A FINE PATINA

THIS SUMMER, PATINA WAS CLOSED FOR TWO months for its first wholesale renovation in its 11-year history. When the Melrose Avenue restaurant reopened, it was almost unrecognizable, as impossibly glamorous as Audrey Hepburn was in “Sabrina.” Ceilings now soar, the light diffused by fiberglass panels. Walls are covered in a pale, satiny pearlwood. The color palette is creams, blonds and taupes. Everything about the new look spells luxury, from the fine Bernardaud porcelain and Puiforcat flatware to the crisp linens and the chocolate leather bar stools.

The dramatic make-over is even more of a feat considering the nondescript two-story former apartment building that architect Hagy Belzberg had to work with. The original Patina could only be described as cozy. While I appreciated its spare aesthetic and handsome appointments, the cramped tables and high noise level didn’t always make for the most comfortable dining experience. Despite these drawbacks, Joachim Splichal’s sophisticated French-California cooking has made it perennially one of the most difficult reservations in town, and a destination for food lovers from around the country.

Now Splichal has added a small dining patio and removed the tables in the bar, making room for a pair of posh little sofas. There’s more breathing room between the tables, too. The result: about 10 tables fewer than before, depending on the configuration. The other change is that management seems to be booking tables to allow, even encourage, more leisurely dining. If you want to stay even longer, you can retire to one of those inviting sofas for a glass of vintage Armagnac or late-harvest dessert wine from sommelier Chris Meeske’s fine list.

Meeske is of a new breed of sommeliers and a great asset to Patina. He’s anything but stuffy and doesn’t push the expensive wines. No matter how much you know about wine, it pays to discuss the choices with this engaging young sommelier because he knows the menu so well. The renovation has given him the space to beef up the already bulging wine list with 600 additional selections. While Patina is naturally strong on French and California selections, it also has some of the best bottles from Italy, Spain, Germany, Austria and elsewhere.

Splichal and executive chef Walter Manzke have taken the opportunity to reinvent Patina’s menu, making it entirely seasonal. Gone are the witticisms and the signature dishes, but the food, as always, is correct. In addition to a la carte items and the three tasting menus each evening, Patina also offers a small gueridon, or table service, section with entrees for two or more, which includes two of the consistently outstanding dishes here.

The roast chicken for two is one of the best I’ve ever had in a restaurant. If the sight of this plump golden bird doesn’t work up an appetite, I don’t know what will. The skin is crisp and salted, the breast incredibly moist and tender. And the kitchen pays special attention to the accompanying sides, serving a lovely leek and potato tart and baby carrots.

Roasted cote de boeuf is presented in a high-sided copper casserole, surrounded by dusky ochre chanterelles, before the waiter carves it at the table. The bone comes on its own plate. The only problem is deciding which of the two of us should claim the meaty prize. The beef is served in thick, rare slices on large, square porcelain plates. It’s enough to make a carnivore crazy with desire, especially when you get that first whiff of the rich, translucent juices. And then here come square-cut fries stacked like logs. It’s a wonderful American take on steak frites.

Among the first courses, Santa Barbara spot prawns stand out. They’re impeccably fresh, with the custardy texture and sweet taste that makes these gorgeous prawns the queen of seafood along this coast. The prawns are perfumed with shavings of lemony buddha fruit, and garnished with asparagus and glassy tempura-fried zucchini blossoms. One night, the “carpaccio” is a carpet of finely sliced, ethereal matsutake mushrooms, their fragrance unfortunately masked by white truffle oil. Sliced scallops layered with summer truffles--one-fourth of a “quartet of the sea” appetizer--are a terrific idea. Also memorable are braised veal cheeks with mascarpone and long curls of hand-rolled maccheroni.

As for the tasting menus, the five-course Garden menu offers vegetarians much more than just beautifully presented heirloom vegetables. The meal might begin with a terrine of thick slices of velvety Portobello mushrooms. Garnished with pickled salsify and thumbtack-sized mushrooms, it’s an elegant start to a satisfying meal. A collection of newly minted vegetables warmed in olive oil and Provencal herbs features the most tender artichoke hearts, cauliflower florets and a medley of other vegetables. Eating it, I felt like Marie Antoinette playing at peasant. Just as beautiful is a plate of half-moon agnolotti stuffed with roasted chestnut beneath a marigold-colored kuri squash “foam.” The next dish is even richer, almost too much so, a deconstructed tart of flaky pastry filled with black and gold chanterelle mushrooms.

I suspect pastry chef Michelle Myers had something to do with that mushroom tart. She brings a quirky sensibility to her minimalist desserts. Her take on rocky road, for example, is an assemblage of chocolate ice cream, melted homemade marshmallows and shards of caramel brittle. Her Linzer torte is a slim rectangle of short, buttery pastry topped with wedges of pretty pink and purple figs all in a row. The luscious fruit and that wisp of pastry crust are perfect together.

Also new is a cheese cart with 30 to 40 selections--not just French, but also American, Spanish, Italian and Corsican. As enticing as the cheeses look, not all are as ripe as they should be, which tempers my enthusiasm.

The less-successful dishes have generally been fussed over so much that the flavors are muddled. Sometimes a dish will come out looking like a fresh Jackson Pollock--with sauces slashed and dribbled across the plate, or the ingredients so uniformly strewn onto the “canvas” that the effect is more monotonous than vivid. In a single meal, foamy sauces, the trend of the moment, occur too often. And if you order one of the dishes apparently designed for people who really don’t like to eat, such as the bland chicken stuffed with black trumpet mushrooms, you’ll miss what’s exciting at Patina.

Service can sometimes be overattentive: Does anyone really need their water glass topped up every time they take a sip? As arresting as the new design is, some details don’t quite work. The new dining patio faced in stone feels like exile from the more glamorous main room. Being seated in front of the patio exit door is even worse. Then there’s the matter of the video cameras installed throughout so that the kitchen can monitor what’s going on in the dining rooms. Knowing they’re there subtly alters the mood. They’re intrusive.

The Patina Group, which includes 21 restaurants now, was bought by Restaurant Associates last year, but Joachim Splichal and his wife and business partner, Christine, are still running the restaurants. I’m thrilled that they’ve taken the opportunity to re-envision Patina. It is, after all, the little restaurant that could. And did, pulling a freight train of Pinots, museum cafes and, now, Nick & Stef Steakhouses behind it. Welcome back to fine dining at Patina.

Style Restaurants

Patina

5955 Melrose Ave.,

Los Angeles,

(323) 467-1108

cuisine: French-California

rating: ***

*

AMBIENCE: Severely elegant, with soaring ceilings, a new dining patio and tableside service. SERVICE: Attentive and correct. BEST DISHES: Braised veal cheeks, Santa Barbara prawns, roasted chestnut agnolotti, roast chicken for two, cote de boeuf, fig tart. Appetizers, $15 to $19. Main courses, $29 to $35. Tasting menus, $68, $75 and $80. Corkage, $25. WINE PICKS: 1997 Arnud Ente Meurseult, Burgundy; 1998 Vieux Telegraph Chateauneuf-du-Pape, Rhone Valley. FACTS: Lunch Friday. Dinner nightly. Valet parking.

*

Rating is based on food, service and ambience, with price taken into account in relation to quality. ****: Outstanding on every level. ***: Excellent. **: Very good. *: Good. No star: Poor to satisfactory.