Downtown Sonora Cafe Steps Into Midtown City’s Shoes

Just about the time City Restaurant’s Mary Sue Milliken and Susan Feniger were ready to throw in the towel, Ron Salisbury was considering relocating his popular downtown Southwest restaurant, the Original Sonora Cafe. The space was right. A deal was struck. And now “the new” Sonora Cafe has moved into City’s cavernous La Brea quarters.

Salisbury could have introduced a few well-placed cactus plants, splashed some color onto the bare concrete walls and left it at that. But no, he went for a major renovation. The Southwest mise-en-scene now includes a huge fireplace with lizards hugging the sides, a copper-trimmed staircase descending from on high, chandeliers as big as Ferris wheels and chairs so oversized you feel like Alice after she swallowed the incredible shrinking pill--or indulged in one too many of the Sonora’s potent margaritas.

The menu has made the move intact and reads word for word like the original. Yes, they’ve still got skinny chile-dusted onion rings, chile relleno in a blue corn jacket and roast duck glazed with sticky sweet pomegranate-tequila sauce. It doesn’t look as if they’ve gentrified the “cowboy-cut” Black Angus rib chop, weighing in at 18 ounces, any either. But will the fancy squirt work with the sauces and dishes like quesadilla stuffed with brie and apple-smoked bacon impress the new neighborhood as much as it did the young downtown set? Stay tuned.

* Sonora Cafe, 180 S. La Brea, Los Angeles. (213) 857-1800. Open Monday through Saturday for dinner; Monday through Friday for lunch and Saturday for brunch. Major credit cards accepted. Valet parking. Appetizers $5.75-$8.75; entrees $10.75-$21.95.