A Grill Spinoff Proves the Worth of the Real Thing

The Grill on the Alley in Beverly Hills has such a patina of a long-established institution, it’s hard to believe the power-lunch spot is barely 15 years old. The white coffered ceiling, cozy high-sided booths and lamps with green glass shades all contribute to the illusion that it’s been here forever. Not to mention the white-jacketed waiters who could have stepped out of a ‘40s film noir.

Owner Bob Spivak spun off the Grill concept into a series of lower-priced Daily Grills throughout the Southland, including, to the relief of stranded travelers, one at LAX. Until now, though, he reserved the Grill itself for a Chicago restaurant and another in San Jose.

The Grill on Hollywood was one of the first restaurants to open in the flashy new Hollywood & Highland complex that also houses the Kodak Theater, new home for the Academy Awards. I love the idea of seeing a movie at Grauman’s Chinese and dining next door at the Grill, but cloning a beloved restaurant is easier said than done, as it turns out.

What surprised me is how cheesy the Hollywood & Highland complex seems, like a low-rent Caesars Palace shopping mall. The handrails on the escalator are already distressed, the floors aren’t marked well, so you wander up and down the escalators, along lonely hallways, past brand-name shops you see everywhere.

Like an oasis in the desert, there was the restaurant’s more casual cafe spilling out into the hallway from a horseshoe-shaped bar with TV suspended overhead. The Grill itself is set off to the back and to one side, like an afterthought. First we were seated in the hot glare of the kitchen window, then at a booth where the pinpoint halogen lights induced a headache. This Grill’s menu doesn’t differ much from the original’s classic fare: Dungeness crab cakes, steak tartare, Cobb and Caesar salads, steaks and chops, fresh seafood. Unfortunately, nothing we sampled that night was on a par with the excellence of the Beverly Hills restaurant, which goes to show how long it takes for a new kitchen staff to become a cohesive team. Same menu, same recipes, same purveyors, but what a telling difference. Crab cakes were soggy, my steak tartare must have taken too many spins in the food processor, and even that old reliable, crab Louie, wasn’t as beguiling as I remember. Double-cut lamb chops measured up, but shoestring fries were pale and slicked with grease. The waiter, the runner--somebody--should have been able to tell something was wrong just by looking at them. These sorry fries should never have left the kitchen. At the Grill in Beverly Hills, they would never have made it as far as the kitchen door! Down on the courtyard level, a crowd mingles aimlessly, hoping for some kind of there there. Sorry, but yet another Victoria’s Secret or Brookstone doesn’t cut it. To amuse myself, I dashed into Sephora, the cosmetics emporium, but some samples for items and brands I checked were missing, and when I opened two Nars mascaras, both testers were broken.

Parking, valet and tip set me back $10. Just too much fun.

The Grill on Hollywood, 6801 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood; (323) 856-5530. Open daily for dinner; for lunch Monday through Saturday. Dinner appetizers $3.75 to $13.75; main courses $17.50 to $31.75. Lot and valet parking beneath Hollywood & Highland.