Felt Displays a Fine Touch With a Very Eclectic Menu

The armies of the night are pouring into Felt, a new restaurant and bar in the chic heart of West Hollywood, just a stone’s throw from city hall.

What’s the name about? It’s a reference to the warm and fuzzy fabric. Yet even with all that touchy-feely felt wrapped around pillars, lampshades and menu covers, designers Ralph Gentile and Sophie Harvey have given the place an edgy look described as “New York chic/L.A. cozy.”

Maybe it’s those huge square lampshades that loom over the bar, turning all the patrons wrapped around it into a living frieze in an eerie Hopper-esque light. Or maybe it’s the quirky room dividers pierced with cubbyholes, also covered in felt. Whatever, it works.

Felt is a scene, all right. Approach the doors and two guardians will open them simultaneously, as if ushering in the ambassador of fun. Inside, the place seems more bar than restaurant. Except for the small tables corralled around the massive bar, the only dining space seems to be a row of generously sized chocolate leather booths lined up along one side, just behind the maitre d’ station.

The menu, from William Gumport, who last worked at Payard Pa^tisserie in New York, has both “little” dishes to keep the folks at the bar well fed--the kind of things that would be called appetizers on any other menu--and a separate list of “big” dishes for the truly hungry.

Among the small dishes, I liked the salad of grilled tuna, frisee, potato and quartered hard-boiled eggs served on a sleek triangular plate, and the juicy soft-shell crab perched on a thatch of greens. You can get oysters on the half shell, too. And if you fancy something hot, try the fish soup, a thin flavorful broth laced with fresh corn and clams and mussels in the shell.

As for those big plates, you can’t get much heartier than suckling pig--at least in theory. This little porker, though, is surprisingly light, the meat pulled off the bones into shreds and served with a splash of natural juices. Other choices veer from a rather dry chicken enchilada in a sprightly fresh tomatillo sauce to prime rib au jus and steamed halibut with vegetable couscous.

I was so busy catching up with friends that it only occurred to me much later in the evening that, except for the lady bartender and a hostess, there were five other women in the place, two of them at my table. And the other three, I can’t explain why, were all wearing animal prints. One carried a zebra-patterned bag. Fashion or coincidence?

As dessert was about to arrive, we found out Felt serves a midnight brunch, till 2 a.m. Thursday through Saturday (eventually they plan to make it every night). I almost preferred this “brunch” menu: lobster tacos with guacamole and lime, steak and eggs, chilled seafood cocktail . . . and a grilled cheese sandwich with apple wood-smoked bacon on sourdough!

When the desserts came, though they definitely looked Payard Pa^tisserie-inspired, they didn’t taste anything like the originals. In fact, the sweets were the least successful part of the meal.

Go figure. The place is thronged every night, and until the wee hours, too, so all you night owls out there, take note.

BE THERE

Felt Restaurant & Bar, 8279 Santa Monica Blvd. (1 block east of Sweetzer), West Hollywood; (323) 822-3888. Open daily from 5 p.m. until 2 a.m. (Sundays it opens at 3 p.m.) Appetizers $6 to $16; main courses $13 to $21. Valet, street and lot parking.