Where the food turns heads, too

For the longest time Tim Goodell’s restaurant, Aubergine in Newport Beach, was the lure that people in Orange County could hold out to Angelenos whenever they wanted to persuade them to brave the traffic and drive south.

Now, Goodell and his wife, Liza, have opened Whist in Santa Monica and it too -- at its best -- offers some remarkable dining. His food here is smart and unfussy, sensual and satisfying.

It’s set in the new and hyper-trendy Viceroy Hotel a block from the beach. For a chef who confidently has gone his own way with highly personal idiosyncratic restaurants, the move to a hotel restaurant is something of a surprise. Goodell, however, did cook at the Ritz-Carlton San Francisco before moving home to Newport Beach.

The Viceroy is part of a new breed of boutique hotels where design is paramount and an affluent young crowd is assiduously courted. The question is will the hipsters who throng Viceroy’s inviting bar and dramatic outdoor patio commit to an evening of full-scale dining? And will the serious diners at Whist enjoy the experience despite the ditsy-chic decor and the din that leaks in from the bar?

So far, I have to say, so good. The bar, at least on the weekends, is bubbling over, every white vinyl wing chair, every patent leather sofa taken. Even the “library” with its skewed bookshelves and gold shag carpet hasn’t got a free seat. The dining room is full too, the tables closely packed. The mood is high-spirited fun, if you don’t mind having to shout across the table to be heard. It’s definitely an unconventional setting for what most people think of as fine dining. (For those who want to keep it simple, Whist offers a crib list of steaks, chops and a fine hand-chopped burger.)

The dining room decor, by L.A. designer-of-the-moment Kelly Wearstler, plays off a rock ‘n’ roll notion of style that’s not going to age well. The cheesy silver wallpaper, ugly geodesic light fixtures and an entire wall plastered with plates give the room the feeling of a Las Vegas breakfast room, while the color scheme -- black and white, silver and an eye-popping Kelly green -- seems straight out of the pre-Tom Ford Gucci era.

Cabana party

To bridge the gap between the two worlds -- bar scene and serious dining -- Whist reels them both in with glamorous private cabanas where 10 guests can order in the chef’s tasting menu. Despite a minimum of $95 per person, there seem to be plenty of takers. On a Friday night, branched candelabra are blazing in several of the stylish black-and-white tents and plates are practically licked clean.

At Whist, Goodell takes the role of executive chef. Jeff Armstrong, who has worked with Goodell for a number of years and also is chef at Red Pearl Kitchen, the Goodells’ chic Asian boite in Huntington Beach, is chef de cuisine.

The pared-down one-page menu strikes a casual note. As a starter, the glorious mi-cuit foie gras is hard to resist. It comes in a wide-mouthed French canning jar ready to slather on rafts of toast. It’s a terrific way to begin a meal, but it was nowhere to be seen on the latest menu. Never mind. You can still get your foie gras fix, namely a thick slab of foie gras au torchon, the flavor of the poached duck liver heightened by crystals of fleur de sel that explode on the palate like starbursts. It’s complemented by an intense pear chutney.

Here, instead of soup of the day, there’s a daily foie gras. One night it was a gorgeous cone of fattened duck liver the size of a fist, seared on one side and so astonishingly velvety, the person who ordered it was the envy of the table. Set off by a sweet-tart roasted pineapple and stinging black pepper gastrique, this may be the best dish here.

Juicy slices of heirloom tomatoes in autumnal shades of red, gold and mahogany are stacked like hot cakes flanked by dabs of piquant fresh goat cheese. Steak tartare, though, is so overdosed with grain mustard that the taste of the hand-chopped beef is lost.

The menu’s strength is the way it rides the edge, shuffling the familiar with dishes people who really love food will zero in on. So along with a dressed-up salad of poached Bosc pears, candied walnuts and Maytag blue cheese, for example, Goodell has sneaked in seared pork belly filigreed with chile-laced caramel and a brilliant hamachi carpaccio lightly perfumed with a sesame-chile vinaigrette.

