Daily News from New York, New York • 226

-vt i 4 A 1 jt ri gr A Taste dated. ttrtvtne- Ssl KIpI Up EATS At Knickerbocker on University Place, chef Charles Kiely cooks up a class act By DANIEL YOUNG WBmmmmmm Daily News Restaurant Cnuc Ft KNICKERBOCKER BAR GRILL. 33 University Place, (at Ninth (212) 2288490. Reservations accepted. Major credit.

Appetizers entrees Open 7 days. Handicap access street level. Coffee rating: passable espresso, high-octane regular coffee. 44 A'. f' --r-i fel CP? 1 1 EXACTLY THE MOMENT THE waitress served me a mushroom-Istuffed trout with Brussels 'JT777 11 tit By ED LEV1NE MOTHER WASN'T MUCH OF a cook, so I was hoping that the potato pancakes and the blintzes at Just Like Mother's, a homey Polish restaurant, would be just like my grandmother's.

But they weren't. They were better. In fact, much of the food at this surprising, cheery little spot on Queens Blvd. equaled or bettered the fine peasanty food my grandmother put out on our visits to Wythe Place in the Bronx in the '60s and '70s. Oniony potato pancakes thin and crisp are simply the best latkes I've ever had at a restaurant ($3.75 for a half order).

Though our half order consisted of three large pancakes, I found myself wishing we had splurged for the full shot. Cheese blintzes ($6.50) were at least as good as the latkes: crisp, thin and buttery crepes enclosed a just-creamy-enough cheese filling that also was astonishingly light. You may prefer fruit blintzes Right now, they use fresh strawberries, otherwise, the fruit blintzes are filled only with overly sweet, goopy jam. The apple fritters ($6.25) fall in the same class as the blintzes and the latkes greaseless discs filled with apples and topped with powdered sugar and sour cherry preserves. My grandmother did make better stuffed cabbage ($7.95) than these standard logs in a sauce too tomatoey for me.

And the meat in the pierogi ($5.95) was too finely chopped. Skip the Greek coffee shoplike desserts in the display case and go for apple cake ($2.50) with fresh prunes. Then, instead of an after-dinner drink, have a glass of kompot a fruit drink with a big piece of fresh pear in it. KNICKERBOCKER TALE: Knickerbocker Bar Grill has spiffed up its menu, though the restaurant's look hasn't changed since this photo was taken a decade ago. sprouts, bacon lardons and caramelized shallots in a vinegar-edged chicken broth, her colleague brought to the next table a T-bone steak large enough to stagger Yankee Cecil Fielder.

The man taking on the beef, plus creamed spinach, mashed spuds, onion rings and numerous alcoholic beverages, checked out my prder and I his. Then we both turned to our respective companions and sneered: "Do you believe that guy, ordering something like THAT at a place like THIS!" Such encounters are commonplace at Knickerbocker Bar Grill, a neighborhood mainstay equally comfortable with bacon cheeseburgers and coriander-crusted tuna, $16.75 Chenin Blanc and $115 Bordeaux, NYU freshmen and veteran kibitzers. Most of the Knickerbockers (New York inhabitants) served during the last 20 years never quit offering unsolicited comments, and view this table-crammed floor as an informal jazz pub, a steakhouse, a progressive American bistro or all three. Few Manhattan restaurants are so welcoming to elderly, unaccompanied diners, and I commend the patience displayed by the more experienced servers in attending to the special needs and requests of longstanding regulars. But I found the dining-room delivery of the varied menu to be less skilled than its preparation.

Chef Charles Kiely came to the corner of University Place and Ninth St. in February wrongly assuming that the preferences of its broad clientele might not suit his. Having cooked at fashionable spots, like Sign of the Dove, Savoy and One Fifth, Kiely had no interest in doing shrimp cocktail, garlic bread, Caesar salad and other old-fashioned Knickerbocker compulsories. But one look at the broadly appealing menu tells you that he can embrace innovation as well as preserve tradition gracefully. The wine list has good complements for most foods and budgets.

