Rix’s New Owner Renames It Union

The State of Union: We alluded in an earlier column to the fact that Rix restaurant in Santa Monica has been sold. The buyer is Jeff Peterson, the owner of Geoffrey’s in Malibu. Peterson says he enjoyed the thrill he felt when he purchased Geoffrey’s from its previous owner in 1999 and sought to have that feeling again. He hopes his new venture will be the second in a line of three restaurants.

His managing partners in Union (as the place will be called) are Chuck Craig and Brian Norris. Craig, the new director of operations, spent 1997 to 2000 as general manager and maitre d’ of Spago Beverly Hills. Norris, the general manager, comes over from his managing post at Geoffrey’s. Peterson wants Union to be a comfortable American restaurant. “I want to take the best of what America has to offer,” he tells us. He’s hired James Grey, last at Les Deux Cafes in Hollywood, as the chef. Look for Union to open at 1413 5th St., Santa Monica, in February.

Don’t Drink the Water: Here’s a surprise--Bruce Marder has opened a coffee shop. Marder, the chef and owner of Capo, a pricey Italian restaurant in Santa Monica, also owns the steeply tabbed Broadway Deli on the Third Street Promenade and the expensive steakhouse Brentwood, located in, well, Brentwood. Now he’s taken over Cora’s Coffee Shop next-door to Capo, remodeled it, started serving Italian food and renamed it Cora’s Coffee Shoppe. The extra p and e will cost you; tea runs $3.25 and water, sparkling or still, is $5. (We’re kidding--at those prices, you can go ahead and drink the water.) Capo’s chefs moonlight (sunlight, actually) during the day at Cora’s, so menu items have an upscale Italian bent. There’s a burrata caprese omelet ($7.75), a prosciutto egg panino ($7.50) and a chicken arugula salad ($11.50). Cora’s is currently open from 6:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. daily. It will be opening for dinner on Jan. 15.

* Cora’s Coffee Shoppe, 1802 Ocean Ave., Santa Monica; (310) 451-9562.

O Brother, Where Art Thou?: Celestino Drago, owner of Celestino in Pasadena, Celestino Italian Steakhouse in West Hollywood and Drago in Santa Monica, has lots of brothers. Together they help him operate and cook at the above restaurants and more. Recently Calogero Drago has migrated from Drago, where he worked for 15 years, to Celestino in Pasadena. “We needed one other brother here,” Calogero tells us. With him has come chef Armando Salazar, who cooked at Rex and Vincenti before going to Drago. Together the guys have created a game menu, which will be available through the end of February. Dishes can be ordered individually or as a four-course meal for $48. They include sauteed duck liver with balsamic reduction, rigatoni with wild boar, risotto with wild rabbit and morel mushrooms, pappardelle with duck ragout and roasted squab with a potato timbale. Some white truffle specials will also be available for the next couple of weeks.

* Celestino, 141 S. Lake Ave., Pasadena; (626) 795-4006.

Truffle Time: Expatriate L.A. chef Ken Frank, owner of La Toque restaurant up north in Napa wine-country Rutherford, begins his famous all-truffle menu Jan. 11. Every course of the menu includes black French truffles in one form or another. Some dishes include artichoke soup with truffles, dayboat scallop with lobster truffle sauce, wild Scottish hare with truffled bean ragout and hazelnut black truffle ice cream with truffled date compote.

* La Toque, Rancho Caymus Inn, 1140 Rutherford Road, Rutherford; (707) 963-9770.

Fund-raiser Times Three: Wolfgang Puck is hosting a dinner at Spago on Jan. 14 to benefit the Chefs Across America project. It’s a charity that distributes funds to the Windows of Hope Family Relief Fund, City Harvest food rescue organization in New York and the Salvation Army Mobile Kitchen Program. Chefs from New York to L.A. are participating in 10 dinners to be held in various locations across the country. (Information on the dinners: www.chefsacross-america.org). Puck will cook dinner with Spago’s chef, Lee Hefter, and pastry chef, Sherry Yard; Conny Andersson of the Four Seasons Hotel in L.A.; Todd English of Olives in Boston; Michael Ginor of Hudson Valley Foie Gras food company; Eric Ripert of Le Bernardin in New York; and Takashi Yagihashi of Tribute in Detroit. The evening begins at 7 p.m.; ticket price is $750.

* Spago, 176 N. Canon Drive, Beverly Hills; (310) 385-0880.

Reach Angela Pettera at (310) 358-7647 or pettera@prodigy.net