Silver Hopes to Strike Gold in Bev Hills

First there was Noa Noa, the wacky Polynesian place with surf sounds in the bathroom and purple potatoes on the plate. Colored spuds came and went and so did Noa Noa. So the owners of the Beverly Hills restaurant came up with a new concept and brought in the Tucson-based Cafe Terra Cotta. The Southwestern restaurant lasted seven weeks. Then the owners gave up, and put the space up for sale.

“I predicted before they opened, Terra Cotta wouldn’t last two months,” says new owner Stan Silver. “The menu was all wrong. It was too spicy, too Southwestern. People in Beverly Hills and Encino do not eat that kind of food.” Silver, who owns the 6-year-old Silver Grille in Encino, says he knows what they eat: Grill food. “People are health conscious,” he says, “they want clean cooking. The kind of food they cook at home.”

Silver had been looking for a location for two years--mainly in the San Fernando Valley and Brentwood--before he bought Noa Noa. “The Valley is the toughest neighborhood in the world to be successful,” he says. “At 9 at night it’s finished. They are going to bed.”

After a minor face-lift, Silver Grille Beverly Hills will open Aug. 1. The food, Silver emphasizes, will be simple and cheap, from $5.95 for a half-pound burger to $17.95 for a rib steak. “I am the Grill in Beverly Hills,” he says, “at less than half the price.”

WILL THE REAL CHEF PLEASE STAND UP?: Georges and Robert Lachkar, who owned the former Cassis and Entourage, have opened Le Petit Bistro on La Cienega Boulevard. Opening chef is Marcel Cadoret who once cooked at Entourage. “He is cooking exactly what we wanted him to,” says Georges Lachkar, “true bistro food.”

And what about Dominique Besson, whom the brothers hired to cook at the bistro before it it opened? “That man was an impostor,” Georges Lachkar says. “He never worked as a chef. He did food prep. I am glad we caught it in time.”

Says Besson: “I don’t have to prove myself.” Indeed. Roland Gibert, who closed Tulipe on Melrose Avenue last Saturday, is one of Southern California’s finest chefs and he says, “Dominique cooked with me at the Radisson in Manhattan Beach, and he was sous-chef at Tulipe.”

A FAREWELL TO ATTITUDE: “We’ve changed our menu, lowered our prices and have hired Herve from Granita and Spago as maitre d’,” says Tryst chef Ralf Marhencke (formerly of Noa Noa). “We’ve finally got rid of this attitude, and are trying to be more serious about dining.” In addition to a new menu and lower prices, the La Cienega Boulevard restaurant now offers a three-course prix-fixe ($25) special daily. “The same thing happened to me at Noa Noa,” says Marhencke. “We opened way too fast, too many people and all of a sudden it died because people were waiting too long for tables. It was just a mess. Hopefully, we have straightened it out here.”

OPENINGS: Masquers Cafe, a newly renovated coffeehouse/cafe on Third Street, open for dinner daily and lunch Wednesday through Saturday, by Harris Smith of the former Hollywood Masquers on Sycamore. “We are trying to be the most classy coffeehouse in town,” says Smith. “Most of them are all grungy.”

And Kiosk at Nicola, downtown, an outdoor stand featuring upscale fast food from roast pork sandwiches to Salvadoran tamales. Brought to you by Larry and Melisa Nicola, owners of the former Silver Lake restaurant (currently the site of Colbalt Cantina), future projects in the Sanwa Bank Building include Nicola Restaurant (three weeks), Nicola Tower Delivery Service (July) and Nicola Catering (July).