A New Direction for L’Orangerie?

Are changes in the offing for L’Orangerie? According to industry sources, owner Gerard Ferry has sold L.A.’s best--and most expensive--classic French restaurant to a Japanese businessman living in Los Angeles. Ferry, it’s said, will continue running the restaurant for two more years as a consultant.

“I am not going to talk about it,� Ferry says. “Nothing has been finalized.�

As reported earlier, the La Cienega Boulevard restaurant is scheduled to close for remodeling for two weeks, beginning Jan. 1. Besides cosmetic changes to the interior, the remodel includes construction of an outside terrace. On Feb. 3--the date of its 15th anniversary--L’Orangerie will begin opening for lunch.

ANOTHER CASUALTY: Coincidentally, one of New York’s best, and most expensive, restaurants has also been sold. The Quilted Giraffe--the nouvelle Japanese-American restaurant known for its $135 per person Kaiseki dinners and 18% service charges--will close its doors on New Year’s Day.

Chef-owner Barry Wine, who opened the luxury restaurant with his wife Susan 18 years ago, sold the lease to Sony Corp. Sony, which took over the lease of the entire AT&T; building where the restaurant is located, plans to remodel the entire plaza. “We were left with a couple of options,� says Susan Wine, “either trying to function during the construction, which would be difficult, or close for a year. When Sony agreed to buy our lease, we took the opportunity.�

Barry Wine, who has been consulting with Sony on its food operation for the past six months, has accepted a position with the firm as senior vice president.

“It’s a real estate transaction,� says Susan Wine, who runs the front of the restaurant. “Sony bought our lease, Barry gets to go on to bigger and better projects, and I get to take a breather.

“Having watched so many people sort of slide away during the recession,� Wine adds, “It’s nice to go out out of business when we’re at the top.�

GOODWILL SHOPPING: “We need a miracle this Christmas,� says Ted Landreth, a documentary filmmaker and spokesman for the Greater West Hollywood Food Coalition, an all-volunteer group dedicated to feeding the hungry who gather nightly for a meal on the sidewalk at Sycamore and Romaine in West Hollywood. The group needs a restaurant willing to feed the homeless.

Every Thanksgiving, L.A.’s Hard Rock Cafe feeds approximately 300 homeless people a turkey dinner with all the trimmings. Another restaurant usually hosts Christmas dinner. But this year’s restaurant, struggling like so many other businesses in the Southland, had to bow out of the project.

“If only we could find a restaurant that wants to do the sort of thing the Hard Rock has been doing for our group on Thanksgiving,� Landreth says. If anyone can make a miracle, Landreth can be reached at (213) 934-6620.

FORGING AHEAD: “I have someone out of New York who does art forgeries,� says Philip Cummins. “He is painting 10 Mona Lisas.� Cummins, who owns three restaurant/nightclubs in New York, and another in Washington, will use the forgeries to decorate the walls of his future restaurant/nightclub on Santa Monica’s 3rd Street Promenade. Its name, of course, is Mona’s. Each canvas will look as if it had been done by different artist . . . the Mona Lisa by Picasso, for instance.

“I don’t know how many times I’ve eaten at a restaurant in this city and then forgotten the name a week later,� Cummins says. “Once you walk into my place, you will never forget the name.�

Cummins says the food will be a combination of southern French and southern Spanish--real bouillabaisse, real paellas. It won’t be what Cummins calls California nouveau--just to be sure, he’s importing a chef from New York. “All these chefs in Los Angeles are so wrapped up in this whole nouveau thing.�

SEEING PINK: In these recessionary times, it’s hardly news to hear of restaurants in the red. Now Wade Whynot, president of Miami’s South Beach Business Guild, tells us a considerable number of Miami restaurants are operating in the pink. It’s a four-inch pink dot displayed prominently in windows. “The dot identifies businesses that welcome the gay dollar,� Whynot says. “It’s been very effective.� Whynot comments that in south Florida the average gay household income is $65,000 a year, as opposed to about $40,000 for straight couples.

The 140-member group of mainly gay professionals and businesses was formed seven months ago to promote South Miami, a year-old gay community, as a travel destination. “This historic, Art Deco section of Miami Beach was slated for demolition,� Whynot says, “so we just sort of took it over.�

The group’s slogan? “Do it at the dot.�

STOCKPOT: Avery Restaurant Supply has dropped its prices 15-30%. The giant Los Angeles professional supply house is also open to the public. . . . The in-store bakery at Malibu’s new Pacific Coast Greens, a huge natural foods market scheduled to open Friday in Malibu, is a branch of Mani’s Bakery, owned by Mani Niall, who makes desserts with no refined sugars and minimum amounts of fats and oils. . . . After searching a year for a chef, 72 Market Street in Venice has hired Dean Kahn (formerly sous chef at Chinois on Main). The new menu is a mix of Mexican, Asian and American Indian seasonings. . . . During December, for every child who orders off its children’s menu, the Daily Grill will donate a dollar to Para Los Ninos, an organization that helps needy children. . . . Louise’s Trattoria’s has introduced a new menu in all nine locations. “They are moving with the times,� says a spokeswoman for the chain, “and eliminating a lot of the fried stuff.� . . . According to its public relations firm, Mel ‘N Roses’s Coffee Shop has cleaned up its act and its floors. Does this mean health inspectors are now welcome at the Melrose Avenue diner?