Bohemian bistro, big-name sushi among new LA restaurants

By Lena Katz

There are so many restaurant openings in Los Angeles lately, it leaves me breathless — and would leave you cross-eyed if you tried to count them all on your California vacation. So, here are as many as I can call out in one breath. The best of the bunch (I think), though they’re as different as can be.

Over in Santa Monica, new Fig Restaurant in the Fairmont does an upscale and adventurous take on bistro fare. In addition to standards like steak frites and oysters on the half shell, Fig does sweetbreads, tongue and a delicious venison entrée. Fave salad: anything with “blistered” (i.e. flash-grilled) Romaine. Cheese flights are a fabulous way to try the 75 different hand-selected fromages.

Not everyone realizes that Asian fusion newcomer RockSugar Pan Asian Kitchen is the brainchild of the Cheesecake Factory founder…nor should they. The menu is completely different — an interesting combination of Thai, Malaysian, Singaporean and other regional Eastern cuisines. The décor is a glossy and exotic LA version of Ali Baba’s cave, and the music could give Buddha Bar a run for the money. Speaking of money, that’s the only indicator that this place might be a Cheesecake cousin. It’s blindingly obvious that somebody invested some serious money in this business, and did it well. The ambiance is flawlessly executed.

'The ultimate date restaurant'

In Hollywood, nightlife impresario Ivan Kane moves smoothly into the restaurant business with Café Wa S, a sultry Bohemian bistro that evokes1920s Paris, when every nice lady was having an affair with a young artist or a dissolute European count…Or maybe that was just in the books I read? Anyway. This is the ultimate date restaurant — the only caveat being, the atmosphere (and absinthe drinks) might fool you into feeling much more amorous than you would in a normal environment.

After years of playing second fork to Nobu (at least in terms of number of restaurants), sushi chef extraordinaire Katsuya Uechi is expanding at a lightning-fast rate. Katsuya foundhis dream partner in club-owner-turned-hotelier Sam Nazarian. Together with architect Philippe Starck, Katsu and Nazarian (or should we say Nazarian’s checkbook) are opening restaurants everywhere from LA Live to Beverly Hills to Studio City, so it's easy to find a location to try during your California vacation.

Not to be outdone, Wolfgang Puck — the original ubiquitous LA celeb chef — is launching new restaurants at LA Live, in San Diego (Asian fusion gourmet room Jai, in the La Jolla theater district), and…well, actually Wolfie’s not exactly focusing on LA these days. He’s too busy opening Five-Sixty at the top of a skyscraper in Dallas.

And finally we go downtown, where — surprise! — yet another nouveau Mexican place joins the fray: Provecho, helmed by former Republic and BOA exec chef Gabriel Morales. Aside from the ceviche bar and adjacent martini bar (! So long Margarita; you were fun when I knew ye), this restaurant is distinguished by its oh-so-upmarket versions of family Mexican recipes. Lobster chili rellenos. Kobe beef tortas. Que rico!

For American casual fare, the reinvented Cole’s is better than I expected. Neal Fraser was a consulting chef — and Fraser is one of LA’s leading gourmet lights, so anything he touches, even a French dip sandwich, gets a significant quality boost.

Praising the bar

Bars and clubs in Los Angeles have the life span of butterflies (seriously, most are only ‘hot’ for between 6 months and a year), and here are the newcomers I think are most likely to still be around by the end of 2009:

First (just because the name is so wicked cool) is Barbarella Bar, a Silverlake joint that planned to be themed after the movie Barbarella, but wound up being merely to-die-for stylish with a promising dancefloor setup.
Next, El Bar, the latest excellently seedy hipster haunt by Craig Trager of The Well. It is matador themed — how could you not love it?
On the flip side of the spectrum, there are two glossy see-and-be seen clubs to check out: Kress, a gorgeous new venue with a huge rooftop bar decorated in beautiful Crayola rainbow-colored tones that Lewis Carroll would have flipped for; and MYHOUSE, the David Judaken/Dodd Mitchell venture that strives to be fabulously homey — hospitable yet VIP.
If you want to stick withfabulously fabulous, try Mitchell’s other nightlife venue of note: The rooftop bar at the Thompson Hotel. Beverly Hills views, gourmet nibbles and a swimming pool…it doesn’t get more LA than that.

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