Academy Hopes Puck Will Lure Film Elite

Wolfgang Puck and a team of his top chefs may be catering the Governors Ball this year, but that doesn’t necessarily mean his renowned Sunset Strip pizza restaurant will be dark on Oscar night.

“We have someone who wants to host a party at Spago,” says Puck. “We’ll know for sure next week whether we are going to do it or not.” Last year, Puck closed Spago to honor the memory of the late legendary Oscar-night host Swifty Lazar. The A-list had to find somewhere else to party that night.

Hoping to keep the Governors Ball, the official post-Academy Awards soiree, from being over-shadowed by parties at Morton’s, Maple Drive and others that try to lure Hollywood’s elite, the academy has hired Puck & Co. to feed the 1,700 guests expected at Shrine Auditorium March 27. For the past three years, the Governors Ball was held at the Music Center where Pavilion Catering, whose parent company owns Coco’s, Carrows and Chi Chi’s, has held an exclusive contract.

Puck and his chefs, including Makoto Tanaka of Chinois on Main, David Robins of Spago Las Vegas and Kevin Ripley of Granita, will cook the best of Puck--his famous Spago Jewish pizza topped with cream cheese, smoked salmon and caviar; crostini with foie gras ; Chino Ranch chopped salad; roasted salmon with horseradish crust and mashed potatoes; and Chinois’ Mongolian lamb chops, spring rolls and stir-fried vegetables. Dessert will be chocolate hazelnut cake with an Oscar on top.

“There aren’t that many people who can put an event like this together,” says Puck. “Most caterers don’t have 25 chefs who are good cooks. They have 25 actors . . . and actors don’t want to cook.”

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Monkey Bar II?: If you think you’ve seen the last of the Monkey Bar, think again. Although the onetime celebrity hangout closed last month, owner Alan Finkelstein has been toying with the idea of turning the space into a private club.

“My better customers sat me down and said they wanted me to do something different,” says Finkelstein, who is still working out the details. “I’m definitely going to reopen and I’ll probably keep the name. I should know something more definite within a week.”

When the windowless Beverly Boulevard restaurant opened two years ago, it was tough to get in; you had to book two weeks in advance--and then be grateful for a 6:30 slot. And why not? Jack Nicholson was co-owner and the customers were either celebs or looked as if they were. Familiar faces like Glenn Close, Nick Nolte, Mickey Rourke and Shannen Doherty were in attendance. And in its early days, so was Heidi Fleiss.

Plus, the place was comfortable and quiet, the service attentive and unobtrusive. And the food was actually good: Chef Gordon Naccarato’s global menu included things such as lobster tacos, roast chicken with garlicky mashed potatoes, Thai noodle salad and Moroccan-spiced lamb.

“Gordon,” says Finkelstein, “definitely stays with the restaurant.”

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Fan Fan Folds: Is bigger necessarily better? C’est Fan Fan, formerly lodged in an itty-bitty 12-seat space on the western fringe of Echo Park, was once one of L.A.’s trendiest restaurants. Then chef Hajime Kaki, a veteran of Chinois on Main and New York’s China Grill, moved his Franco-Asian restaurant to larger digs near La Cienega. For some reason, the new place never caught on and now C’est Fan Fan has folded. The space is being remodeled and will reopen as Tonno, which means tuna in Italian.

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Quick Bites: Porta Via, an Italian take-out, has opened in Beverly Hills just up from the Canon Drive hair salon Umberto. . . . Good news for fans of Raffaele, the neighborhood Italian cafe on Little Santa Monica between Bedford and Camden. New owner Michael Nimier plans to double its size. . . . Music Center attendees also have reason to rejoice. McCormick & Schmick’s downtown has introduced a late-night $1.95 menu. Dishes on sale weeknights between 3 and 7 and again from 9:30 to 11:30 include fish tacos, spicy buffalo wings, steak Fajita sandwich, shrimp cocktail and chocolate truffle cake.