No, wait -- did I say brasserie?

IT’S a chef’s prerogative to change his mind. One day he wants to close the restaurant, on another, he wants to keep it open. One day he wants a Japanese pub, on another, a French brasserie.

Nobu Matsuhisa has done a 180 and decided not to close his original L.A. restaurant, Matsuhisa. Matsuhisa had intended to shutter the La Cienega institution, which opened in 1987, after he and his partner in the Nobu chain of restaurants, Robert De Niro, purchased L’Orangerie this summer. “Matsuhisa is not closing,” says the restaurant’s spokeswoman, Yukari Hirata Elston, adding that the chef decided to keep his namesake restaurant open after being besieged with pleas from his loyal regulars.

Meanwhile, Sona chef David Myers has decided not to open an izakaya named Sokyo in the Melrose space formerly occupied by Noura Cafe. Instead, he is opening a “modern brasserie” called Comme Ca there.

On a visit last week to Matsuhisa, the mood at the omakase bar was noticeably buoyant. Regulars chatted happily over sizzling pans of Kobe beef, tiny plates of Japanese conch and black-lacquered bento boxes of flourless chocolate cake.

Matsuhisa’s new place, tentatively to be called Nobu Los Angeles, will debut in the spot soon to be vacated by L’Orangerie (the opening is slotted for summer). Matsuhisa’s wife, Yoko Matsuhisa, says that it would have a much different tone than the original restaurant: “More like Koi,” she says, “lots of drinking.”

Myers, for his part, had teamed with sushi chef Kazunori Nozawa to open Sokyo, but during the time it has taken to get all the permits, he says, they realized the market is getting too saturated with Japanese concepts.

“Mr. Nozawa and I are still going to be doing Sokyo,” says Myers. “We’re looking for an area that’s more suited to that.”

Myers says he had been thinking about a modern brasserie concept for more than a few years and scouting locations. “The space ultimately was a little too big for what we wanted to do [with Sokyo], but without a doubt it is the right fit for the brasserie.”

Comme Ca’s chef will be Sona sous chef Michael David, who worked at DB Bistro in New York and before that helped launch Cafe Boulud.

Myers says he has been inspired by recent trips to Paris. Comme Ca, which he plans to open in the spring, will be modern and edgy in design -- “a really cool ambience, funky chairs, all of that, and bright, bustling and lively. It will be a true representation of what brasserie cuisine is. We’ll serve a few beers, oysters, choucroute, pates, terrines, a huge cheese selection, but also moules frites and onion soup.”

Guess it’s also a chef’s prerogative to throw in a few bistro dishes on a brasserie menu.

Betty Hallock and Amy Scattergood

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Small bites

* Poolside restaurant and lounge Blue Velvet is open at the Flat, a downtown residential project. The space incorporates “green” elements such as rapidly renewable wood and bio-composite panels. The executive chef is Kris Morningstar, formerly of Patina and Meson G. Speaking of Patina and Meson G.... Eric Greenspan, former executive chef at both, plans to open his own restaurant, the Foundry on Melrose, early next year.

Blue Velvet, 750 Garland Ave., Los Angeles, (213) 239-0061.

* Vertical Wine Bistro has opened in Old Town Pasadena with a small-plates menu created by chef Sara Levine, formerly of Opus in Los Angeles and Zax in Brentwood. The wine bar carries a selection of more than 400 wines, with up to 100 available by the glass.

70 N. Raymond Ave., upstairs, Pasadena, (626) 795-3999.

* The Los Angeles chapter of the American Institute of Architects announced the winners of the 2006 restaurant design awards. Tied for first place were Cut, the Wolfgang Puck steakhouse in Beverly Hills designed by Richard Meier, and Houston’s in Santa Monica, designed by Frederick Fisher & Partners -- notably beating out Philippe Starck-designed Katsuya in Brentwood.

Cut, 9500 Wilshire Blvd., (310) 276-8500; Houston’s, 202 Wilshire Blvd., Santa Monica, (310) 576-7558.