Wondering Where Simpson Jurors Are Eating Tonight?

When we heard it was going to cost more than $500,000 taxpayer dollars to sequester the O.J. Simpson jury, we called Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department spokesman John Castro hoping he would disclose the restaurants feeding the 12 jurors and eight alternates. With that kind of budget, they must be dining at L’Orangerie and the Ritz-Carlton, right? Well, taxpayers can rest easy. Turns out the most famous jury in America eats breakfast and dinner at their undisclosed hotel. And a local unidentified caterer (the same one that fed the Denny jurors, incidentally) provides the jury’s lunch at the courthouse. “In between meals,” Castro says, “there’s a well-stocked refrigerator complete with snacks and soft drinks in the video and TV room at the hotel.”

Beyond that, if a juror develops a craving for a Big Mac or a slab of Lawry’s prime rib, he or she is out of luck. “We haven’t run into that problem so far,” Castro says. “I guess if we get a request for something so out of the ordinary the hotel can’t furnish it, then we are going to have to just deal with it. Give me a call in five months and I’ll let you know if we’ve deviated from our normal routine.”

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Star Struck: The 1995 edition of Guide Michelin published on Monday reveals that Marc Veyrat of Auberge de l’Eridan has been elevated to three-star status, just as many Michelin-watchers predicted. The 44-year-old self-taught chef (who cooks veal in coffee) was the only one to be added to the illustrious ranks of France’s three-star chefs.

Shut out of the three-star category once again was Guy Savoy, whose namesake restaurant in Paris has long been considered among the best and most consistent in France. “All the French chefs think he’s been robbed year after year,” says one critic. “Michelin has never forgiven him for opening a bunch of bistros and making a lot of money.”

The number of three-star restaurants in France remains at 20 because a longtime favorite, Pic in Valence near Lyon, lost its third star, surprising no one. (Sources say the demotion is due to the death of founder Jacques Pic in the summer of 1992. His son, Alain, who took over the kitchen, is extremely shy and does not have the elan his late father had.)

In other Michelin news, Le Choiseul in Amboise in the Loire Valley and La Barbacane in the walled 11th-Century southern city of Carcassonne both picked up second stars. Pain, Adour et Fantaisie in Grenade-sur-Adour near Mont-de-Marsan, Cafe de Paris in Biarritz, and Daguin in Auch, one of the most famous restaurants in France, were demoted from two stars to one.

The days when an American could eat in a three-star restaurant for $50 are long gone. At today’s exchange rate, dinner for two at three-star restaurants such as Joel Robuchon or La Tour d’Argent in Paris will set you back at least $450--and that’s without wine.

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Openings: Joachim Splichal has plans to open a Cafe Pinot in the former Columbia Bar & Grill space in Hollywood. . . . First Yujean Kang set his sights on opening a Westside branch of his eponymous Pasadena restaurant on Sunset in the former La Toque space. Then he changed his mind and was negotiating to buy the former Giuseppe restaurant on Beverly. Now it’s final. This time he says he’s going to open in June in the old Alberto’s on Melrose. . . . Il Mito South, an Italian bakery and cafe, debuts in two weeks just across the street from its flagship restaurant, Il Mito on Ventura Boulevard in Studio City.