Valley Weekend : RESTAURANT REVIEW : Here’s a Jazz Club Where Cooking Counts : At Legends of Hollywood, gourmet pizzas, deli delights and meat entrees share the stage with top-notch musicians.

Legends of Hollywood isjazz nightclub in Studio City. This is what I love about L.A.

It was actually located in Hollywood, right at the corner of Hollywood Boulevard and Las Palmas Avenue, until owner Bob Marks moved it to Ventura Boulevard last year. At no time, I’m informed, has he been tempted to rename it Legends of Studio City.

Marks, a gray-haired, pony-tailed presence in a black turtleneck who haunts this expanded, funky new location, is legendary in his own right. He is a jazz drummer of some repute. Come for lunch and you’ll spot him making like Joe the Bartender in the restaurant’s darkened saloon area.

In the evenings, you may find him on the stage between the main dining room and the outdoor patio brushing out sweet sounds along with Freddy Hubbard, Phil Upchurch or any of the other well-known jazz artists who play here.

It’s dark inside this place--at noon, dark enough to be a set from “Interview With the Vampire.” The front dining room is strung with Christmas-style colored lights, but little or no outside light seeps in through the faux stained glass windows that frame the room. The brick walls glow an eerie red. If you are not comfortable with that, you can sit on the plant-filled back patio, which is at least partially exposed to sunlight.

On warm evenings, the patio is where everyone wants to sit because it’s near the stage. Unfortunately, the patio has only bar tables, and though technically it’s possible to eat on them, they’re crowded and uncomfortable for any party larger than one.

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Jazz clubs are not often known for the quality of the cooking. In Hollywood, places like Catalina Bar and Grill and Vine Street Bar and Grill serve food more as a courtesy than as a main focus (though exceptions do exist, such as Lunaria, where the kitchen is quite accomplished).

In that regard, Marks beats a good many of his competitors. Though nothing is strikingly original, Legends of Hollywood’s small menu rarely overreaches, and it lists a few surprisingly good dishes. The pizzas, salad dressings, soups and sauces are all made fresh here.

The 10 fluffy, medium-thick “gourmet” pizzas (oddly, not listed on the menu) are the headliners at lunch. The pizza called Lawrence of Arabia has an intriguing topping: sesame seeds, spicy sausage and garbanzo beans. It would really take off if the chef used lamb sausage.

The deli sandwiches--most of which, in show-biz deli tradition, are named for celebrities--share the lunch spotlight. The Jack Klugman is made with good steamed, hand-sliced pastrami. The corned beef sandwich, likewise made from tender meat that is steamed on the premises, is another serviceable choice.

The Letterman steak sandwich, however, is a tough, overcooked piece of beef on a nice French roll.

The dinner menu features prime rib, seafoods and pastas. Entrees come with good greens and a basket of crisp, non-greasy garlic bread.

Even so, I’d still pay extra for a salad--the spinach salad, which comes with a deliciously tart bacon dressing and slices of hard-boiled egg, or the Caesar (served for two), its pungent dressing rich with anchovies and egg yolk, coating the greens from top to bottom.

As for the entrees, one evening I had thick broiled pork chops beautifully glazed with a teriyaki-style brown sauce. Another night I had a nice piece of broiled orange roughy with a checca topping (raw tomato, garlic and basil) that would pass muster in most of the Italian restaurants on the street.

Good, thick, juicy prime rib can be had in a queen, king or English cut, served with a choice of baked or small roasted potatoes. The best pasta is probably sauteed calamari with angel hair, cooked properly al dente and tossed with chewy, garlicky rings of squid.

Desserts include a homemade apple tart with too much salt in the crust, a moist double-fudge chocolate layer cake with hot vanilla sauce and a ghastly strawberry cheesecake with more gelatin than cheese in the filling.

But I’m not too concerned with dessert in a place like Legends of Hollywood. The mellow sounds emanating from the stage here are sweet enough for me.

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DETAILS

WHERE: Legends of Hollywood, 11720 Ventura Blvd., Studio City.

SUGGESTED DISHES: Spinach salad, $6.95; pork chops, $12.95; calamari with angel-hair pasta, $11.50.

WHEN: Lunch, 11:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m. Monday-Friday; dinner, 5-11 p.m. nightly.

HOW MUCH: Dinner for two, $28-$39. Full bar. Parking lot. American Express, MasterCard and Visa.

CALL: (818) 760-6631.