That breaking-in period? Oh, skip it

Looking around Doug Arango’s, the Palm Desert restaurant that has relocated to Yujean Kang’s old space on Melrose Avenue in West Hollywood, I wonder how this particular crowd found the place so fast. The men are dapper and turtlenecked, the women coiffed and attired in respectable designer labels. More old Gucci than new Gucci, they’re drinking martinis, talking about boats and generally having way more fun than the folks you see at the neighborhood’s trendiest restaurants.

The food is familiar but well prepared. The wine list is extensive and fairly priced. And the service is so personable that you feel like one of the family. (One of the partners is the chef; the other three are siblings.)

The kitchen is performing as if Doug Arango’s has been around forever, not newly hatched. In fact, the restaurant spent 14 years in Palm Desert and hasn’t missed a beat here. The menu is the menu and rarely changes. On a Saturday night, the specials are Manhattan clam chowder and Santa Barbara mussels steamed open in the pizza oven with white wine, garlic and lemon. The latter are small and tender, really delicious.

Pizzas are thin-crusted, blistered at the edges. There’s a good sausage pizza with roasted red peppers and olives. And a fine mushroom version -- sometimes with chanterelles, sometimes with garden-variety brown mushrooms. Pastas are perfectly respectable too, especially butternut squash ravioli and the orecchiette (“little ears”) sauced with cream, prosciutto and peas.

Main courses tend to straightforward chophouse fare, but there’s one surprise: shepherd’s pie made with ground beef and crowned with a swirl of mashed potatoes.

The wine list is put together by someone who clearly loves wine. That would be co-owner Robert Evans (not remotely related to the model for the cartoon character Kid Notorious). He’s refreshingly unpretentious about his role and the wines.

There is a full bar, and plenty of people are having martinis. Just as many, though, are sniffing and swirling a big glass of red as they wait for a table.

*

Doug Arango’s

Where: 8826 Melrose Ave., West Hollywood

When: Monday through Thursday, 6 to 10:30 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 6 to 11 p.m. Full bar. Valet parking.

Cost: Appetizers, $6 to $10; main dishes, $16 to $31; desserts, $7.

Info: (310) 278-3684