Matsusaka Plans to Leave Zenzero--Again

Kazuto Matsusaka walked out of Zenzero in Santa Monica five months ago. Then he went back. Now he’s realized it’s true--you can’t go home again. Although he’s agreed to hang on for a little while longer, he’s out of there come September.

The Spago alumnus will take over the kitchen at the tchotchke-cluttered Cafe La Boheme in West Hollywood, where he plans to pare down the weird Asian-Continental menu. “The place is very different from Zenzero,” Matsusaka says. “I’m going to have to adjust.”

Meanwhile, Fred Iwasaki, who was second-in-command when Matsusaka ran the kitchen at Chinois on Main and now owns the tiny Franco-Japanese Carrots in a Santa Monica mini-mall, will take over as chef. “When the owner first asked me, I told him, ‘No.’ I can’t run two French-style restaurants. It’s too tough,” Iwasaki says. “But he kept pushing me, and I finally said, ‘Yes.’ ”

Carrots will have to manage without Iwasaki, so he’s already simplified the cooking tasks by changing from California-French to Japanese-Italian (like the notorious Itameshi-Ya). The menu now features pastas, salads and plenty of Japanese curries. “It’s a lot cheaper now too,” Iwasaki says.

Before he made the changes, however, he sent a letter to all his regulars telling them what he was going to do. “They all came by to have one last meal,” Iwasaki says. “And I made sure they knew where to find me in October.”

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Lean and Mean: Three years ago, Silvio De Mori and Bob Morris were going to open a restaurant in the Encino Courtyard Shops. It never panned out. Instead, Morris opened Gladstone’s on Universal’s CityWalk and De Mori continued to run Tutto Bene on Fairfax until filing for Chapter 7 (liquidation) bankruptcy in ’93.

Now the restaurateurs have another project together. They are the new partners in Gratis, the guilt-free gorging concept that opened last year on the Westside. (Where else?) De Mori has already fattened up the menu, adding chicken, turkey and fish to the fat-free pastas, pizzas and other dishes.

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Spaghetti Westerns: The Locanda team of Jean-Louis De Moriand Antonio Tomassi (yup, they’re back in the saddle again) have opened yet another medium-priced Italian place. This time the partners have hitched up with Franco Simplicio (partner in il Pastaio) and have opened Allegria in Malibu.

Located in the former Mio’s space, the restaurant features Venetian-style appetizers along with the usual pastas, salads and thin-crusted pizzas. “It’s the same type of food as Locanda, but the place is more casual,” Simplicio explains. “And the pizza is incredible! Antonio brought his brother over from Venice to be the pizza chef.” Giddyap!

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Dishing: Jillian’s in Long Beach offers free pool with lunch every day until 4 p.m. There’s a really stupid hitch, though. Show up with a big appetite because to get that “free” game of pool, players have to chalk up at least $12 worth of food every hour. . . . Ritz-Carlton in Marina del Rey now offers a weekly changing macrobiotic menu featuring such dishes as shrimp tempura with miso mustard dip, vegetarian primavera, poppy seed cake with maple tofu cream and other whole or naturally processed foods. . . . Vegetarians, vegans and others have yet another reason to celebrate: Real Food Daily, the vegetarian, non-diary restaurant in Santa Monica, now serves brunch on weekends from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.