Where Two Worlds Dance
In a world where there’s more chance of the lion lying down with the lamb than of a kid being caught dead in the same nightclub as his parents, Tatou is happily dancing a tightrope.
The Beverly Hills club wants to span the generation gap by luring the young and the tenaciously youthful to dance under one roof--on different floors.
Though Rudolf, the club’s German-born, mono-named, co-designer, acknowledges getting the right social blend is difficult (he and the other designer, Richard Cannon, have experience with Tatous in Manhattan and Aspen), he says some merging is just what Los Angeles needs.
“There’s too much segmentation in Los Angeles, too much fragmentation,” he says. “I want to mix the best of very cool people of all groups.”
The rooms where Rudolf plans to do the mixing are impressive, especially the downstairs supper club. This is a room designed with such over-the-top silliness even image-conscious business executives become playful.
Rudolf describes the room as looking like “a ‘40s musical that was colorized.” Cannon says it’s what Rick’s place in “Casablanca” would be today.
Part of the Cocoanut Grove-goes-psychedelic decor includes 10 fiberglass palms, wired with fiber-optic lights that change color. The green copper fronds hold coconut-shaped lights that hang over the dining area. A billowing, tented ceiling is centered on a six-foot chandelier. The walls are covered in cream-colored drapes. There are also a stage and a dance floor that’s set with tables until 10 p.m.
“People want to dance,” Rudolf says. “They want something more than food for a great dinner out.”
Maybe the genius of the place is that it’s a serious restaurant that doesn’t take itself seriously. The decor, says Rudolf, is “all so frivolous and meaningless that it makes people feel good.”
Getting any male over 40 with an inflated sense of his social standing / power to stand up and dance is no easy task. But when the tables are moved back, at Tatou they rise like helium. OK, so they’re not the world’s greatest dancers.
Meanwhile, at 10 p.m., the club upstairs opens through a side door. This crowd looks like the 10-year reunion from “Beverly Hills, 90210.” It is about as Melrose Avenue multicultural as any place in Beverly Hills is going to get.
The dark, 4,000-square-foot room the younger crowd fills is described by Rudolf as a “Victorian train station that’s misplaced in time.” It has an arched copper ceiling, burgundy carpet, a selection of impressionistic paintings by Tony Curtis and enough velvet and tassels to do a Transylvanian castle.
“The idea was to take a huge space . . . and turn it into something romantic,” says Rudolf. “Most places in L.A. are too impersonal. People here are already lonely. Cold, impersonal places do not add to what people want.”
What people can do at Tatou upstairs is dance, drink or inspect the Curtis art. Most dance. The music--a mix that deejay Chris Monaco says includes ‘70s, funk, rare groove, soul, hip-hop and house--is loud. In this open area, it’s inescapable, and conversation impossible. The dance floor by comparison is small. Dancers flail elbow to elbow, while the lounge and bar areas have plenty of space.
By midnight on a recent evening, there was room on the downstairs dance floor. Most of the downstairs crowd had gone upstairs, some of the younger crowd had come down to look around.
It’s by having these two worlds meet, that Tatou makes its mark.
* Name: Tatou.
* Location: 233 N. Beverly Drive, Beverly Hills. For reservations, (310) 274-9955.
* Cost: For the club, entry is $10 Tue., Wed., Thurs.; $15 Fri. and Sat. Beers are $3 and $4; mixed drinks $5 to $7. The upstairs is open 10 p.m. to 3 a.m. weekdays, until 4 a.m. weekends. Dinner entrees are from $13 to $25. Dinner patrons have free access to the upstairs club.
* Door Policy: Ambiguous. It’s not first come, first served, but it’s not picking from the crowd. Some potential patrons are told they need jackets to get in, some aren’t. Seems to be an evolving policy.