The Los Angeles Times du lieu suivant : Los Angeles, California • Page 449

Fishing for a Wider Audience With Economical Red Pearl Restaurant News By ANGELA PETTERA SPECIAL TO THE TIMES Orange County French restaurants, have decided to open a Chinese restaurant in Huntington Beach. Tim Goodell already uses Asian techniques and ingredients in his French cooking. He tells us, "We're looking for something that has a broader audience" -meaning the prices will be lower at Red Pearl Kitchen than at the Goodells' other restaurants, Aubergine in Laguna Beach and Troquet at South Coast Plaza. The new place will also be more casual. The decor will be modern with a nod to Shanghai in the 1940s: pressed tin ceiling, silk lanterns, brocade silk booths, a bamboo and wood bar.

Communal tables will be set along the front windows. A takeout counter will have its own entrance and dim sum bar. Red Pearl Kitchen is scheduled to open at 412 Walnut St. in April. Ready to Wok: Tim and Liza Goodell, co-owners of two prominent What's in a Name, The Restaurant at the Ritz-Carlton Marina del Rey has been redesigned and renamed Jer-ne.

That's right, a phonetic spelling of the word "journey." The main dining room is dressed with hardwood floors, upholstered banquettes, free-standing tables and a central communal table (at bar height) topped in white onyx. A nautical theme prevails in the main and private dining rooms and out onto the terrace, which overlooks the marina. Chef Troy Thompson has been hired to execute a "new world" cuisine. Most recently he was the chef at Fusebox in Atlanta and formerly worked as a sous-chef under Gunther Seeger at -DAILY SPECIAL by Donna L. Barstow- IN THE MOOD the Ritz-Carlton in Buckhead, Ga.

Here Thompson mixes French dishes like duck l'orange ($29) with a bento box of cold appetizers ($30) on his dinner menu. Thompson spent two years working in Japan and describes his food as having Spanish, Asian, Indian and European influences as well. Jer-ne is open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner daily. Jer-ne, Ritz-Carlton Marina del Rey, 4375 Admiralty Way, Marina del Rey; (310) 574-4333. Not-So-Quick Change: After a change of owners and a year and a half of remodeling, Sherman Oaks' Moonlight Supper Club has become Arlequin (think French clown in the spirit of the commedia dell'arte, not American romance novel).

It's decorated with porcelain masks from Venice (the one in Italy) and the coowner-manager, Filou Rosa, is from Paris. The dinner menu is also international, largely French bistro dishes and woodoven pizzas Dinner starters run from Brie fondue ($7.50) to a caprese salad of tomatoes, mozzarella and basil Chef Angel Alvarado, from LunaPark, makes lunch Tuesday through Sunday and dinner Tuesday through Saturday. To put the brand-new dance floor to work, there's music from every conceivable country, sometimes live, sometimes piped in. A piano sits by the full bar. Arlequin is open late to accommodate Valleyites who want to party into the night.

Arlequin, 13730 Ventura Sherman Oaks; (818) 788-2000. Menu Action: From now till the end of truffle season, Water Grill has a menu that incorporates black and white truffles into a tuna tartare, diver scallops with endive salad, ra- COM E'm all that. a 2 ED violi with foie gras and grilled beef medallion; it includes cheese and a chocolate dessert. The price is $120 plus tax and tip. Water Grill, 544 S.

Grand L.A.; (213) 891-0900. Nick Coe has started offering a four-course wine-tasting menu every Wednesday at his South Pasadena restaurant, Nick's. The food is paired with four wines in conjunction with Bill Drewry of Mission Wines down the street from the restaurant. Each wine menu has. a theme and will be available all evening.

The price for these Wednesday wine nights is $35. Nick's, 1009 El Centro South Pasadena; (626) 441-7910. Patina Group Stuff: This Tuesday and Wednesday Patina offers five- and six-course truffle menus, using black truffles in everything but the cheese course. The main course choices are roasted squab with truffles and sauce or prime sirloin with celery-root and Madeira-truffle jus. Exclusive of tax and tip, the five-course menu is $110- and the six-course $125.

Patina, 5955 Melrose L.A.; (323) 467-1108. Chef from the restaurant of the same name at Le Richemont in Vannes, France, visits Pinot Provence on Friday and Saturday and Pinot Bistro on Sunday and Monday. He'll be cooking the food he's known for back home in Brittany. He'll make the same dishes all four nights: a salad of red mullet with white beans and chorizo; sea bass Barigoule with asparagus, fennel and lemon; pastilla of squab, lobster and spicy jus with honey; and fromage blanc ice cream with orange sauce. The prices, which are exclusive of tax and tip, are the same at both restaurants: three courses are $50, four courses are $60, and a fixed tasting menu of five courses is $68.

