Rue de Cafeine

Coffee, coffee everywhere: The coffeehouse trend shows absolutely no signs of abating. Just a couple of weeks ago Social Climes noticed that yet another maison du cafe called Cafe Soleil had opened on Beverly Boulevard, just a few steps away from Java and Big & Tall and not far from Living Room and Ministry on La Brea Avenue. So what gives with this plethora of espresso bars? Is there a street in Los Angeles now where cappuccino is not offered?

“I think people have recognized that this is an area for coffeehouses,” said the Soleil’s part owner Molly Mitchell. “So when people go out for coffee they come this way. There are even a couple more popping up in this area.”

Mitchell reports that after eight short weeks on the boulevard, Cafe Soleil, which offers French food in a Southwest decor, already has a group of regulars. “I just think that in a few years Beverly will be built up so much that it will be like Europe, where there are coffeehouses on top of one another.”

And 12-step programs for caffeine addicts?

The $500 Non-Chicken Dinner

Five-hundred-dollar checks signed by some of the town’s biggest names are arriving for Thursday’s Jean Paul Gaultier fashion show and American Foundation for AIDS Research benefit, including Disney’s Michael Eisner and wife Jane, CAA’s Ron Meyer, Iman, Barry Manilow and Roseanne and Tom Arnold.

Five-hundred dollars entitles them--and about 1,000 other supporters--to a decidedly non-rubber-chicken, non-lite, non-L.A. dinner. The menu will be inspired by the Shrine Auditorium’s Middle Eastern architecture and is being described as family-style Moroccan and Egyptian fare. There are also about 5,000 tickets available in the $20-$250 range, but dinner is not included.