What’s for breakfast? Dinner

NEAL FRASER, chef-owner of Grace, the 3 1/2 -year-old new American restaurant on Beverly Boulevard, and his wife-partner, Amy Knoll Fraser, are branching out. In early summer, the two plan to open BLD, as in “breakfast, lunch and dinner.”

Breakfast? Since when do serious chefs do hot cakes and eggs?

“We’re trying to give as much emphasis to breakfast as we do to dinner,” says Fraser, “L.A. needs more breakfast restaurants.”

He plans to offer sweet crepes and such dishes as braised beef short ribs with poached eggs and Cabernet Sauvignon hollandaise.

Red hollandaise? Now that’ll be a sight for sore eyes. Or something.

Fraser isn’t the only one who thinks Angelenos deserve something interesting for breakfast. Consider these recent arrivals.

Square One Dining on Fountain Avenue has a cassoulet made with two kinds of sausages on its breakfast menu, as well as a ragout of fava beans, shiitake and oyster mushrooms served on grits with feta. Want to go sweet? There’s a stack of buttermilk pancakes with Meyer lemon curd and blueberry compote.

Tiara, Fred Eric’s spot in downtown L.A., is serving up tofu scrambles and granola fruit parfaits in the morning.

At Tart on Fairfax Avenue, diners can greet the day with biscuits and gravy. And Chaya Brasserie in Beverly Hills, after 20 years of being a lunch- and dinner-only spot, is adding weekend brunch later this month.

Fraser’s BLD will be located in the old Cafe Capo/Opaline/Red space. And no, the number of good restaurants that have come and gone in that location did not give Fraser pause.

“The proximity [to Grace] makes sense to us because we can almost be at two places at the same time,” says Fraser. “It’s a block and a half away.”

Fraser says BLD will be more casual than Grace and more affordable, with the most expensive menu item, a steak, topping out around $25. The plan is to be open from 8 a.m. to midnight, 363 days a year. (Christmas and the Fourth of July are the exceptions.)

Mike Garber, sous chef at Grace, will head the kitchen.

The restaurant will have a 14-seat charcuterie and cheese bar with a 100-year-old Berkel slicer,

plus a retail space where you can purchase cheese and charcuterie as well as ingredients that Fraser uses in the kitchen such as chestnut honey, violet mustard and Alessandro Caffe, which is roasted in Valencia.

-- Leslee Komaiko

Small bites

* There are big changes on the way at Maple Drive. The Patina Group is taking over management of the 17-year-old Beverly Hills restaurant June 1. While Patina Group founder Joachim Splichal was unwilling to comment -- a spokesperson indicated that the deal wasn’t finalized -- word has gone out to Maple Drive employees. Current general manager Michael Morrisette, who has been at the restaurant since 2004, is staying on. Chef Vincent Manna says he has resigned, declining an offered position. He plans to work through the month.

Maple Drive, 345 N. Maple Drive, (310) 274-9800.

* Ron Mendoza, who held the romantic-sounding title “director of pastry operations” at Boule, Michelle Myers’ La Cienega Boulevard bakery and confectionery, as well as being pastry chef at sister restaurant Sona across the street, is now pastry chef at Ortolan, Christophe Eme’s contemporary French dining room. Eme had been overseeing both the savory and sweet sides of the menu.

Ortolan, 8338 W. 3rd St., L.A., (323) 653-3300.

* Koichiro and Akiyo Kikuchi closed their popular La Cienega Boulevard restaurant Kikuchi late last month after seven years. (It was originally called Bistro 21.) “We have to go back to Japan,” said Koichiro, the chef. “It’s a paper problem. We tried to extend my visa, but the U.S. government says, ‘Your business is too small.’ Even Nancy Reagan tried to help us.” The restaurant is for sale, although the Kikuchis say they would like to return to L.A.

* Mike Bryant has been promoted from executive sous chef to chef de cuisine at Norman’s on Sunset Boulevard, Norman Van Aken’s New World cuisine restaurant. Bryant, who has been working with Van Aken since 2003, replaces Craig Petrella, who is on sabbatical.

Norman’s, 8570 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, (310) 657-2400.