A Positively Beastly Event for His Honor

Our apologies to Nancy Daly. Her husband, Mayor Richard Riordan, is telling us that he loves us.

“Choo choo choo choo.”

OK, so the mayor is uttering sweet nothings in chimp-speak. He learned it at the L.A. Zoo from legendary chimpanzee expert Jane Goodall during one of her visits. She taught him how to talk to the chimps in the universal language--love.

Now the mayor is giving us a demonstration of his proficiency in chimp-ese as a second language. Minutes earlier, Riordan was honored by the Greater Los Angeles Zoo Assn. at the 29th annual Beastly Ball. Zoo folk thanked Riordan on Saturday for setting them free from captivity by the Los Angeles Department of Parks and Recreation three years ago when he established the first city Zoo Department and Zoo Commission.

“The Rec and Park was a disaster,” Riordan said. “They were very bureaucratic. By separating the zoo, we empowered [zoo director] Manuel Mollinedo to make things happen, and we’ve strengthened our donor base dramatically.”

With the boost in zoo dollars, the ball was able to celebrate a new facility, Chimpanzees of Mahale Mountains, which is the first phase of the Great Ape Forest project.

Certainly when it comes to chimps, Riordan talks the talk. So he has some explaining to do to one little missy named Yoshi, who lives in chimp town. Yoshi made headlines in May, when her baby Toshi was killed by two other chimps.

“I’ve got a wonderful picture in my office of the two together,” Riordan said. “Yoshi sent me a note saying, ‘Dick, you never write. You never call.’ ”

Even on the home front, Riordan walks the walk when it comes to animals. More to the point, he walks the dogs: The mayor has two Yorkies and a black terrier, and his wife has four dogs--two Labrador retrievers, a King Charles spaniel and a Yorkie. But the couple’s dogs haven’t merged into a Brady Bunch yet.

“They live in different houses,” Riordan said. “We’re going to combine our houses soon.”

Also honored was Stefanie Powers, a former zoo trustee and founder of the William Holden Wildlife Foundation in Nanyuki, Kenya, where she lives.

“People must change their minds about the zoo,” she told us. “It’s not an entertainment. This is an opportunity for people to observe at very close range extraordinary creatures in ever-increasing good conditions. Animals make a much bigger stretch to understand us than we do to understand them.”

*

We’ve done many interviews over lunch, and even the rare power breakfast. But this was our first chat over a tea ceremony.

Tom Kaplan, the second-generation owner of Hugo’s Restaurant, was serving King’s Tea at a party Sunday afternoon celebrating Hugo’s Tea & Herb Room, a new addition to his popular West Hollywood restaurant, a longtime industry breakfast hangout.

Now heavy hitters can do more than make deals over their tofu scramble. They can heal what ails them by choosing from 50 different types of teas as well as Hugo’s private-label ayurvedic herbs. They can pick up a tinkling table fountain for improving their feng shui or a gemstone necklace designed to polish up a particular chakra. For the more curious, there are tea tastings and lectures in feng shui, crystal healing and flower essence remedies.

“It’s great to see a producer or a bigwig come in here and have a Tantric [vegi] burger or a cup of tea,” says the beatific Kaplan, also a kundalini yoga teacher. “People everywhere are feeling a little bit empty these days. That’s my idea of a restaurateur, someone who makes people feel nourished, inside and out, and not just in their tummy.”

Irene Lacher’s Out & About column runs Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays on Page 2. She can be reached by e-mail at socalliving@latimes.com