So, you like to play with fire?

CANDLES in between stalks of bamboo at Koi, candles on the wall at Citizen Smith, candles amid shards of crystal at O-Bar, candles mounted into a tree-like sculpture at Wilshire. During the last few years, if you walked into any of L.A.’s Thomas Schoos-designed restaurants, you’d be confronted with candles.

One might have thought that after Schoos’ few-months hiatus in L.A. openings, he would have come back with some less votive-centric design ideas. But at the just-opened Penthouse at the top of the Huntley Hotel in Santa Monica, as soon as you step off the elevator you immediately see (if the crowd isn’t too thick) a floor-to-ceiling sculpture of votives mounted on thick, silver-toned, intertwined vines.

And at newly renovated Table 8 in Hollywood, Schoos says he installed six “walls” of candles in Egyptian alabaster votive holders.

Thomas, what’s up with all the candles?

“Candles is a must, baby. One thing I can never miss in a restaurant is the candles,” says Schoos. “It’s sexy, it’s romantic. You have to have it.”

At the Penthouse, there are about 120 votives that someone has to light and put out every night; at Table 8, about 150 of them (the better to see by?).

“They love me and they hate me for lighting the candles,” Schoos says. “They have people, before you start your shift or whatever. The candle boy or girl does a runaround and lights all the candles.”

Lighting 120 candles doesn’t seem so bad compared with the more than 500 at Tao nightclub in Las Vegas, another Schoos production.

Candles have long been a Schoos trademark. At Schoos-designed Koi, there are candles behind the sushi bar, above the fireplace and in the windows.

At O-Bar, the West Hollywood restaurant that Schoos co-owns, candles are strung among hundreds of natural crystal chips, which Schoos calls “Utah ice,” floating in the middle of the room. “It’s my favorite.... It looks like you’re getting a dump of fallen ice that’s falling down on you. It looks amazing.”

At the Penthouse, the bar’s centerpiece is a display of thick candles, each about 1 to 2 feet high.

“We carve out the center and put votives in them so the candles never melt down all over the bar, but they look like real candles. It’s a little sleazy trick, but it works. You never have to replace the candles.”

There are candles above the fireplace and tabletop candles mounted in Utah ice crystal. “When you cut it, it has an iridescence to it, and when you put a candle in it, you get an amazing glow,” Schoos says.

“I like to play with fire,” he adds.

He used to like to play with water. “When we started, we were known for water features -- small fountains, large basins, water walls, Buddha fountains, tabletop fountains, koi ponds and so forth.

But water is something very tricky. People are throwing stuff in it, lemon slices, cigarette butts, pieces of food. It’s hard to maintain. I like candles better.”

-- Betty Hallock

Small bites

* Hungry for Japanese? Izaka-ya by Katsu-ya is open on 3rd Street in West Hollywood, Sawtelle Kitchen has reopened in West L.A., and there’s a sushi conveyor belt at Kado, a new spot in the original Farmers Market. On the horizon is “naughty sushi” spot Hadaka Sushi, mega-izakaya Gonpachi, and the Sunset Boulevard branch of Philippe Starck-designed Katsuya. Where’s Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoto?

Izaka-ya by Katsu-ya, 8420 W. 3rd St., West Hollywood, (323) 782-9536; Sawtelle Kitchen, 2024 Sawtelle Blvd., West L.A., (310) 473-2222; Kado, 6333 W. 3rd St., Los Angeles, (323) 933-0055.

* Chateau Marmont’s kitchen will be helmed by Carolynn Spence, former sous chef at the Spotted Pig in New York and chef at Bar Marmont, where she serves up such bar food as oxtail bruschetta and pork and sage crepinette. Former Chateau Marmont chef Mohammad Islam has opened Aigre Doux in Chicago.

Chateau Marmont, 8221 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, (323) 656-1010; Bar Marmont, 8171 W. Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood (323) 650-0575.

* Ice cream parlor Milk is open, with pastry chef Richard Yoshimura concocting ice cream in flavors such as banana dulce de leche, ice cream sandwiches made with big macarons, and ice cream bars like banana butterscotch crunch.

7290 Beverly Blvd., Los Angeles, (323) 939-6455.