Pinot Provence, in the Westin South Coast Plaza, 686 Anton Costa Mesa; (714) 444-5900 and Pinot Bistro, 12969 Ventura Studio City; (818) 990-0500. Angela Pettera can be reached at (213) 237-3153 or at prodigy.net Westwood's Napa Valley Grille Is Getting By on Wine List for Now The them Westwood new in at Napa the Village Valley is bar, Grille packing giving in Gardens on Glendon and Palomino Eurobistro across the street some late-night competition. Set in a grandiose corner space, which practically yells chain restaurant with each of its appointments, the spacious dining room features a lurid mural of the grape harvest in the valley with tastefully executed vineyard workers and vines receding into the distance. It's Napa Valley as theme park, begging to be cloned. And why not? If the Tuscan lifestyle is now enshrined in Tuscan Frittata The frittata is an Italian snack, as good at lunch as at breakfast, made by cooking eggs with other ingredients into a firm cake.

Mustard Seed Cafe: Here you'll find a fluffy version, almost a quiche without a crust. It's mixed with thinly sliced potatoes and red peppers, shredded zucchini and Kalamata olives. At breakfast it comes with fruit, at lunch with a green salad. (Fresh vegetable frittata, $5.95.) Mustard Seed Cafe, 1948 N. Hillhurst Los Feliz (323) 660-0670.

Campanile: You might find a frittata on the menu, which changes weekly. At brunch, it will come to the table in the skillet it was cooked in. Recently featured were a lipstick pepper, parsley pesto and ricotta version and another with chorizo, white beans, spinach and romesco sauce. At lunch, a frittata say, fennel, potato, red onion and Roncal cheese- -is served turned out on a plate. (Frittatas, $13.) Campanile, 624 S.

La Brea Los Angeles, (323) 938-1447. Doughboys: The grilled potato and portabello mushroom frittata is generously sprinkled with Asiago cheese and comes with toasted sourdough walnut bread. Egg whites can be substituted for whole eggs. (Three-egg frittata, $6.95.) Doughboys, 8136 W. 3rd Los Angeles, (323) 651-4202.

One Pico: At Sunday brunch this place makes a frittata of rock shrimp, tomato, basil and a touch of Fontina. It comes with a salad in a garlicky dressing, sprinkled with bacon. (Rock shrimp, tomato, basil frittata, $15.50.) One Pico, Shutters on the Beach, 1 Pico Santa Monica, (310) 587-1717. Il Fomaio: There are two breakfast frittatas at the Beverly Hills branch of this bakery-restaurant chain. The hearty one, frittata la contadina, is made with red onions, bacon and grilled potatoes.

The light one is an egg-white frittata with rock shrimp and avocado. Both come with diced potatoes and toasted Il Fornaio bread with butter and jam. (Frittata la contadina, frittata gamberetti, $10.50.) Il Fornaio, 301 N. Beverly Drive, Beverly Hills, (310) 550-8330. Ca' del Sol: At Sunday brunch you can try owner Rodolfo Costella's grandmother's frittata.

It has organic eggs, red peppers, zucchini, leeks and eggplant with a dash of white wine, topped with onion confit. It comes with roasted rosemary potatoes. (Frittata de la nonna, $8.25.) Ca' del Sol, 4100 Canuenga North Hollywood, (818) 985-4669. -JESSICA STRAND By S. IRENE VIRBILA TIMES RESTAURANT CRITIC Square in New York, why shouldn't Napa Valley have its day in the sun? The Napa Valley Grille concept, in fact, hails from Paramus, N.J., site of the first of the grape-themed grills four years ago.

The best thing Napa Valley Grille has going for it is the wine list: more than 300 selections of Napa Valley wines, though the idea may play better in New Jersey than here in Los Angeles, one of the most sophisticated wine markets in the country. The list was put together by Robert Cross, former wine director at the late Bernard's at the Biltmore. Check the "Sommelier's Favorites" for those harder-to-find labels. The bar also carries 40 wines by the glass. Not everybody ensconced at the bar is sipping Chardonnay, though.

The bartender is busy pouring out premium tequila or single-malt scotch samplers and concocting fashionable martinis too. Chef Frank Fronda showcases "two-bite tastes" of wine country cuisine- seared diver scallops in a foie gras-quince vinaigrette, say, or beef carpaccio with a violet mustard sauce--paired with Napa Valley wines. The idea seems a bit precious, but if you're into nibbling, his "trio of perfect pairs" with twoounce pours of wine might tempt. Though at $19.95, that's just for starters. Other options include butternut squash soup swirled with or an excellent Dungeness crab cake with fennel salad.

Fried calamari and rock shrimp is rather bland, and salads tend to be over-exuberantly dressed. Pastas are embellished with so many ingredients that some, like the trenne which is sauced with chicken broccoli rabe, oven-dried tomatoes, artichokes, and garlic Parmesan cream, read like a parody of California cuisine. Main courses are not quite as baroque: the familiar chicken under a brick, an aged New York steak with potato and onion gratin, and a roasted saddle of rabbit with applewood smoked bacon. My meal was so uneven, it told me it's too early to tell how this new kitchen will settle in. I'm hoping good cooking can overcome the rather dubious concept.

Napa Valley Grille, Westwood Center, 1100 Glendon Los Angeles; (310) 824-3322; fax (310) 824-3232. Open for lunch weekdays, dinner daily and also Sunday brunch. Dinner starters range from $5 to $16; pastas $14 to $19; main courses $17 to $24. Valet parking..