Chef Is Minding His Peas and Abiquius

Although Bikini in Santa Monica remains closed after the earthquake, and its chef-owner has been spending a lot of time in San Francisco, John Sedlar denies that he has deserted Los Angeles. He has just been busy getting a new restaurant, Abiquiu, ready for its opening in the Kimko-managed Monticello Inn. The Southwestern-style Abiquiu, named after Sedlar’s hometown in northern New Mexico, opened last week.

“I live here (in Los Angeles),” says Sedlar. “I’m consulting for Kimko (in San Francisco). I control food quality and write menus and I’ll be up there every month, but most of my time will be spent here. My major job is to get Bikini reopened.” Or at least a version of Bikini.

In the two years since he opened Bikini, the controversial chef has been picketed by Catholic parishioners for serving tamales on Madonna (not the pop star) plates and criticized for stenciling shock messages (“D.O.A.” and “drive by”) on dishes of Thai shrimp and veal chops. Later, when things died down, Sedlar announced that he would open a moderately priced spot, Abiquiu, on Bikini’s patio. Unfortunately, the earthquake changed those plans. Sedlar lost $200,000 in inventory alone, and took his Abiquiu idea to Kimko.

But Sedlar still wants to open an Abiquiu in Santa Monica, too. “Between the old partnership and new investors and government agencies and the landlord and my purveyors,” says Sedlar, “the attorneys are working very hard to bring it all together.”

Sedlar is aiming for a mid-June opening of the Bikini space--but the menu format is still unresolved. There’s one thing Sedlar is sure of. He definitely is going to keep the tamales. Says Sedlar: “New Madonna plates are coming in.”

UPROOTING? Several sources say that the top-rated Patina on Melrose may soon be relocating to a swankier address on Melrose Place in the old Le Restaurant space, but owner Joachim Splichal won’t confirm. “If I know something concrete and written in stone,” he told Calendar, “you’ll be the first to know.”

Splichal, who is opening two restaurants this year in downtown Los Angeles--Cafe Pinot, a California-French bistro near the Los Angeles Central Library, in October, and Patinette, an upscale snack bar at the Museum of Contemporary Art, in July--did deny a rumor that he planned to completely change Patina’s concept. “We do extremely well. We are here and we are doing the same thing: potatoes and potatoes and potatoes. It’s five years and people still come for potatoes and potatoes and potatoes.”

BUFFALO DAYS: Depending on who you talk to, the exclusive, very luxurious (the booths are real leather) Buffalo Club on Olympic Boulevard in Santa Monica is opening in two weeks or two months. Its creator, screenwriter Anthony Yerkovich, who also dreamed up the TV series “Miami Vice,” is out of town and could not be reached for comment. But manager Tom Kane says that there wasn’t any great rush to open. “We are detailing the place,” he says. “(Yerkovich) has a definite idea on how it’s going to be done. He wants to do everything with the right timing.”

The American-style menu--yes, it includes buffalo wings--is by consulting chef Patrick Healy, who recently signed a five-year contract to continue as executive chef at Xiomara in Pasadena. And what about the rumor that Buffalo Club’s windows are made of bulletproof glass? Says Kane: “I can’t get into anything.”

TERMINATOR IV: Robert Cocca has been promoted to executive chef at Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Schatzi on Main. The former Schatzi sous-chef replaces Mark Wexler, who replaced Michael Rosen, who replaced Lisa Stalvey. “The place is just not managed well at all,” says Wexler, who left the 2-year-old Santa Monica restaurant earlier this month after less than a year. “The management wouldn’t do anything unless they spoke to the guys at Planet Hollywood (partners in the restaurant).” But Wexler stresses that Schwarzenegger and his wife, Maria Shriver, had absolutely nothing to do with his decision to leave. “They have been very warm and friendly in all our encounters,” he says. “But they just came and ate.”

FINE FOOD: Susan Fine’s Hollywood Hills Coffee Shop & Market on Franklin near Beachwood Canyon is the best-kept secret in town, but that’s something she’s trying to change. Until recently, Fine sold Wolf ranges and other equipment at Avery restaurant supply in downtown Los Angeles; before that, she consulted at local restaurants (Seventh Street Bistro, the Beverly Hills Breakfast Club, Acme Grill, etc.) and opened the long-shuttered Cadillac Cafe. In March, she and her husband, designer Michael Moore (he started the Beverly Hills Breakfast Club), opened the upscale coffee shop in the Best Western Hollywood Hotel.

“The people who own the hotel ran a little market and coffee shop for 46 years,” says Fine. “When they retired, they asked if I was interested. They own the Beverly Laurel where Swingers is.” Fine says that she almost got the Swingers space, “but,” as she put it, “that’s another story.”

Opened for three meals daily, the menu includes freshly squeezed orange juice, cappuccino and espresso, fresh vegetable frittatas, double-double burgers “just like In-N-Out Burger,” and Chinese chicken salad. “(Best Western) is not the Mondrian,” says Fine, “but I’ll put my huevos rancheros up against anybody’s.”

CLOSINGS: Charlie Brown’s, a longtime fixture in Universal City, has closed its doors. . . . Former M.A.S.H. co-star Wayne Rogers has closed his Columbia Bar & Grill restaurant located on Sunset Boulevard and Gower Street in Hollywood the past nine years, but the six-month-old Pasadena branch remains open.

NOTED: The restaurant community was saddened to hear of the death of L.A. restaurateur and tastemaker Mario Tamayo who brought us Atlas, Cha Cha Cha, and Cafe Mambo.*