New Firm for Music Center Restaurants

After weeks of speculation, the Music Center operating company will enter into an exclusive 15-year deal with Restaurant Associates to manage food service operations at the Los Angeles Music Center. The New York-based Restaurant Associates, however, had already spilled the beans when it announced that the deal had been signed in a press release on June 19. “I got the news right from [CEO] Nick Valenti’s lips,” says Restaurant Associates publicist Phillip Baltz of David Kratz & Co.

“I’m a little surprised,” responded Music Center operating company President Sandra Kimberling when told of the press release. “We still need county approval.” Nevertheless, Kimberling is certain the deal will go through.

Pavilion Catering, whose parent company owns Coco’s and Chi Chi’s, had previously held the food service contract. “We didn’t throw them out or anything,” Kimberling says. “They chose not to renew.”

Restaurant Associates, which provides food service at Lincoln Center, the Museum of Natural History, the United Nations, Carnegie Hall and Rockefeller Center, to name a few of its New York accounts, plans to remodel--and rename--the Music Center’s three restaurants. Although new names haven’t been decided yet, the restaurant now called Pavilion’s will be redesigned and priced to compete with downtown hotel restaurants Checkers and Bernard’s. Otto Rothschild’s will be in the McCormick and Schmick’s price range, while the lower-priced Cafe on the Plaza will be expanded and feature a variety of grilled dishes. Renovations should begin by next month and hopefully be completed in time for the fall season.

“We’ve been through nine months of negotiations with Restaurant Associates, and we feel very positive about these people,” Kimberling says. “I went to New York and gained 5 pounds just trying out their restaurants.”

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Dough Nuts: Sun-dried tomato-flavored pizza dough? Well, Sisley Italian Kitchen in West Los Angeles and Valencia thinks so. “Pizza as we’ve known it is now passe,” the restaurant announced earlier this week. In an attempt to reinvent the pizza pie, Sisley chefs have come up with a whole slew of flavored doughs, including rosemary, basil, pesto, goat cheese and sun-dried tomato--not to mention tapenade. No word yet on toppings.

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Using His Noodle: There are some who might disagree, but Ibrahim Oztok, chef-owner of Cravings on Sunset Boulevard, claims to be one of the inventors of the cold pasta salad. It happened right here in Los Angeles in the early ‘80s, just after he opened Tutto Italia. “I really didn’t think about it,” he says. “I made tortellini with a pesto sauce and sun-dried tomatoes, a three- cheese pasta and a seafood pasta and served them cold.” Amazing.

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Openings: The Night Watch, a restaurant and club featuring modern American cuisine (“that means reduced stocks and spices instead of fat,” the restaurant explains) has opened in the old Simply Blues space at the corner of Sunset and Vine. . . . Sofia & Lola’s, located diagonally across from Tower Records on Sunset Boulevard, is now serving pizzas, pastas and other trattoria dishes. . . . Houston’s, part of a 25-restaurant chain that features salads, burgers, ribs and other traditional American fare, has opened in Warner Center in Woodland Hills. . . . Rag Bar has opened in Beverly Hills. Located on Wilshire near Roxbury, the 30-seat restaurant offers fresh pastas, grilled vegetable sandwiches, swordfish, filet mignon and other dishes.

For more restaurant coverage, please see Sunday’s Los Angeles Times Magazine or Thursday’s Food Section.