Hey, big spender

DRINK a martini, Scotch on the rocks or even a beer, and nobody looks askance. And if you want wine, this is the place to uncork one of those big, bold California Cabs. What was that one Robert Parker gave such a high score? Screaming Eagle. Yes, I do believe they have a bottle of the ’96 at $3,500 should anybody feel the need to show they’ve got money to burn.

What is it about steak that gets people to spend big? Maybe all that charred red meat makes you want to live large. It’s so direct and primitive, and these days almost rebellious -- which only adds to the sense of illicit pleasure.

And getting a big hunk of meat to the table is a no-brainer. A steakhouse doesn’t require a top-notch chef: Some line cooks who can broil will do, if a chef gives them some direction. There’s not much waste: Steaks can age. And you can make a killing on the sides, some of which cost pennies for the ingredients. Charge extra for the sauce and nobody will complain. Ratchet up the price of dessert -- most people can’t stay away from sugar.

Is this a recipe for success or what?

Restaurateurs must think so. In the last year, we’ve had Boa Steakhouse in Santa Monica, Dakota in Hollywood, the Lodge in Beverly Hills and Chapter 8 in Agoura Hills.

Hollywood just got another one: Sterling Steakhouse on Ivar Avenue. It’s actually a retooling of the Sunset Room, which, like so many restaurants pitched to a young, hip crowd, flared like a comet in the night sky and quickly fizzled as the ruthlessly trendy moved on to the next new place.

It’s nearly impossible to hold on to that demographic for long, so to keep the Hollywood trendoids interested, entrepreneurs keep opening new restaurants. Or, in the case of Sterling, the owners (the same people behind White Lotus and Pig ‘n Whistle) simply regrouped. Executive chef Andrew Pastore, who holds the same role at those two other restaurants, just wrote a new menu, and the place was good to go.

It all started out so very well.

When I dropped in the first week Sterling was open, I marveled at the quality of the steaks and the dead-on execution of everything else. The sides were great. The apple pie was terrific. Maybe, I thought, these guys are getting serious about the food. Wouldn’t that be something? If they kept it up.

Fast-forward to several weeks later. I make a reservation under a friend’s name for a weekend night. That morning, my friend reports someone called his cellphone to confirm the reservation -- at nearly midnight!

We arrive sometime after 8 and there’s hardly anybody there. It’s still too early for the young late-night crowd, and the cavernous dining room with huge timber beams overhead and amber Arts and Crafts-style lamps is virtually empty. Yet they won’t let us sit in the bar’s comfy six-seater booths where I’d sat on my first visit, who knows why. And so we opt for the enclosed patio with a fireplace that seems more cheerful than the lonely dining room.

As soon as we sit down, the waiter offers bottled water, which is nothing new, just the first opportunity to add $6 to the tab. When he’s reciting the specials, I notice he doesn’t mention prices. I’m curious about the Kobe porterhouse and pipe right up to ask how much it is.

It’s $150.

A hundred and fifty dollars, and he doesn’t think it relevant to mention the price? If somebody ordered it, the waiter replies, he would have volunteered it then. Maybe. Maybe not.

It’s a good thing we don’t order it, because we have to send back a steak and some lamb chops: They’re too funky. The rest of the meat, including the Kansas City strip I’d raved about on a first visit, is just OK. Could it be that they’re already cutting the budget? Granted, with so many steakhouses, competition is fierce for the best aged prime. But at these prices ($42 for the Kansas City strip), this is an outrage.

The menu is structured to fleece the unwary. The shrimp cocktail, for example, is priced by the piece ($3.50), with a three-piece minimum. This would be acceptable if they were truly delicious shrimp. But despite the clever presentation (they come trailing a fog of dry ice), these are quite ordinary.

The chopped salad, complete with salami and chickpeas, is like an old-fashioned chef’s salad that’s been attacked with a cleaver and dipped in a sweetish balsamic vinaigrette. There’s also a salad of tuna and albacore with cucumbers and seaweed in a sprightly ponzu dressing and a little chile. The chef knows how his crowd likes to eat. For somebody, this will be dinner.

Beets in the beet salad are about as big as your head, sliced and tossed with lentils and greens in a revolting dressing doused with truffle oil. The chef plays the dessert card too early in the game with a warm spinach salad that has both caramelized pears and candied pecans.

Better bets include day boat scallops the size of pincushions in a restrained lemon beurre blanc and sauteed shrimp scampi in a buttery garlic-infused sauce.

