On the Mark in Venice

It’s a balmy Wednesday night on Ocean Front Walk in Venice. The kiosks are empty; the T-shirt and sunglasses vendors have gone home. No one roller blades around Venice Pavilion. The restaurant that advertises soft tacos and cappuccino is closed.

The only sign of life is at St. Mark’s, a restaurant and music club on the ground floor of a 1907 building half a block from the beach. The music that floats past the old colonnades is danceable and seductive, with hints of blues, salsa and R & B. Sports cars with vanity plates like PEPPER4U and NIT OWL discharge their bejeweled and be-gelled passengers.

St. Mark’s opened last summer as a tony jazz club, then closed for a few months. When it reopened, the managers reincarnated the restaurant with danceable blues and R & B taking the place of jazz. The formula worked: Now St. Mark’s is packed well before midnight, particularly on Wednesdays and weekends.

The club is beginning to attract some big names. October will bring an appearance by Pancho Sanchez, and Ike Turner will be there the following month. Recording artist Basia is booked for after the first of the year.

On this Wednesday night, the bar area is packed. The regular Wednesday band, King Cotton, is laying down a post-modern cha-cha. Those out of the sight lines of the stage watch on closed-circuit TV monitors. A statue of Duke Ellington looks benevolently over the packed dance floor. KNBC-TV sportscaster Bret Lewis threads his way through the crowd. In the back, busboys scramble to lay a table for a couple of L.A. Raiders.

The menu is schizophrenically witty. How about a chile relleno stuffed with goat cheese, raisins and pine nuts? Or a quesadilla with scallops and papaya? On a recent visit, the chef had prepared a special after-dinner treat: a tamale husk containing pineapple, coconut and other tropical sweets.

St. Mark’s is fairly upscale--more come-as-you-wanna-be than come-as-you-are. To get a table or booth in the restaurant area, the food minimum is $15 on weeknights, $20 on weekends. But on weeknights, a $5 cover and the price of a drink is all it takes to sit (or, more likely, stand) at the bar. On Sunday, when the King Brothers perform, those wearing blue get in free. Wednesdays are ladies nights, with gratis admission for those with XX chromosomes.

And if you’re more interested in the singles kind of jazz than in discovering the new John Coltrane, take note: The bar action is hopping with men sporting big muscles and little ponytails talking to women with big hair and little skirts, improvising the kind of riffs that singles have used for years.

Name: St. Mark’s.

Where and when: 23 Windward Ave., Venice 90291. (310) 452-2222. Nightly except Monday.

Doorman: Large but low-key.

Dress: Dressy-casual or casual dress. No tanks, thongs or cutoff shorts.

Prices: Cover varies. Restaurant minimum $15-$20.