A Kinder, Gentler Palm

Couples lean toward each other, sharing bites of lobster or steak, cosseted in dark walnut booths. In the middle of the room, businessmen from downtown hotels, their shirt sleeves rolled up on a fine summer night, sit at large round tables unwinding after a day on the convention floor. At the horseshoe-shaped communal table in the bar, lone diners have a swell time over steaks as they companionably watch the current sporting event on the large-screen television.

The new Palm boasts a prime location: right across from Staples Center, in a grand edifice with soaring ceilings and gold-tipped columns. Dark walnut shutters filter light at the windows, and huge retro lamps hang from the ceiling. The walls, of course, are plastered with the Palm’s signature caricatures, though they’re rather incongruous in this elegant setting and spaced farther apart than at any of the other Palms I’ve visited. (In all, the family-owned restaurant chain has 26 locations. It was founded in 1926 by two Italian immigrants who intended to name it after their hometown, Parma, but a clerk mangled the spelling and it came out Palm.) I can make out Laker coach Phil Jackson, Dustin Hoffman, Tom Cruise and L.A. Mayor James K. Hahn mixed in with reproductions of the funny and irreverent caricatures by Jolly Bill Steinke, who first started drawing them in the ‘30s.

When the downtown Palm opened in April, recent visits to the Palm in West Hollywood were still vivid enough that I didn’t race out to visit this one. I remembered waiting--and waiting--for a table long after my reservation time had passed. I recalled the hostess who didn’t want to give my party of three a booth that seats four, so she sat us at a booth for two, with the third person on a chair in the middle of the aisle. Even the presence of a resplendent Mr. T at the next booth wasn’t enough to redeem that evening.

I also remembered feeling hustled. The first courses came out almost immediately, and we barely had time to catch our breath before the main event was set down in front of us. Waiters did everything in their power to turn the tables relentlessly. What they recommended wasn’t always to be trusted, either. The Palm seemed like just another steakhouse where everything except the red meat was lackluster.

Thankfully, the new downtown restaurant is a kinder, gentler Palm. The hosts are cordial and professional. Your table is ready on time. Waiters are personable and professional. They also allow the guest to give the cues. In several visits, I’ve never felt hurried along so that another party could be seated. But then, it’s never been as busy as the West Hollywood branch.

Even the food has a new luster. It’s the same menu, but the crisp professionalism of this kitchen makes all the difference. Shrimp in the deconstructed shrimp cocktail are fresh-tasting and firm, nicely chilled and paired with a brilliant red cocktail sauce with a ripsnorting dose of horseradish. If you order oysters on the half shell, they are crisp and briny.

Like most steakhouses, the Palm is not given to understatement. The lobsters, for example, start at three pounds. The market price is about $20 a pound right now, but that 3-pound lobster is large enough to serve as an appetizer for four, a sort of surf and turf in two courses, if you follow it with steak.

The lobster is a magnificent sight, lolling on the platter. And the waiter prepares it for you. Breaking off the claws, one of which looks as menacing as a boxing glove, he wraps them in a napkin and cracks the shells with a deft twist of the wrist. The meat inside is surprisingly tender. The legs are succulent and sweet, too. These are lobsters from the cold waters off Nova Scotia. Dipped in drawn butter and, if you like, a squeeze of lemon, it’s quite a feast.

Hearts of palm salad makes a refreshing first course, too. Handsome glossy green hearts of palm without the usual tinned taste are topped with chopped tomatoes, quartered hard-boiled eggs, black olives and are dressed in a nicely tuned vinaigrette. Sliced tomato and onion salad is a classic: just thick-sliced Maui onions and juicy red beefsteak tomatoes drizzled with a bright vinegary dressing. Along with that shrimp cocktail is another of lump crab meat that’s worth mentioning, too. Or you can split an order of the Palm’s broiled crab cakes, which are mostly crab and a touch underseasoned.

Sides have to be ordered separately. I notice most people go with the Palm’s signature “‘half & half”--a mini-mountain half of fried onions and half of cottage fries. The golden-crusted hash browns aren’t bad either, and who’s to argue with a baked potato? Skip the heavily creamed spinach in favor of sauteed leaf spinach. Fried asparagus sounds like something worth trying, but what a bad idea. Frying leaches out the flavor from the expensive, now brown, spears. Green beans are a safer choice.

When it comes to beef, the Palm offers all the usual cuts, all prime. The thick New York strip always satisfies. The house specialty is the hefty double steak, 36 beautiful ounces of New York strip for two to share. For flavor, I prefer the rib-eye on the bone over the porterhouse. There is also filet. This one is butter tender, and as thick as your fist.

Order lamb chops and you get three double chops served the old-fashioned way with mint jelly. Skip the jelly. The veal chop passes muster, too. The beautiful thick-cut prime rib is marred only by juices that have the metallic tang of canned bouillon.

If anyone still has room for dessert after enjoying half of the 36-ounce New York strip, some sides and a first course, go with the New York cheesecake. This is the real thing, flown in from S&S; bakery in Brooklyn. It’s tall and fine-textured, tasting properly of cheese and not sugar. Take note, Cheesecake Factory.

All in all, this new Palm is a welcome addition to the downtown dining scene. When you can find decent appetizers and salads, a good steak and competent service a block from Staples Center, it’s just one more sign that the downtown renaissance everybody has been talking about for years may be inching closer.

*

Palm Restaurant

1100 S. Flower St.

Los Angeles

(213) 763-4600

Cuisine: Steakhouse

Rating: **

*

AMBIENCE: Grand steakhouse in historic ‘30s building with ample bar and, for solo diners, a horseshoe-shaped communal table. SERVICE: A cut above the other Palms; engaging and professional. BEST DISHES: Shrimp cocktail, hearts of palm salad, oysters on half shell, jumbo lobster, double steak New York strip for two, lamb chops, New York cheesecake. Appetizers, $5 to $18. Steaks and chops, $30 to $39. Sides, $4 to $9. Corkage, $20. WINE PICKS: 1999 Nalle Dry Creek Valley Zinfandel, Sonoma; 1999 Swanson Merlot, Napa Valley. FACTS: Dinner daily. Lunch weekdays. Valet parking. Rating is based on food, service and ambience, with price taken into account in relation to quality. ****: Outstanding on every level. ***: Excellent. **: Very good. *: Good. No star: Poor to satisfactory.