Dinner At Eight

Comments (0) Thursday, Jul 15 2004

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Hollywood/Melrose/La Brea/Fairfax

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Campanile

624 S. La Brea Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90036

Category: Restaurant > California

Region: Hollywood

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Alex.Chef-owner Alex Scrimgeour is talented, careful and hard-working; his Cal-French cooking hits most of the right notes, and the service is attentive. Overall, Alex gets a sturdy A-minus, the minus for the simple reason that we want more — more passion, more risks, more flourish and even more mistakes. I mean, hey, this is a place where the live piano player stops playing midsong when his cell phone rings. 6703 Melrose Ave., Los Angeles, (323) 933-5233. Dinner Mon.–Sat. starting at 6 p.m. Full bar. Valet parking. AE, D, DC, MC, V. Entrées $29. California French.MH $$$

Angeli Caffé.Most L.A. restaurants have the shelf life of rock & roll bands, so it’s an impressive and moving fact that Angeli Caffé on Melrose has survived two decades. It was among the first of the new Italians, and chef Evan Kleiman’s clear-eyed, big-flavored cooking was an enormous influence. In addition, she does family night on Thursdays; tables are pushed into long rows, and food comes out on platters, family-style — Mexican and Indian, tapas and Moroccan, Persian and Provençal, as well as classic Italian regional meals. 7274 Melrose Ave., Los Angeles, (323) 936-9086. Lunch Tues.–Fri., 11:30 a.m.–3 p.m. Dinner Tues.–Thurs., 5–10 p.m. Fri.–Sat. 5–11pm. Closed Monday. Beer and wine. Valet parking. Entrées $11–$18. Thursday dinners $25. AE, D, MC, V. Italian.MH ¤

Angelini Osteria.The great Italian chef Gino Angelini has fulfilled a lifetime dream to open his own casual osteria that serves simple, hearty, home-style food — from a home rife with genius cooking genes. The classy, clattery urban café is lively, fun — and very kid-friendly. (The three-course child’s menu is a fine way to introduce the squirts to the pleasures and pace of fine dining.) Angelini may have downshifted his culinary ambitions, but his abilities are entrenched, and there’s unmistakable haute in the homiest braised oxtails or codfish stew. 7313 Beverly Blvd., Los Angeles, (323) 297-0070. Beer and wine. Valet parking. Lunch Tues.–Fri. noon–2 p.m. Dinner Tues.–Sun. 5:30–10:30 p.m. AE, MC, V. Entrées $16–$30. Italian.MH $$¤

Brasserie Vert.Wolfgang Puck’s brasserie in the Hollywood & Highland mall may be his most delightful, demographically democratic offering yet. The room isn’t distinctive — it’s not even green — and the stark mall outside the windows offers no interesting vista (except that of tourists taking pictures of the ultimate L.A. vista, the Hollywood sign), but who cares? You’ll want to eat everything on the menu — fat black mussels, cracker-thin pizza with pancetta and paper-thin potatoes, Lee Hefter’s bolognese sauce and perfect veal meatballs, steak frites with a stunning béarnaise. 6801 Hollywood Blvd., Suite 411, Hollywood, (323) 491-1300. Lunch Mon.–Fri. from 11:30 a.m., Sat.-Sun. from noon; dinner from 5:30 p.m., seven days. Full bar. Limited takeout. Lot parking. AE, D, DC, MC, V. Entrées $16–$24. French/Italian.MH $$ ¤ Ü

Campanile.The basic premise of Urban Rustic cuisine is the perfection of Mediterranean peasant dishes, often in ways that may be incomprehensible to the Mediterranean peasants in question. Campanile’s Mark Peel reinterprets this sunny cuisine by using really good ingredients, assembling them with chefly skill, and illuminating the spirit of each dish as if from within. A niçoise salad and a grilled prime rib under Peel’s direction is like a Velázquez painting of a horse as opposed to the horse itself. 624 S. La Brea Ave., Los Angeles, (323) 938-1447. Lunch Mon.–Fri. 11:30–2:30 p.m. Dinner Mon.–Thurs. 6–10 p.m., Fri.–Sat. 5:30–11 p.m. Brunch Sat.–Sun. 9:30 a.m.–1:30 p.m. Full bar. Valet parking. AE, CB, DC, MC, V. Entrées $25–$38. California Italian.JG $$$Ü ¤

Cobras & Matadors.Despite its name, this is, finally, a good tapas restaurant — and who knew how convivial a series of shared small plates with walloping flavors could be? Crimson walls, a hearthlike wood-fired oven and swinging jambons create a hip, Barcelona-style coziness. C&M is strictly BYOB, but the adjacent liquor store has a smart, handpicked selection of South American and Spanish wines, and corkage is $5. 7615 Beverly Blvd., Los Angeles, (323) 932-6178. Dinner Sun.–Thurs. 6–11 p.m., Fri.–Sat. 6 p.m.–mid. BYOB. Also at 4655 Hollywood Blvd., (323) 669-3922. Valet parking. MC, V. Tapas $3–$15. Spanish.MH $¨

EM Bistro.The room is gull-white and moderne, the service excellent, and the food robust and refined — halibut cooked with a light touch and short ribs done to a near candied intensity, and vegetables presented in their most perfect form. Don’t miss the stunning organic strawberry shortcake gilded with Meyer lemon curd. 8256 Beverly Blvd., Los Angeles, (323) 658-6004. Dinner Tues.–Sat. 6 p.m.–10 p.m. (until 11 p.m. Fri.–Sat.). Full bar. Valet parking. AE, MC, V. Entrées, $15–$28. American.MH $$¤ Ü *

Jar.Chef Suzanne Tracht’s interpretation of the contemporary American steak house means many sides and sauces and the occasional Asian twist (duck fried rice, sautéed pea tendrils, tamarind sauce). But meat, braised or dry-aged and grilled, is the real focus: flavorful and tender New York steak with the bone in, magnificent pot roast. The décor is tasteful, the art wry, the service totally professional and the noise level off the charts. 8225 Beverly Blvd., Los Angeles, (323) 655-6566. Thurs. and Tues.–Sun. 5:30–10 p.m., Fri.–Sat. to 11 p.m. Full bar. Valet parking. AE, D, MC, V. Entrées $19–$29. California American.MH $$