Market Street for Takeout Before Takeoff

Actor Dudley Moore and producer-director Tony Bill must have had some savage plane food recently, because they’ve just initiated high-flying takeout meals at the restaurant they own in Venice.

With a little creative routing, 72 Market Street can be considered right on the way to LAX. Give them 24-hours notice and you can make a pit stop for Maine lobster salad, veal with wild rice, artichoke and summer vegetables or grilled marinated chicken with yellow Finn potato soup. The carry-on lunches include utensils and the ever-essential wine glass and corkscrew. For shorter flights, consider the ready-to-fly sandwich box with a slab of 72 Market’s classic meatloaf on country bread. To order, ask for “Just Plane Food” at (310) 392-8720.

Sonoma Newcomer: A lemon yellow Victorian, originally built for Natalia, the daughter of Gen. M. G. Vallejo, is the setting for a new wine country restaurant, the General’s Daughter. The chef is J.J. Buchanan, former executive chef at the classic Hayes Street Grill in San Francisco. The address: 400 W. Spain St., Sonoma; (707) 938-4004.

Jack Sprat: Mark Brown, chef-owner of Half Moon Cafe in Encino, is opening a new restaurant on Pico Boulevard in West Los Angeles at the end of the month. Its name, Sprat Grille, comes from the old nursery rhyme, “Jack Sprat could eat no fat. . . .” And it will feature California cuisine prepared with a minimum of fat. But what about the rest of the rhyme--”and his wife could eat no lean”? Some couples are like that. Has Brown considered side-by-side lean and fat restaurants?

Chef Moves: Thomas Tran, corporate chef for Kachina Grill downtown and for Babylon and Roxbury in West Hollywood, has gone home to Orange County, where he has signed on as executive chef at 5-month-old Ti Amo in Laguna Beach. He plans to add some Mediterranean dishes to the Italian menu. He’s also building a tapas bar, which should be finished sometime next month, on the patio.

Meanwhile Ti Amo’s opening chef, Peter Higginson, has taken a position as consulting chef for the Last Mango, opening late September in Newport Beach. Inspired by Greens in San Francisco, the vegetarian restaurant is the project of Lloyd Itano, former owner of the Carmel health foods restaurant Cornucopia. Elizabeth Dennis is executive chef.

More Openings: It has been two decades since Du-par’s, the down-home fixture at the original Farmers Market, has ventured to open a new restaurant. Now Thousand Oaks residents won’t have to drive to Studio City or Glendale to indulge in Du-par’s chicken or steak and kidney pie or a big slice of boysenberry or peach pie a la mode. . . . BJ’s Chicago Pizzeria has just opened its 10th restaurant, this one a 110-seater right on Main Street in Huntington Beach. The grand opening on Sept. 22 will be an all-you-can-eat pizza party to benefit the Surfrider Foundation, a charity dedicated to protecting beaches and oceans around the world. For the $8 tickets, call (310) 491-1000. . . . The Warner Center in Woodland Hills will soon have a new tenant. Replacing the Rusty Pelican is Houston’s, part of a 25-restaurant chain featuring traditional American fare. . . . And new on Sunset Boulevard (across from Roxbury) is Bandidos, featuring “straight ahead Mexican food” and “lethal martinis.” Better bring a designated driver.

Matinee Menu: When the afternoon show lets out at theaters along Santa Monica’s Third Street Promenade, stroll down the way to Locanda del Lago for a specially priced matinee menu of appetizers and pizzas. From 5 to 7 p.m. Sunday through Friday, movie buffs can nibble on rustic bruschetta , grilled vegetables, fresh tiger shrimp and potato skins topped with Gorgonzola and pancetta , all at half-price.

The Raw and the Rawhide: East meets West every Sunday with sushi and football at Hakata Restaurant in Santa Monica. A big-screen TV and four more sets are strategically positioned around the restaurant. Owner Margie Nakamura has planned a menu of sushi and other Japanese dishes to accompany the pigskin action on the tube.

Music to Eat By: It’s outright romantic: Monday nights at the Players Restaurant in Beverly Hills, a violin-accordion duo will play everything from gypsy tunes and Hungarian harmonies to opera arias and old show tunes. “They have quite a repertoire,” says a manager. “And they’ll take requests, too.” . . . Business that’s true blues? The House of Blues, that palatial tin shack on Sunset Strip, now offers an acoustic blues set weekdays from noon to 2 p.m. on the porch outside. While digging into the baby back ribs or a chicken-fried steak, blues fans can listen to the likes of Al Blake, Larry Taylor, Fred Kaplan and Bernie Pearl--live.

Kathie Jenkins, who usually writes this column, is on vacation.