New Tricks at Rix

rix, the trendy santa monica supper club on the former site of Abiquiu and Bikini, has grown up considerably in the past year and a half. Though it still attracts young thirtysomethings--especially upstairs, where the bartenders must make more martinis per night than the Thin Man downed in an entire lifetime--now the crowd is sprinkled with baby boomers, and, gulp, unapologetic silver-haired types.

Partners Neal Morrison and Will Karges (who also owns Blueberry around the corner) have polished Rix’s look with new flatware, gold-rimmed porcelain from France and German crystal wineglasses. They have even commissioned Los Angeles designer Eduardo Lucero to create the wait staff’s menswear-influenced pinstriped uniforms. All this to focus on finer dining. And for that, they needed a different chef, so, just more than a year ago, they hired Neal Fraser away from Boxer.

Rix’s menu continues to emphasize the updated chophouse fare--chilled seafood platters, crab cakes, steaks, mashed potatoes, fruit crumbles and banana splits--that’s made supper clubs such a growing trend. Besides, for the young clientele that followed Karges from Jones Hollywood, where he was once a partner, it’s fun to dress up, drink martinis and entertain friends at one of the posh red chenille or leather booths.

But now Fraser and general manager Daniel Flores have become more ambitious. A few months ago, they introduced special prix fixe tasting menus on the three quieter nights of the week--Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Usually, it’s an eight-course menu that changes every week. The first menu that caught my attention was a tribute to Jean-Georges Vongerichten of the four-star Jean-Georges in Manhattan.

A friend and I showed up at 8 one night and were ushered upstairs to one of the three curved booths at the end of the mezzanine. The table was waiting with the new place settings, an array of wineglasses and the night’s menu. As I unfolded the menu and noticed the row of four forks to my left and four knives to my right, I felt like Julia Roberts’ character in “Pretty Woman.� I didn’t, however, have the advantage of that long red dress and diamond necklace. That, I’m afraid, would have meant overdressing for the occasion.

As Flores explains in the menu: “Tonight we embark on a world full of possibilities. We have a small, 24-seat venue to capture the talent of a young man in whom I believe.� For the first course, we were served lovely asparagus and plumped-up morel mushrooms, then a spunky “young garlic� soup with sauteed frog legs on the side. Already much more interesting than a Caesar salad and a pork chop. I recognized the scallops with cauliflower and raisin-caper emulsion from Vongerichten’s new cookbook, “Jean-Georges: Cooking at Home With a Four-Star Chef.� It’s a wonderful dish, playing the sweetness of the scallops off the earthiness of the cauliflower against the sweet-sour flavors of raisins and capers. Next came a beautifully sauteed turbot in a Chateau-Chalon sauce.

By the time we were down to two forks and two knives, squab had arrived, accompanied by a tender corn pancake and seared foie gras. That was followed by “nine spice� baby rack of lamb in a silky red wine reduction. Each dish was artfully plated, never oversauced as items tend to be down-stairs. It’s clear that, on these slower nights, Fraser is free to simply cook--in the style of a great, mature chef like Vongerichten--or to explore culinary themes such as game or seafood. And what a difference! He’s concentrating on just a few tables and can give the food his full attention.

Fraser, who worked with Thomas Keller of the French Laundry in Napa Valley when they were at Checkers Hotel in downtown L.A., is just 30 and has the right spirit and energy for the job. If you consider the regular menu, where the food is much more inconsistent, however, it’s evident he’s not yet fully in control of a large kitchen. The portions are dauntingly--and unappetizingly--large. Too many plates are stacked and primped beyond recognition. And some ideas are hard to fathom. Why take fragile leaves of pale, crimson-streaked radicchio and load them down with a heavy Dijon vinaigrette, crumbled Gorgonzola and chunks of excruciatingly sweet, tooth-defying pine nut brittle? Yes, I know it’s supposed to be the chef’s take on the candied pecans or walnuts that adorn many a little salad, but this salad is a no-go. Fraser is simply trying too hard to make an impression, whereas in the multi-course meals, he’s able to show a lighter, more restrained hand, a watercolor instead of a pigment-encrusted action painting.

Still, if you order carefully from the regular menu, it’s possible to have a perfectly decent meal at Rix. One night the skate was nicely cooked in a brown-butter noisette sauce dotted with fried capers. Line-caught halibut, another special, was fresh and unfussy. The grilled culotte steak (the same cut as hanger steak in French bistros) is a chewy, flavorful piece of meat, intriguingly paired with corn and potato risotto and a red wine reduction. The pork chop is pretty good as well. But tenderloin of wild boar is nothing to write home about. Close your eyes, and it could be just about any red meat.

The wait staff includes a few would-be actors who recite the specials with more than a little drama. Still, the service is mostly excellent. The wine is assiduously topped off, but not too often, and a manager remembers to check the temperature of the wine in the ice bucket. It is painful, though, to watch servers struggle to look nonchalant as they attempt to open a bottle of wine with a waiter’s corkscrew while holding the bottom of the bottle awkwardly in the other hand. Where did they come up with this technique? There are easier and more graceful ways to perform this task.

Odd technique aside, the importance of wine at Rix is apparent. One entire wall of the two-story restaurant is devoted to wine storage, and the list has something to offer even the jaded wine buff: hard-to-find bottles, such as a 1993 Kalin Cellars Reserve Sauvignon Blanc. One of the pleasures of the tasting menu is the chance to pair wines with each course. And for wine drinkers who order at least one wine off the list, they’ll waive the corkage fee on all subsequent bottles. Now that’s an enlightened wine policy.

All in all, it’s encouraging that Rix’s owners have had the good sense to give their new young chef a format in which he can experiment and grow. At the same time, they’re introducing the pleasures of fine dining to a whole new generation by making it seem fun and hip.

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Rix

CUISINE: Contemporary American. AMBIENCE: Clubby two-story restaurant with mahogany walls, posh table settings, lively bar scene and live music Wednesday to Saturday. BEST DISHES: Weekly prix fixe tasting menu, oysters on half-shell, cracked shellfish platter, culotte steak, center-cut pork chop. WINE PICKS: 1993 Kalin Cellars Reserve Sauvignon Blanc, Potter Valley. FACTS: 1413 5th St., Santa Monica; (310) 656-9688. Dinner daily. Appetizers, $11 to $125; main courses, $17 to $30; tasting menus, $65 to $125. Corkage $8. Valet parking.