Minding His Own Business

Out of the Tower: Chef Akira Hirose, who ran the stoves for five years at the Tower in the Transamerica Center downtown, and before that at the Belvedere in the Peninsula Beverly Hills Hotel, has opened his own restaurant in Pasadena called Akira. This is actually not the first time Hirose has been an owner. In Japan, he ran his own French restaurant for eight years--so, as he puts it, “I had an owner mind.” And he wanted to open his own place here “before I get really lazy.”

On the lunch menu you’ll find salads such as ginger-marinated Atlantic salmon with caper dressing and smoked duck with balsamic walnut dressing. At dinner, appetizers include ahi tuna with sesame soy sauce, aspic of vegetable ratatouille and foie gras flan. There’s a court-bouillon of seafood soup and entrees such as baby rack of lamb, veal sweetbreads with shiitake mushrooms, miso-marinated Chilean sea bass on the grill and roast quail stuffed with dried fruit. Akira is open for lunch and dinner Tuesday-Saturday, brunch and dinner Sunday.

* Akira, 713 E. Green St., Pasadena; (626) 796-4538.

Return of the Round Table: The Round Table restaurant will be reopening by Monday after a lengthy remodeling. New owners have bought the 44-year-old Santa Monica steak house, but they won’t be changing the name or the concept. (There is, however, a new slogan: “American dining with European flair.”) New general manager Mieke Celina describes the redec as “a majorly updated, charming, classic, contemporary environment.” Whatever that means. New look aside, the special dish will still be prime rib.

* The Round Table, 2460 Wilshire Blvd., Santa Monica; (310) 828-2217.

Food on Film (or Vice Versa): A documentary about the American Jewish delicatessen screens Sunday at 2:15 p.m. at the Laemmle Musical Hall as part of the L.A. Jewish Film Festival. “Divine Food: 100 Years in the Kosher Delicatessen” follows a family in its trade of manufacturing kosher deli products. The film was produced by L. John Harris of Harris Publishing Co. and Bill Chayes of the Judah L. Magnes Museum.

* Laemmle Music Hall, 9036 Wilshire Blvd., Beverly Hills; (310) 274-6869.

Late-Breaking Halloween Events: Abiento has a costume contest, candy for the kids, free Tarot readings and free dessert for those who dress up on Fright Night, 5-10 p.m. Menu specials include carrot ginger soup and pumpkin pie with a pecan crust. Abiento’s at 110 S. Lake Ave., Pasadena; call (626) 449-4151 for reservations. . . . Connolly’s is serving a Halloween menu from now until Nov. 31 for $32. The courses are butternut squash soup, roasted pork loin with cider reduction and russet potatoes and pumpkin pie encased in pastry and topped with pumpkin chiffon; 11510 W. Pico Blvd., L.A., (310) 479-2133 for reservations. . . . Cha Cha Cha Encino wants to draw you in with the live reggae music of Fire and Brimstone, beginning at 8:30 p.m. Its spooky, but cheesy, named menu specials (trust us, you really don’t want us to name them) include a lobster bisque, coconut shrimp and paella. Cha Cha Cha is at 17499 Ventura Blvd.; call (818) 789-3600. . . . The hosts at Locanda del Lago on Santa Monica’s Third Street Promenade will be providing costumes for a mere $1 to those dull enough not to wear any to their restaurant on the Night of High Evil. After you sup on horrific specials such as black pasta, halibut in blood-orange sauce and rare beef tenderloin with roasted garlic (ooh, kids, scary!), you can dance in a simulated graveyard once the dining room is cleared for partying around 11 p.m. Locanda del Lago is at 231 Arizona Ave., and it’s (310) 451-3525 for reservations.

Dawn of the Dead Parties: North (viz. the Hollywood restaurant of that name) is calling its party a Day of the Dead celebration, even though it takes place on Halloween itself. Maybe this is so the cool people don’t have to dress up. The $35 four-course menu includes items like chicken and red chili tamales and achiote-marinated sea bass. Every meal comes with an El Diablo Margarita. North, 8029 Sunset Blvd.; (213) 654-1313. . . . Connolly’s, which is already aboard for Halloween, is pulling out all the stops for the Day of the Dead, which it celebrates Nov. 3. That night the restaurant’s five separate menus will all become Mexican, each built around a different Oaxacan mole sauce.

Correction: Last week, due to technical (OK, Internet) difficulties, we incorrectly printed the weight of the $15.95 lobster special at Gladstone’s. They’re one-and-a-half-pounders, not one-pounders (which are actually illegal to catch).

*

Send hot tips and other information to pettera@mci2000.c0m.