A Pair of Angels Take Flight

Life is calm at the Angel’s Flight restaurant in the new Hotel Inter-Continental in downtown Los Angeles. You can, for instance, have a conversation without shouting. And your waiter will neither tell you his name nor hint that you might recognize him from a commercial. This is what you call a classy joint.

Maybe that’s why there’s only a discreet reference on the menu to the cable car that gave the restaurant its name. Sitting in the tasteful beige-tone dining room, with its view of the steel-and-concrete towers that rise all around the place, it’s difficult to imagine the famous Bunker Hill funicular and the Victorian homes that once surrounded it. This is no theme restaurant.

It is a hotel restaurant, one that serves what might be called California-Continental cuisine. Seared ahi tuna is nicely presented with sliced avocado and a pile of sesame-oil-dressed greens. John Dory comes in a Parmesan crust and too much cream sauce. There’s shiitake mushroom risotto, rabbit and spaetzle, a grilled shrimp salad. Many of the dishes need work, but the kitchen shows promise, and someone back there is having a good time with dessert. A cone of Irish coffee mousse, dressed with a thin collar of chocolate and drips of Devonshire cream, looks like some deconstructed clown.

One more angel hit town recently: Angeli, the much-copied Melrose Avenue cafe, opened a branch among the pricey boutiques of Beverly Hills’ Rodeo Collection. The word was that chef-owner Evan Kleiman would add a few Persian specials to her pizza-and-pasta menu. So far, there’s no sign of fesenjan , sabzi polo or even a kebab. Instead, you get the same dependable light Italian cooking that Angeli regulars count on, served in cool, highly architected surroundings.

Angel’s Flight, Hotel Inter-Continental, 215 S. Olive St., Los Angeles, (213) 617-3300. Angeli, Rodeo Collection, 421 N. Rodeo Drive, Beverly Hills, (310) 276-9084.