SOCAL STYLE / Restaurants : Southern Comfort

My friends in New York used to play a game in the ‘70s that involved naming all the restaurants that had occupied an address through the years. The winner was the one who could trace the names back furthest and remember the most details about each incarnation. In Los Angeles, I could easily reel off the details of many restaurants that have tried and failed at certain addresses.

One locale that seems to need frequent updating is 180 N. Robertson, which had been, most recently, the atmospheric neo-Gothic Sanctuary, where I once had the pleasure of catching the newly infamous John Wayne Bobbitt sneak in behind a line of impressively endowed female porn stars. Before that, it was a restaurant/club called Asylum. After Sanctuary cooled, the Beverly Hills space sat empty for more than two years, until reopening in May as Reign.

When I first cruised by looking for the restaurant, I couldn’t find the old Art Nouveau-ish facade that I remembered. Could it possibly be that sleek blond and glass structure with the beefy security out front? Yes, and it’s hardly the look I expected for a Southern restaurant. But this is not your Roscoe’s Chicken and Waffles or Aunt Kizzie’s Back Porch.

That was the second surprise. The first was when I called to make a reservation and was told about the dress code: No jeans, no sneakers, no athletic gear. The next time I called they added “no hats.” As the guardian at the door explains, owner Keyshawn Johnson, the New York Jets wide receiver, “wants to keep it upscale.” The result is that Reign is one of the only places in L.A. that enforces a dress code--and the doorman is stricter than Mother Sacred Heart at my Catholic girls high school.

The designers, du Architects, have transformed the once gloomy, slightly rundown space into a contemporary restaurant with clean lines, pale hardwood floors and soothing textures. It’s thrilling to walk through the glass doors and find all this space and light. The impeccably dressed crowd is rather glamorous, too, and for Beverly Hills, it’s an eclectic mix of ages and colors and professions. One night I noticed the foyer filled with bulky gentlemen wearing earpieces: They were Secret Service men guarding a member of the Clinton Cabinet. I’ve seen actresses, musicians, and yes, a table of young Hollywood hopefuls with their hyper-animated agents.

I’m dead certain, though, that everyone is here more for the food than the scene. Gerry B. Garvin, the young chef who cooked at both Mortons and Kass Bah in West Hollywood, is turning out some delicious Southern cooking in an updated, lighter vein. It’s artfully presented, too. As soon as you sit down, a waiter brings out a basket of fluffy corn bread muffins and flaky buttermilk biscuits, which tend to disappear before you finish looking over the menu. If it’s Tuesday, put in your order for Gloria’s gumbo before it runs out. Gloria’s version is rich and funky, brimming with seafood and sausage.

Among the appetizers, I can’t get enough of the fried tomatoes. I know, I know, fried things can be heavy. Not these. Garvin knows everything there is to know about frying. And these slices of firm organic tomatoes, rolled in fine bread crumbs and fried, are irresistible. Maryland crab cakes are plump golden disks of lump crab meat served with a piquant remoulade. If you’re really hungry, order the red beans and rice with spicy Cajun turkey sausage. The barbecue sauce on the grilled black tiger shrimp doesn’t do much for the crustaceans. And the crab, chicken and goat cheese ravioli have so much going on, the taste is muddled. Salads “from the garden” are lovely, especially the baby arugula salad with a grilled portabello mushroom fanned out on the plate.

Fried chicken is terrific, half a chicken fried to

a deep gold, presented simply on a square of white paper. Beneath the crunchy crust, the meat is moist and steaming, completely satisfying. Like most of the main courses, it comes with your choice of two sides. Collard greens are cooked with just the right dash of vinegar. There’s a racy version of black-eyed peas, plus a splendidly comforting macaroni and cheese made with good Cheddar, mashed potatoes that really taste fresh, and sneakily good candied carrots. If everyone at the table tries a couple of different sides, you’ll have quite a feast.

I’m always torn between the fried chicken and the smothered pork chops. The chops are fried, then smothered in a gorgeous gravy laced with shiitake mushrooms. My great aunt’s Southern cooking was never like this. Beef short ribs get a gravy, too, that tastes as if an entire plot of vegetables and pile of bones have given up their essence. And for plain eaters, there’s a delicious oven-roasted chicken with asparagus, onion rings and those fine mashed potatoes. Another good bet is the light, savory pan-fried red snapper with remoulade sauce. The risotto cake served under the tender little Colorado lamb chops, though, doesn’t make any more sense here than it does at Italian restaurants.

I haven’t really had a bad dish here, but for the record, I’d order the grilled Atlantic salmon without the Chardonnay tomato sauce that seems better suited for pasta, and the Chilean sea bass sans the overly complicated shrimp and saffron sauce. Sometimes the chef will add a few dishes from other traditions, too, such as a chicken and vegetable quesadilla with guacamole and a black bean sauce.

If you haven’t stuffed yourself on corn bread muffins and gumbo, you just may have room for the banana cream pie with oodles of cream and sliced bananas. Oh, come on, just a bite. Peach cobbler comes with a real pastry crust, not with the more usual biscuit topping, which an Alabama-born friend dismisses as “the lazy way.” From what I can tell, there’s not a lazy thing on the menu at Reign. And the staff is as professional as they come for a town where everybody is on the way to becoming something other than a waiter.

If the food and the service stay at this level, I predict Reign will be the one to have a prosperous future at 180 N. Robertson.

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Reign

CUISINE: Contemporary Southern. AMBIENCE: Pale wood and glass with dramatic, light-filled dining room and eclectic, well-heeled crowd. BEST DISHES: Fried green tomatoes, calamari, Maryland crab cakes, arugula salad, Gloria’s gumbo, pan-fried red snapper, country fried chicken, smothered pork chops, banana cream pie. WINE PICKS: 1997 Jermann “Venezia Julia” Pinot Grigio, Veneto; 1997 Qupe Syrah, Central Coast. facts: 180 N. Robertson Blvd., Beverly Hills; (310) 273-4463. Dinner Monday through Saturday; lunch begins in early October. Appetizers, $6 to $11; main courses, $17 to $27. Corkage $15. Valet parking.