Money and an Attitude Required

Out of the rain, here they come, expensively dressed night crawlers looking for new places to pose and smoke and flirt. And here’s Tatou, ready and waiting, with beefy body-builder valet parkers and a sleek blonde doorwoman who carries a walkie-talkie and an attitude that intimidates all but the very hip.

Inside, the room--with cushy fabric palm trees that reach to the tent-draped ceiling and glimmer in the light that bounces off the room’s many disco balls--is either gorgeous or grotesque.

“It’s beautiful! I love it here!” says a woman with tall, fluffy hair.

“The designer can’t be from California,” says another woman at another table. “Don’t they know palm trees bore us?”

The crowd itself is hard to peg. On the one hand you have celebrities like Tony Curtis, with his million-dollar smile and a boothful of beautiful people; but then there’s Mickey Rourke, who makes his entrance with a sneer and a tug at his black leather motorcycle jacket. In other words, there are men with chest hair and men with greasy hair. Go figure.

There’s an upstairs club with yet another doorperson, but there’s plenty of action downstairs where a band plays blues standards during dinner. Chef Desi Szonntagh, who oversaw the openings of the first two Tatous in Aspen and New York, makes modern American grill food--lobster chowder, trout hash, a veal chop served with a mushroom pie, a fine New York steak. It’s good food, but nothing that will divert your attention from the scene . . . or those palm trees.

* Tatou, 233 N. Beverly Drive, Beverly Hills, (310) 274-9955. Dinner for two, food only, $30-$65.