On my most recent visit, a couple of weeks ago, the kitchen was performing slightly better. Then again, it wasn’t very busy. And they’ve since instituted a $35 prix fixe menu on Tuesday nights.

That Kansas City strip disappoints again -- it’s less aged and doesn’t have that superbly marbled taste that grabbed me the first time around. Rib-eye is better, presented on the bone, and marbled enough to give this cut real flavor. Prime rib is both tender and full of beefy goodness. They generally have it only on the weekends, though.

I can hardly believe my eyes when the waiter sets down my petite lobster tail. Petite is no exaggeration. The lobster meat is about the size of a large oyster -- and so overcooked, it’s practically welded to the top of the shell it sits on. What am I getting for $58? About four or five bites, salted and peppered. That’s it. Not even a drop of sauce. For that privilege, you have to pay $2 to $4 extra. Dare to ask for some kind of potato, and you’re on the hook for at least $7 or $8 more.

Should you want a larger lobster tail stuffed with crab, add $22 to make it $80. But even for a mere $58 -- or even $35, now that spiny lobster has come into season -- shouldn’t it be more memorable for flavor or freshness than for its dinky size?

*

Make room -- or not

SIDES are just as unpredictable as the rest of the menu. Hand-cut fries in a paper cone are on the pale side, but excellent. Sauteed mushrooms are greasy. And for some odd reason, the kitchen has added mushy peas to crisp snap peas. The potatoes au gratin are rich and creamy (and $9.50); the sauteed spinach is just dandy.

Come dessert, the delicious apple pie with latticework crust for two still hits the mark. Have it a la mode: The ice cream helps cut the sweetness. It’s nice to find someone making an actual pie. But maybe the kitchen should think about leaving the cheesecake to New York. This version manages to be fluffy and gummy at the same time. And the ice cream sandwich would be an attractive option after all that meat if the cookie weren’t so soggy.

Resident sommelier Jonathan Mitchell seems to come in just on weekends (he does double duty at White Lotus). His oddly stodgy wine list features head-spinning prices, not only for coveted boutique wines but also for Champagnes -- the girls do love the bubbly, especially if it’s a label like Cristal or Dom ($450 a bottle). The ’64 Dom Perignon “Oenotheque” will set you back $2,400. Mostly the labels are the usual suspects larded with a few -- very few -- less-known labels. But these come with high markups as well. And if you want to drink a glass of sparkling wine, they’re serving Roederer Estate for $20 a glass, which is preposterous considering you can easily find a bottle for $16 retail.

(Curiously, as we called Sterling in the last week to fact-check, the prices were dropping. Not only were the $2 sauces slashed in half and the lobster price tag reduced, but that $3,500 Screaming Eagle also took a divebomb. It’s now $1,000 less, just like that.)

The staff is pleasant enough, including the manager who comes by to see how everybody is doing, and to whatever you say, answers “awesome.”

What’s really awesome, incredibly so, is that a steakhouse would take advantage of its diners’ goodwill. But that’s what’s happening here.

That surreptitiously priced $150 special still galls me. As do the $8 potatoes, the funky lamb chops, the extra charge for the sauces and the soldered lobster tail. What are they thinking -- that nobody will know the difference? The trendy crowd will move on sooner or later, and if the kitchen doesn’t get its act together, fat chance of attracting the more loyal clientele of people who love to eat and eat well.

*

Sterling Steakhouse

Rating: Half a star

Location: 1429 North Ivar Ave., Hollywood; (323) 463-0008; www.sterlingsteakhouse.com.

Ambience: Arts and Crafts-inspired Hollywood steakhouse in a huge barn-like space with enclosed outdoor patio with fireplace and a bar with high-backed leather booths. The young, clubgoing crowd arrives late for steak and martinis.

Service: In general, pleasant enough, but waiters sometimes neglect to mention prices of specials.

Price: Appetizers, $8.50 to $29; steaks and chops, $30 to $44; seafood, $25 to $80; sides, $6 to $12.50; desserts, $7 to $15.

Best dishes: Chopped salad, sauteed scampi, lettuce wedge, prime rib, Kansas City strip, rib-eye, sauteed corn, red marble potatoes, hand-cut French fries, apple pie for two.

Wine list: Boring and overpriced. Corkage, $25.

Best table: One of the booths in the bar or a table on the patio.

Details: Open from 6 p.m. to midnight Tuesday through Saturday. Full bar. Valet parking, $7.

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.