describe the Moonlight Tango Cafe is to say it’s like a cruise ship docked at Ventura Boulevard. It could be the Love Boat’s commissary. The Tango promotes the joie de vivre , both real and faux, of a Fun Ship Cruise to tropical waters.

The cafe specializes in re-creating the glamorous supper-club atmosphere of late-’40s/early-’50s Hollywood. And it succeeds. Maybe not perfectly, but with enough detail to pass as a Disney World version of those long-lost Sunset Strip nightspots Ciro’s or Mocambo.

“It’s like watching an old Fred Astaire movie,” says Deborah Abrams, who was at the Tango to celebrate her husband Allan’s birthday. He stood nearby with his daughter Melanie, a box of Tuscany cologne peeking out of his shirt pocket.

The room itself isn’t large, about 60 feet by 60 feet, with a mixture of Latin and Art Deco decor--mirrored walls, plastic palms and antique lights. It’s brightly lit and vibrant. It looks like the kind of place Desi Arnaz might have played in 1951 Havana with a 12-piece rhythm section and three backup singers in feather boas.

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Somehow the mix of decorating styles work. It does evoke a bygone time. As if to certify this, on a recent evening there actually was a bona fide star of the ‘40s and ‘50s, Virginia Mayo, having dinner with friends. (As an aside, Mayo’s beauty as a young starlet was once described by the Sultan of Morocco as “tangible proof for the existence of God.” Surely they’re not making compliments like they used to.)

More integral to the Tango experience than the decor is the entertainment. It comes in two forms. Tuesday is always Big Band Night. Twenty tuxedoed musicians play loud and fast, practically in the awed diners’ laps. It’s as though the ghost of Doc Severinsen and the Tonight Show Band descends into the room.

For the rest of the week, there are a half-dozen 45-minute sets a night by Tango’s regulars. Featured are singers Lenetta Kidd and Dino Castagno, the three-piece Palm Beach Trio and the Moonlight Serenaders--the restaurant’s waiters who shine on ‘50s doo-wop.

The whole idea of the Tango is to have fun. And, as with most places like this, how much joie you put in is how much vivre you’ll get out.

Consider the conga line. This is one of the trademarks of the restaurant. It’s even had a fleeting moment of international fame. This is the very conga line that Julia Roberts chose to lead the night she and Kiefer Sutherland decided to celebrate their engagement. You can read all about it on the press clipping on the wall. Of course, theirs was one conga line that--at least romantically--crashed and burned, but it did have its moment of fame.

With the conga, what the restaurant hopes for is that diners will rise in drunken glee when Castagno “puts on the conga hat” and follow him in a hip-grabbing hop around the room. This is asking a lot from a middle-aged married couple celebrating an anniversary. You have to pump the average accountant full of an awful lot of those $5.95 Tropic Tangos in the tall, thin glasses with the fruit slice garnishes before there’s any congoing around the room.

However, with the right group of people--in this case Suzy Lewis and 16 of her friends who were out to help celebrate Suzy’s 17th birthday--you could have the kind of conga that Xavier Cugat is leading in conga heaven. The girls loved the conga! They loved it so much that Suzy’s sister, Erin, described the Moonlight Tango as being like “Ed Debevic’s with class.”

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Could the Sultan of Morocco have said it better?

Name: The Moonlight Tango Cafe.

Location: 13730 Ventura Blvd. (near Woodman), Sherman Oaks. (818) 788-2000. Open 5 p.m. for dinner; shows start at 7. Open until midnight Tueday (Big Band Night), Wednesday, Thursday, Sunday; open Friday and Saturday until 2 a.m.

Cost: Dinner entrees start at $13.50; they average $17.50 with the highest at $21.95. Beer is $3.95 and drinks are $3.50-$5.95. On Big Band Night, there is an $8 to $13 cover charge; none on other nights. On weekends, there is $25 per-person minimum for food and drink.

Dress: Casual chic. A white suit and a Panama hat would be fine.

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