A Princely New Trocadero

Just as May turned to June, a new supper club debuted on Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood. The opening was remarkably quiet, considering that one of the investors is--you know--the symbol, the megastar who used to be called Prince. His art director, Cliff Cunningham, designed the restaurant, and it’s less flashy than you’d imagine, a demure Art Deco vision of burnished walls and stenciled borders with two tiny enclosed patios. To evoke the glamour of old Hollywood, co-owner Bambi Byrens borrowed the name of the legendary Cafe Trocadero, a fixture on Sunset in the ‘30s and ‘40s.

She found a cache of photos of the original club and its star-studded clientele at a photo archive. Here, framed on the wall, is a young George Burns with Gracie forever at his side, a dapper Robert Cummings and the dreamy trio of Olivia de Havilland, Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh. In the ladies’ room, a copy of a March 31, 1938, telegram to Cecil B. DeMille at Paramount advises the director that since special party decorations for the Apache Ball at the Trocadero could not be delivered on time, the club had postponed the ball until the next week--urgent news.

The chef at the diminutive new Trocadero is Robert Gadsby, who has worked at half a dozen local restaurants in the last couple of years, including Xiomara and Olive.

The homage to the original Trocadero stops short at the menu. This one is very much of the eclectic here and now: butternut squash soup garnished with a dab of spicy mashed potatoes and crisp shrimp dumplings; potato-wrapped Santa Barbara spot prawns; grilled swordfish with dill-scented Yukon gold mashed potatoes, bitter greens and potato gnocchi; peppered summer berries with ginger and white chocolate ice cream. Vegetarians get a special bento box, described as a postmodern tower of vegetarian delights.

Trocadero plans to be open late, serving the full menu until a wide-awake 2 a.m.

* Trocadero Restaurant, 8280 W. Sunset Blvd. (at Sweetzer), West Hollywood, (213) 656-7161. Open Monday to Friday for lunch, daily for dinner (until 2 a.m.). Valet parking dinner only. All major credit cards. Appetizers, $5-$8; entrees, $12-$15.