Mellower Moonlight

If you want a taste of what night life was like in postwar America, when the San Fernando Valley took shape, check out the new decor--and the new menu--at Lenetta Kidd’s Moonlight supper club in Sherman Oaks.

Kidd remodeled Moonlight just before summer began in an effort to give reality to the idea that 1950s America, with its bright colors, soft lighting and bold shapes, was anything but stodgy. She wanted to create a place where one might get a good meal and dance to great music--a classic supper club, the sort of place your parents went to when they wanted to remind themselves that life promised pleasures outside of work and family.

Moonlight’s decor was inspired by the work of architect Morris Lepidus, who designed such artifacts of the postwar era as the Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas and the Fontainbleu Hotel in Miami Beach. And to shape her new menu, Kidd and chef Richard Swensen burrowed into the rare-books section in the Los Angeles Library to study the menus of supper clubs dating all the way back to the turn of the century.

The results:

* Atlantic salmon with a cucumber and tarragon hollandaise and duchess potatoes, from the menu of the Flamingo Hotel, circa 1965.

* “Cannibal” steak with a bordelaise sauce and crisp Vidalia onions, from the menu of a Prohibition-era New York speak-easy run by the actress “Texas” Guinans, whose trademark smart-aleck greeting was, “Hello, sucker.”

* Charbroiled chicken in a lemon marinade and a cilantro “shimmy” sauce, from the menu of a house of ill repute called the Texas Forever Bordello, circa 1908.

* Filet mignon with either a bearnaise mushroom sauce or percy butter, from San Francisco’s El Matador Night Club, circa 1955.

* A paella with lobster, shellfish, chicken, chorizo and saffron rice, from the Havana dive El Floridita, circa 1956.

* And last but not least, a not-to-be-missed roasted rack of New Zealand lamb encrusted with mustard, olive oil, bread crumbs and rosemary, from New York’s El Morocco, circa 1963.

Prices max out at $16.95.

Kidd offers a host of appetizers for $2.95--grilled shrimp tapas, a baby lamb chop, artichoke hearts, spinach with pine nuts and raisins, eggplant with red peppers, and squid in lemon and garlic, among others.

And her desserts range from crepes Suzette (from the menu of the Brown Derby in Hollywood, circa 1929) to a French vanilla ice cream taco with a fruit salsa (from the Texas Lone Star Saloon, circa 1915). The recipe for yet another dessert--a roasted pecan banana creme bru^lee with Belgian chocolate--comes from the Moonlight Tango Cafe, which Kidd took over and renamed the Moonlight last year.

Moonlight features live music six nights a week--big band music Tuesdays, Latin music Wednesdays, swing on Thursdays, and Kidd’s own group, Trio Moonlight, with which she sings, Fridays through Sundays.

Moonlight is at 13730 Ventura Blvd., Sherman Oaks, (818) 788-2000.

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Salvatorre Caredda and partner Paolo Equinozio added a luncheon buffet with a variety of salads and vegetables to offerings at their restaurant Il Balcone in Sherman Oaks this week.

The $6.95 buffet includes greens and vegetables for salad, cold cuts, grilled vegetables, an Italian potato salad, and beefsteak tomatoes topped with mozzarella. Lunch guests also get complimentary focaccia, a delicious Italian bread served with olive oil and rosemary.

As always, Caredda and Equinozio experiment with their pastas and with the specials they offer for dinner guests but not with the restaurant’s basic menu, which remains pretty much the same year in and year out.

Il Balcone is at 14633 Ventura Blvd., Sherman Oaks, (818) 995-9380.

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* Juan Hovey writes about the restaurant scene in the San Fernando Valley and outlying points. Call (805) 492-7909, fax (805) 492-5139 or e-mail him at JHovey@compuserve.com