The Pig”n Whistle Returns

Since 1927, from their sculpted perches not 15 feet above Hollywood Boulevard, the two cheerful swine with classical flutes have played and danced their duet of mute endurance. When this crown jewel of the bygone Pig’n Whistle restaurant chain closed down after World War II, the pigs still danced. After Carmen Miceli rescued porcine- and woodwind-themed benches for his Italian restaurant around the corner, they still smiled. When the building became a temporary depot for Numero Uno, they finally began to crumble a bit.

The duo has survived long enough to greet the coming of their savior, a British restaurateur and ex-rugby player named Chris Breed. The creator of the neo-disco Roxbury and the just-opened Sunset Room--a supper club with a pre-Castro Cuba theme--Breed has begun resurrecting the Hollywood Pig’n Whistle, to open next spring. His work thus far sounds like an archeological dig. “There’s a false ceiling with tremendous moldings from the original Pig’n Whistle underneath,” he says. “We found some old tiles in the basement. We’ll expose them around the coffee station.” A few of those tiles already adorn the remodeled Egyptian Theatre forecourt next door.

While the original Pig’n Whistle restaurants served 18 varieties of sundaes--among them, the Peter Pan, Cherry Royal and Fruit Salad--Breed’s dessert menu will be modest. “To have too many options is to get people confused,” he says. “They don’t have time to sit there and look at something for half an hour. And the servers don’t have patience anymore.”