Two values in white Burgundy, the 1994 Louis La-tour Montagny ($23.50) and the 1992 Clos Richmont Meursault ($42) suit the trout and the house-smoked salmon. T-bones endure as the house favorite despite many superior options. (The sliced filet mignon easily surpassed my tough T-bone.) But one old fave to try again was the caviar pie, a cakelike wedge of egg salad, sour cream and cream cheese "iced" with second-rate black caviar. Among appetizers, Kiely's flair was more apparent in crisp duck-and-wild mushroom crepes over celery root pu- Just Like Mother's: 110-60 Queens Blvd. (between Ascan ree, and in good fried calamari that came with two dips: raspberry-shallot (superb!) and spicy marinara.

Polenta appeared as a bolster for seafood salad, with ratatouille and as delectable fried fingers accompanying a special of corn-crusted fried oysters with fabulous roasted red pepper remoulade. I tried two of five pastas, but can't imagine anything quite like the spaghetti paella heaped with scallops, shrimp, mussels and chorizo sausage. The spicy broth clung to the noodles like John Wetteland to a one-run lead. The best closer from a dessert selection in transition was rice pudding layered, parfait-style, between heavy whipped cream and plum compote. Reassuringly unchanged are the dark-wood fixtures and crescent-shaped booths.

And the Hirshfeld prints and old New York posters on the burgundy walls still adorn this now deceptively nostalgic showcase for fine contemporary cooking at moderate prices. Ave. and 73d Road), (718)544-3294. Open 6:30 a.m. to 10 p.m.

seven days, a week. Visa and Mastercard. (Ed Levine is the author of "New York WORTH A TRIP A IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD CITY WIDE WHAT VAS. STARS MSLAHi Wf0M SC1HL eo good rag seatrrs.sc IN THE BOROUGH FROM ANYWHERE Soho Brewery Did So-So; Now It's Chaos open by late this year at 56 Beaver St. in the Wall Street area.

This spot was, until it closed some four years ago, the second-oldest continuously operating restaurant in the city. (Fraunces Tavern still has the honor of being the oldest.) The people behind Delmonico's who now run the Commonwealth brewpub in Rockefeller Center will do pretty much what the name of the place im 5 son but these will now be supplemented by mass-market brews. Good hopes to start selling Soho's suds in kegs next year to other bars in town. While Good believes brewpubs still have strong appeal, By RON GIVENS Nothing, unfortunately, brought enough people into the place. (The location just may not be beer-friendly.

Two previous brewpubs in the same place had short lives as well.) So, now the brewpub has become a downtown lounge (complete with doorman) called Chaos. The ownership is much the same, but Chaos is being operated by folks who promoted Spy Bar. "The Soho Brewery Nacho Mama's concept was great," says Larry Good, who remains a co-owner of the place, "but in this area of SoIIo, the things that do well are those see-and-be-seen places." Chaos will continue to serve the same Soho Brewery beers that have been made upstairs at 40-42 Thomp- fl THE BREWPUB CRAZE GOING a little Hat? Li From the summer of '95 to the summer of '96, the number of barrestaurants jumped from six to 14. It seemed like the streets of Manhattan would soon overflow with suds. Now, however, the first place in the recent wave of new beer-making establishments has tapped out.

Nacho Mama's Brewery opened last November at the intersection of Thompson and Watts Sts. with a tasty combo of "New York-Mex" food and English-style beers. Last summer, the cozy burrito-and-brew place was slightly reinvented although the fine been remained just the same as Soho Brewery. 5 plies: steaks, grilled stuff, five or six beers made on the premises. Finally, I left a very fine beer off my Oktoberfest list two weeks ago.

The New Amsterdam Oktoberfest (made by a Utica brewer for an NYC company) may not fit the traditional Bavarian style, but it's a rich, very malty brew you should definitely check out he says, "You cannot rely just on the brewpub craze. If you're starting a new place, you have to look for a good neighborhood and cultivate that area. People are less willing to travel to another part of town to go to a brewpub." That observation may be disquieting to the folks behind Delmonico's Steak and Ale House, who hope to.