CLUB REVIEW : Pursuing Guilty Pleasures on the Westside

The ‘80s--the pre-junk-bond, pre-Irangate and pre-savings-and-loan-debacles ‘80s--are back. At Westside Billiards Cafe, it’s as if those days of pure, moneyed escapism never left. For those of us who are still having trouble getting used to the ‘70s being back in vogue, a trip to the new room on the ground floor of the Beverly Center is a bit of a guilty pleasure.

Sure, a lot of bad new-wave haircuts and off-the-shoulder fashions came out of that period, but much of the pop music was truly lovely, as the Cafe’s selection will remind you.

The music, which gently floats over the club’s restaurant and billiard rooms like a soothing stress reliever, is all from the early to mid-’80s. Ballads from Sade, Bryan Ferry, Peter Gabriel and U2 are intertwined with more upbeat numbers by Eurythmics, Pet Shop Boys and Duran Duran.

Songs by Bob Marley as well as Tina Turner piping over the sound system take you back to a time that--if only by appearances--seemed less fraught with urban violence and woe.

* Westside Billiards Cafe, 8612 Beverly Blvd., at the Beverly Center, (310) 289-2626.