At These Prices, This Isn’t Any Dive

The $1,500 Reservation: At the new Viceroy Hotel in Santa Monica, Whist restaurant is packed with the young and beautiful sipping their cocktails. But it’s outside that you’ll find the real action, in the six glamorous cabanas that surround the pool. When the striped Roman shades are folded up, the cabanas are airy and festive, and when they’re down, they’re exceedingly private and sexy. The cabanas come in two sizes, seating 10 or 15, complete with a telephone, heaters, private waiters ... and an extraordinary price tag: a $1,000/$1,500 minimum for a reservation on a Friday or Saturday night. On Thursday the minimum drops to $750/$1,200, and it disappears on other nights (though the restaurant expects parties of at least six). For reservations, check your credit card limit and call (310) 451-8711. Special Sugar Plum: On Beverly Boulevard, barely half a block east of La Brea Boulevard, stands a delicate Art Nouveau facade. No sign accompanies it yet, but Sugar Plum Bakery will open there later this month. It’s the creation of pastry chef Anna Delorefice (eight years at Pasticceria Rulli in Marin County, stints down here at Spago Beverly Hills and Spago Hollywood) and former restaurant manager and consultant Jenna Turner. (The evolution of their bakery is going to be featured on NBC’s “Life Moments.”) Sugar Plum Bakery will be a European-style place with high-end handmade chocolates as well as cakes and unusual tarts. “No fondants or butter creams,” says Delorefice, “but lots of fresh meringues, custards and fresh chocolate. Our cakes are perishable; they’re meant to be eaten right away, not stored in the fridge.” With its delicate glass chandeliers, faded paisley upholstered booths and beautiful woodwork (all done by Delorefice’s father), the place has a very continental feel. This is the first restaurant designed by production designer Bill Brzeski, who has worked on a long list of films including “As Good As It Gets” and “Stuart Little.”

A Chef’s Tour: Evan Kleiman is a cookbook writer, the host of KCRW’s “The Good Food Show” and the chef-owner of Angeli Caffe. She’s also been an olive oil importer, and recently she’s started collecting seeds of unusual vegetables in Italy and giving them to California farmers. Every fall, she takes a group of Angelenos to Italy to teach them rustic Italian cooking morning, noon and night. On top of everything else, every Thursday throughout the year Angeli Caffe has an international dinner (one seating only, 7 p.m., reservations necessary). “I like to discover cultures through their cuisine,” says Kleiman, “so I take nine recipes from books I love, that I’ve discussed on the show, and they become the foundation for the ethnic meal. I pick all the food at the farmers market, and then I spend the day cooking. It’s invigorating for the restaurant and for me. People sit together who have never met one another, people of all ages, it has become a real meeting place.” On any given Thursday you might dine on food of the Balkans, Iran, Spain, Greece, the republic of Georgia or south India.

* Angeli Caffe, 7274 Melrose Ave., Los Angeles. (323) 936-9086.

A Day at the Races: The chef at Arterra, Bradley Ogden’s 8-month-old restaurant at the Marriott Del Mar, is Carl Schroeder, who spent three years as sous chef at the Lark Creek Inn, Ogden’s celebrated Bay Area American restaurant. “I was fresh out of culinary school,” says Schroeder, “having apprenticed at Aqua in San Francisco. I was just beginning to develop my own style and obviously was heavily influenced by Bradley, though I have a very different way of plating and my quantities are a little smaller. I’d say he’s a bit more rustic, or maybe I’m a little more refined.” Sample appetizer: Chino Farm fig salad with a blue cheese souffle, brandied cherries and honey-glazed walnuts. (Conveniently for Schroeder, the famous Chino Farms is just a mile away.) Sample entree: grilled trolled king salmon with baby artichokes, andouille sausage, crispy calamari and shellfish essence. Arterra also offers a four-course prix-fixe “Win, Place, Show” dinner during the racing season (now in full swing) for $80 including wines. There’s a shuttle between the Marriott and Del Mar racetrack every half hour from the first to the last race. This way you can fit in the races, a magnificent view of the surf and a memorable dining experience all in one day. For more information call (858) 369-6032.

Small Bites: Chadwick, now celebrating its second anniversary, is opening its garden patio for merenda from 4 to 7 p.m. Wednesday through Friday. It’s a time for summer cocktails (blackberry cosmopolitan, cantaloupe martini), organic teas and elixirs. There’ll also be a sampling of tapas such as marinated olives, roasted piquillo peppers or chickpeas and roasted eggplant on toast