Century Plaza Scraps La Chaumiere--and Stuffiness

The Reagan era is now officially over. La Chaumiere, the dark, elegant French restaurant in the Century Plaza Hotel, is about to undergo a transformation.

The restaurant, a presidential favorite during the glory years, will even get a new name. Bernard Agache, who arrived as managing director of the hotel four months ago, demanded that he be allowed to do exactly what he wanted with the property. “Part of his concern,” says a spokeswoman for the hotel, “was that some of our restaurants were underutilized.”

The changes, she says, include turning the former Garden Pavilion restaurant into an Italian bistro, Palio, with “open kitchen, pizza ovens, lots of pasta, fresh, seasonal fish--but still moderately priced.”

Meanwhile, La Chaumiere will get a completely new look to go with its new name. The waiters will give up their tuxedos, and the menu will give up its pretensions. “Things will be less intimidating. The menu will be simple food, made with the freshest ingredients you can get.”

A LITTLE HELP FROM MY FRIENDS: When John Strobel left Angeli to strike out on his own, people were eager to help. Strobel found a site in Beverly Hills--the former Yanks--but he needed a name. La Toque’s Ken Frank gave it to him. “I’m no bozo,” Frank says. “Fenix is a great name, and I’ve got it perfectly registered, but it was a great name for something I was going to do. Then I changed my mind. Some of the investors in the former Yanks were friends of mine, and they called me up and said, ‘Do you want the name? Because if you don’t, we may get out of the restaurant business with our skins on.’ And I said I don’t really need it, and if it helps friends of mine, I have to let them have it.”

Then Michael Roberts, chef and owner of Trumps, gave Strobel a menu. “I did it because John and I are friends,” Roberts says, “because I play better bridge than he does, and because I have ideas I can’t use at Trumps and I am not, like some of my colleagues, interested in opening many other restaurants. But we aren’t advertising this too much. I’m afraid people are going to think this is some sort of upscale, intellectualized Latin food.”

Roberts, who says he has no connection to the restaurant, calls the menu made-up Mexican food. He says it’s easy to understand and easy to eat. It’s also easy on the pocketbook. “The most expensive thing on the menu is $16, and we don’t want to scare away the public that are going to think that the entrees start at $16,” he says.

PEANUT BUTTER DUMPLINGS?: “Take a Wok on the wild side” is the motto of Wok Fast, the only food chain in America using a one-number telephone system. Simply dial (800) 222-WOK-1 and order dishes such as peanut butter dumplings, Peking ravioli or deep-fried won ton filled with cream cheese and crab meat in a spicy Sichuan sauce. A friendly voice will ask if you are a new customer. The next time you call you’ll be asked how you enjoyed your last order. Currently, Wok Fast is delivering only in the Beverly Hills, Westwood, Palms and Mar Vista areas, but stores in Brentwood, Marina del Rey, West Hollywood and the Valley are planned.

OPENINGS: Michael Chiang, owner of Mandarin Gourmet, has opened August Moon at 6417 E. Coast Highway in Long Beach, featuring such dishes as Malaysian yellow curry chicken, stir-fried string beans with spicy ground pork and rustic orange beef. . . . Continental Cafe at 538 Redondo Ave. is also new in Long Beach, offering omelets, sandwiches, burgers, fish and pastas. . . . And if you’re not on an expense account, you should know about Callahans in Reseda at 18575 Sherman Way; it specializes in homemade American food and serves bacon and eggs all day and night for $2.69.

BIG NAME CHANGES: John Makin is the new executive chef at the Four Seasons Hotel at Beverly Hills. Makin, who was named one of the top 10 chefs of 1987 by Food and Wine magazine, was chef at Houston’s Remington on Post Oak Park before opening his own restaurant, Duckworth, in St. Helena in 1987. Born in the Philippines--his father was American, his mother Filipina and German--Makin is known for Asian influences in his food. “Combinations of food should be a nice marriage, maintaining the integrity of the food by simple style in preparation,” he says. . . . And Bernard Bordaries, former chef at La Grande Cascade in Paris and Hotel Metropole in Monte Carlo as well as his own Azimont, in Toulouse, France, is now chef at the Georgian Room in Pasadena’s Ritz-Carlton Huntington Hotel.