The Horror! The Horror! This Chef’s Had Enough of L.A.

Chef Ian Winslade has roasted his last monkfish at Opus.

A year ago, Winslade, who came out to California with Eberhard Mueller from Le Bernardin in New York, took over the kitchen when Mueller was suddenly evicted. Before long, owner Charles Almond said that the restaurant, in Santa Monica’s Water Garden complex, had stopped losing money and was a much happier place.

But now Winslade is calling it quits. His last night was Saturday. “Opus has been a bitter disappointment for me,” he says. “It has never really lifted itself off the ground. I’ve tried very hard to make the place work, but we’ve been stuck with problems from the start.”

In the short time the British-born chef has lived here, there have been riots, earthquakes and floods. “On top of that,” says Winslade, “there were the problems with Eberhard, two cars of mine were broken into, and they tried to steal my motorcycle. It’s been a horror story for me.”

Now Winslade is going South, where he will be opening chef at Tom Tom, a low-priced, 175-seat bistro concept being built in Atlanta’s Lennox Square Mall. “Everything is booming there,” says Winslade. “Even on a Monday night all the good restaurants in town are packed.”

Meanwhile at Opus, sous-chef Frank McMahon (he was also a sous-chef at Le Bernardin) will replace Winslade. “We are expanding the menu--adding lots of pastas and seafood dishes--and moving in the right direction,” says Almond. “Also, we are having (L.A.’s ex-Checkers chef) Tom Keller guest chef here every other Monday, starting this month, and (former L’Orangerie pastry chef) Yvan Valentin is doing a great breakfast menu for us.” In two weeks, Opus will open for a European-style (serve yourself) breakfast weekdays.

“Opus is still one of the best undiscovered spots in L.A.,” adds Almond. “It’s not a place that is on people’s minds--they don’t drive by it every day. They don’t say, ‘Let’s all go to the Water Garden.’ ”

MORE CHEF SHIFTS: Former Ritz-Carlton Pasadena chef Bernard Bordaries spent a lot of time working on his tan at the beach in Malibu after he was ousted from his job last December. Now the chef is back in France and has picked up a star in the Guide Michelin. But what’s with Bordaries and water? The restaurant he’s cooking at, Pavillon Sevigne, is in the sparkling spa town of Vichy. . . . Hugo Veltman, who last was sous-chef at Joachim Splichal’s Patina on Melrose, has taken over the kitchen at Capri restaurant in Venice, and has changed the menu. Former co-chefs Josiah Citrin and Raphael Lunetta (before that they also cooked together at Patina) quit to be opening co-chefs at the lodge-themed Jackson’s on Beverly.

GIVE ME A HOME: Patrick Healy, who left Champagne to his ex-wife, and is now consulting chef at Xiomara in Pasadena, will also consult at the very private, rustic-themed Buffalo Club, currently under construction in Santa Monica. Although Healy won’t talk about it (“nothing really has been finalized,” he says), sources say that one of L.A.’s top screenwriters was forced to build the exclusive club to counteract the imminent expansion of Morton’s. The big names are worried: Now that it is moving across the street into the former Trumps space, owner Peter Morton might just let anyone in on Monday nights.

BEEFY DEAL: The other Morton’s will let anyone in on Monday night--you can even get a free filet mignon steak sandwich. The deal is at Arnie Morton’s of Chicago (that’s Peter’s father’s place) in Beverly Hills. And there’s just one hitch: The food is served in the 30-foot bar where Monday Night Football will be blaring over the big screen.

BRASSERIE MANDARIN?: It has always been cheaper to eat lunch than dinner at the Mandarin in Beverly Hills. Things have changed. “High-ticket dining is on the decline,” says owner Philip Chiang, “so it’s only appropriate to keep up with the times.” Now the 18-year-old restaurant’s lunch, dinner and take-out menus share the same price range, which means a 20% to 25% savings to dinner customers. Lunch customers also benefit--many of dishes served only at dinner have been added to the lunch menu. “We will probably evolve into a Chinese brasserie,” says Chiang.

CLOSINGS: Silvio DeMori’s 6-year-old Fairfax Avenue Italian trattoria Tuttobene. . . . The Beverly Hills Bar & Grill, formerly known as the Rangoon Racquet Club.