Man About Many Towns

He’s a dreamboat, and he wants to take you places. Ted Zagat is tall, dark and handsome. He’s well-spoken, polite and has impeccable taste. And if you give him $11.95, he will show you the world.

Zagat, 26-year-old son of Tim and Nina Zagat, was visiting Los Angeles from New York the other day, ready to act as a guide to the city’s best bars, clubs and lounges. How would he know? He’s just released the latest volume of his family’s guidebook series, “Zagat Survey 2002: Los Angeles Nightlife.”

At Moomba on Robertson Boulevard, he is already waiting, eager to get you a drink from the bar. He gives a strong handshake, looks you in the eye and listens intently, even to small talk. Then he whisks you away in a limo for a bar and club crawl in which the normal night-life hassles have been suspended.

Everywhere you go with him, there’s a place at the bar. Drinks appear as if by magic and, pleasingly, snooty doormen grovel.

Yet something’s not quite right with this date.

Maybe it’s the local TV “talent” glued to his hip as she interviews him. She’s a former Miss World contestant who wears sparkly jeans and makeup, uses “cute” often--and pronounces it as a four-syllable word. Then, there’s the bossy producer. And the cameraman who commands everyone to get in or--mostly--out of his shot.

Even for an adventurous urbanite this is quite a crowded date.

And that’s without counting two local Zagat editors, Kevin Arnovitz, 28, and Tom Williams, 24, who join the party.

The two, who tend to finish each others’ sentences, edited 2,200 surveys from consumers, rating more than 650 bars, clubs and lounges from Long Beach to the San Gabriel Valley. The Zagats like to call their guides “organized word of mouth.” The ratings are based entirely on consumer surveys.

Opinions for the night life guide came from all kinds of people: “The 21-year-old hipster to the 60-year-old lawyer,” Arnovitz said. “It’s like getting advice from 2,200 neighbors.”

In the slim tome, which could easily slip into a purse or back pocket, the editors have arranged the clubs and bars by categories, such as “beer specialists,” “celebrity sightings,” “dives,” “industry scenes,” “meat market” and “velvet rope.” The top-rated bar in the city? Tiki Ti on Sunset Boulevard in Los Feliz. That, however, is not on the evening’s itinerary.

The first stop after Moomba is Belly--a trendy lounge on Santa Monica Boulevard. Zagat approves of the decor but disapproves of the baseball game blaring on the flat TV screen.

After the camera crew shoots (and re-shoots) Zagat getting in and out of the limo, it’s on to the next Sunset Boulevard haunt: 4100. The bar is cozy but half-empty. It’s 9:30 p.m., and the group of eight is feeling pangs of hunger. So, it’s on to Vermont in Los Feliz, where a large trendy crowd of fashionistas is celebrating a birthday.

Zagat (rhymes with “the cat”) enthusiastically greets the owner, handing him a handful of guides. Despite the party, he is constantly working, selling the name. And he is aware of the responsibility that comes with it. Even as he is diving into the L.A. night life, he is conscious of not drinking too much. He opts for a bottle of Amstel light rather than his usual vodka and soda. He wants to be lucid in front of the camera. He knows what’s expected, and he delivers.

He talks passionately about what the Zagat name means to him, about his parents’ achievement and how far they have come since they dreamed up the idea for a democratic restaurant guide in 1979. Mostly, he has seen the success of the guide, which has editions for cities all over the U.S. and abroad, through the lens of his friends. “When I was a kid, my friends would make fun of me: ‘Some sort of restaurant guide, what’s that about?’ They would ask why my parents didn’t get a real job.”

As Zagat became a household name, the teasing presumably stopped, but Zagat is modest, recounting how as a kid he would sit in the front seat of the family Toyota Corolla while his father hawked the guide to New York bookstores. Zagat’s job--batting his baby blues--was to prevent parking tickets as the car was double-parked.

His family introduced him to the business early. At 16, he spent a summer at Spago, working with Wolfgang Puck, a family friend. He has worked with Paul Bocuse in Lyon, and studied in Normandy, before attending Harvard, where he graduated with a B.A. in English Literature. He lives in Manhattan’s Flatiron district.

Despite his background, he doesn’t hold himself up as an arbiter of taste.

“What Zagat thinks is irrelevant,” Zagat said.

Shortly before midnight, the limo arrives at the new guide’s top-rated club Deep, at Hollywood and Vine. Zagat is still playing a conscientious host, making sure everyone is provided for. He patiently sits for a half-hour interview in the club’s “champagne room.” Then it’s back to Moomba, where, around 1 a.m., the group dissolves. He offers a handshake and this: “If you come to New York, give me a call, we’ll go out.”

Oh sure. Who hasn’t heard that one before?