City feel, but with the tastes of home

LOOK out, another louche Hollywood restaurant-lounge has opened on the Cahuenga corridor, this one called Citizen Smith. Of course, it has the requisite hard-to-find entrance, sans any sign that I could detect. Give up? Look for a valet station on the darkened block just north of Selma Avenue.

Thomas Schoos, who designed Koi, O-Bar and Wilshire, has taken a long, skinny space with high ceilings and transformed it into a sexy boite. It’s so crowded in there it’s hard to take in the details: a long bar, sober colors and chandeliers encircled by transparent shades printed, mysteriously, with women’s faces.

Ask for a table and a host will take you straight to the worst one on offer, outside in the alley that stands in for Citizen Smith’s patio, next to the gate where a big truck rumbles and belches smoke.

Someone in my party -- not I -- protests. After a bit of back-and-forth, the host concedes and gives us one of the other empty tables nearby.

It’s swell, like sitting in a roomy convertible. And the alley conceit is kind of fabulous. The bare brick walls, pipes running overhead, the moon above -- is any of it real, or is it savvy set design?

The menu, however, is strictly urban comfort food. Take the sliders: three diminutive burgers on buns slathered with Dijon aioli. Think of them as burgers lite.

Onion rings are cut as thick as bracelets and piled high enough to be called a tower. Served with three sauces, they make great drink fodder. And, of course, there’s mac and cheese, here in two versions -- the traditional and the jalapeno with a jolt of chopped chiles.

Salads encompass the usual suspects -- Caesar, chopped, Nicoise -- along with a grilled steak salad in red wine and blue cheese vinaigrette.

For the very hungry, there are half-pound burgers with various fixings. And chef Taylor Boudreaux has slipped in New Orleans’ muffaletta sandwich piled with mortadella, provolone, salami and Black Forest ham, and garnished with a traditional olive relish.

The chef, our waiter tells us, comes from Mastro’s and so the steaks are a shoo-in. But why gnaw on a steak you could get anywhere when you can find under “other amazing entrees” fried chicken (just the breasts, ma’am) with pan gravy or center cut pork chops seasoned with a maple-chipotle rub? Don’t forget veggies, listed steakhouse-fashion under “sides.” And you’re good to go.

Just then the trio at the next table light up their humongous cigars and puff away at the moon. Good thing too, because the club crowd is arriving. After 11, the late-night menu comes into play and goes all the way to 4 a.m., when Citizen Smith goes to bed.

*

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Citizen Smith

Where: 1602 N. Cahuenga Blvd., Hollywood

When: Open 5 p.m. to 4 a.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays, 5 p.m. to 2 a.m. Sundays and Mondays. Full bar. Valet parking.

Cost: Appetizers, $6 to $18; sandwiches, $9 to $14; steaks, $29 to $42; “other amazing entrees,” $16 to $25; sides, $6 to $8

Info: (323) 461-5001