Main courses come on strong with a terrific version of the classic skate wing in brown butter. You don’t want to give up a bite. Sparkling fresh, the spotted skate wing is cooked on the bone to tease out every glimmer of flavor, and served in a brown butter lit up with tiny capers and baby artichokes en barigoule. Duck breast is embellished with a honey-coriander glaze that perfectly suits its gamy flavor. However, spinach tagliatelle with lamb ragu and Parmigiano shaved over the top is, like most French takes on pasta, overly rich and missing the point. Roasted pork rack, really a double chop, is juicy and tender but outshone by the collard greens stewed with apple-smoked bacon that come with it. Among the sides, the must-have is potatoes au gratin for two.

A ‘hotel’ experience

When it opened in late July, Whist’s food was delicious and rigorously executed, but I wondered what would happen when Goodell left the kitchen on its own. On a weekend evening when every table is full, almost every dish tastes newly minted, humming with flavor. Oddly, though, on a slower weekday night I’ve had such an inexplicably dull meal that, I hate to say, seemed like hotel food as usual. But that was only once in four or five visits.

When everything’s working, Whist is very, very good, but as with any young restaurant, the kitchen occasionally stumbles. Service is marred by too many managers in suits breathing down the necks of the servers. It doesn’t make for the most comfortable experience.

The wine list, while more eclectic than that of most high-end hotels, bears the stigma of high markups. Weighted toward California and France, it includes a smattering of cutting-edge wines such as the Gross Musketeller from Austria or Rivetti’s single vineyard Barbaresco, Vigneto Starderi, from La Spinetta. Whist’s $15 corkage is more than fair given staff that knows how to pour and the quality of the glassware.

The dessert menu includes a delightful category: desserts for the table. When the waiter sets down a glass bowl of dreamy trifle heaped with perfect berries and a cloud of whipped cream, everyone has a spoon poised. It’s an unconventional version, fresher and lighter than the traditional spongecake macerated in liqueur and layered with berries, jam and cream. Another night my table shared a tart covered in sunny apricots that tasted as if it had just come out of the oven.

An individual Winesap apple tarte tatin turns out to be a tatin in name only -- without the irresistible burnt sugar and butter soaked deep into the apples. Less successful too is chocolate mille-feuille, a scoop of cloying chocolate cream held in place by shards of tough chocolate-stained pastry. Best bet is to head straight to the custards and either the chocolate pot de creme, which is sort of chocolate pudding squared, or the tapioca brulee. Served chilled, it’s basically tapioca beads cooked in cream and topped with lovely little caramelized bananas. Where has tapioca been all these years?

It’s encouraging to see Goodell stepping onto a larger stage. Somehow I don’t see him as Southern California’s best-kept secret for much longer. His passionate intelligence and dead-on instinct for what people really want to eat already has found an enthusiastic audience at Whist, though the restaurant still has some growing up to do.

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Whist

Rating: ***

Location: 1819 Ocean Ave. (at Pico Blvd.), Santa Monica; (310) 260-7511.

Ambience: California-French cuisine served in a lively hotel dining room with closely packed tables and a tacky-chic decor.

Service: Reasonably competent to overzealous.

Price: Dinner appetizers, $10 to $19; entrees, $16 to $36; desserts, $5 to $9; desserts for the table, $17 to $20.

Best dishes: Foie gras au torchon, hamachi carpaccio, seared pork belly, skate with brown butter, duck breast, hand-chopped burger, trifle for the table, tapioca brulee and chocolate pot de creme.

Wine list: Somewhat more eclectic than most hotel wine lists, but with typically high markups. Corkage, $15.

Best table: Any of the generously sized booths along the back wall.

Special features: Bar menu, outdoor dining and private dining cabanas to rent for up to 10 guests.

Details: Open for dinner daily 6 p.m. to 11 p.m., and also for breakfast and lunch. Valet parking, $4. Full bar.

Rating is based on food, service and ambience, with price taken into account in relation to quality. ****: Outstanding on every level. ***: Excellent. **: Very good. *: Good. No star: Poor to satisfactory.