Ken Frank Trades In Blues for Argyle

Goodby baby back ribs. Hello again truffled eggs. A year ago, Ken Frank sold his 14-year-old French restaurant La Toque, packed up his knives and headed a few blocks down the Sunset Strip to the kitchen at Isaac Tigrett’s House of Blues. Despite a rough start, Frank had a great time, didn’t have to work too hard and heard some great music.

Now Frank is moving on again, but he’ll still be in the neighborhood. He’s taking over the kitchen at the Argyle, the landmark Sunset Strip hotel formerly known as the St. James’ Club. Before that, as Sunset Tower, it was home to Jean Harlow, Errol Flynn and John Wayne (who kept a cow on his balcony so he could have fresh milk every day). The property has recently been purchased by the Lancaster Group (owners of the Jefferson in Washington, the Tremont in Chicago and the Inn at Great Neck in New York) and is being renovated. The restaurant will close for a short time and reopen sometime in March with a new name.

“They want me to run a great restaurant my way,” says Frank. “I’ve been offered some great opportunities this past year, but this just seemed to be the right thing.”

The restaurant will have its own parking lot and an entrance separate from the hotel. “That way it won’t seem like a hotel restaurant,” says Frank, “yet I can still run catering and room service out of the kitchen.”

Frank’s California-French menu will likely include his luxurious truffled eggs, his wonderful rosti potatoes topped with caviar, his splendid salads, his amazing fish. “I don’t think my basic style will change much,” the chef says. “I’ll just go where I go.”

Coming up with a name was easy too. Seven years ago, Frank was planning to convert La Toque into a more casual, less pricey place to be called Fenix (French for phoenix , as in that which rises from the ashes). He changed his mind, but he’s had the name registered all these years waiting for this moment. “I’ve always liked the name,” he says. “Sometime good things just take time to happen.”

The House of Blues has not found a replacement for Frank yet. “We should be making a decision within the next few days,” says a spokeswoman for the club.

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Restaurant Owner for a Day: El Cholo on Western is for sale. Owner Ron Salisbury is putting his Mexican restaurant on the block for $1.

Of course, there’s a catch. Salisbury wants to buy the Los Angeles Police Department a squad car and he wants your help. Stop by any of his three restaurants (El Cholo, Sonora Cafe on La Brea or even in La Habra at the Cat & the Custard Cup) and buy a raffle ticket for $1. As soon as he’s collected $22,000--the price of a police car--Salisbury will hold the drawing. The city gets a new black-and-white; the winning ticket-holder gets the keys to El Cholo for a day. That means the winner opens the restaurant, directs the crew, chooses the specials, works the door, even treats friends to lunch . . . and keeps the profits at the end of the day.

“People dream of owning their own restaurant,” says Salisbury. “This way they’ll get a chance to find out what it’s like and take home some money at the same time.” Los Angeles benefits, too, by getting another police car out on the street.

Before he could put his plan into action, Salisbury had to clear it with LAPD top brass. Apparently, one can’t just drop off a police car. At one time, the department couldn’t accept any donations. “(Mayor Richard) Riordan changed things around so that the city can now receive things like this,” says the restaurateur. “There are all these resources out there. It doesn’t really cost anybody anything and we all benefit.”

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Quick Bites: Florian, the year-old Italian restaurant located in the former Tryst space on La Cienega, closed Wednesday. . . . Leonardo Curti has left Cicada on Melrose and is now cooking at Pane Caldo Bistro in West Hollywood. . . . A second branch of Celestino Drago’s Beverly Hills pasta cafe Il Pastaio opens Tuesday in Pasadena. . . . The Bar at the Ritz-Carlton, Huntington Hotel in Pasadena now has a Martini Club. After sampling 14 interpretations of the cocktail--presumably not in the same sitting--club members are awarded a crystal martini glass. . . . Joe Venezia and Carla Ugolini-Venezia--who met while working at I Cugini in Santa Monica, where Venezia was chef and Ugolini was general manager--have taken over Il Boccaccio in Hermosa Beach. Venezia’s Italian menu features such dishes as polenta with wild mushrooms and fondue, risotto with squid in its ink, seafood pastas and grilled meats and fish.

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For more restaurant coverage see the Los Angeles Times Magazine on Sunday and the Food Section on Thursday.