Upper-Crust Dining at Bon Appetit

Imagine being top gun in the business world, luxuriating in a plush executive suite and dining on the finest in an impeccable, cloistered, private restaurant. Make you envious? Never mind. Now it’s possible to rise to the same heights without pull, without struggle, without hard work, wealth, brilliance or any of the usual requirements for success. All you need is money for a moderate splurge--and a reservation.

Your meteoric rise will consist of an ear-popping elevator ride to the 50th floor of the Bank of America Tower in downtown Los Angeles. The reservation secures a table at Bon Appetit, the new name for the bank’s executive dining rooms, which have been open to the public since June 6.

Viewing these magnificent wood-paneled rooms with their Oriental carpets, Chinese screens, museum-quality artwork and expensive fresh flowers is a little like being on an upscale home tour. Only no longer must you wistfully admire someone else’s aristocratic life style. Now it is you seated at the table that is swathed in heavy linens, you being catered to by respectful waiters, you conducting business in the hushed dining room flanked by immense windows with awesome views.

The menu changes every day and offers a short but tempting selection of starters, entrees, a soup and salad for light lunchers and a category called banker’s favorites. Dishes popular enough for that classification include a top sirloin sandwich made with homemade pepper brioche and shrimp Cobb salad.

The cookery is innovative but never unreasonably so. “We’re not attempting to educate the public but to offer the best food and service possible,” said Steve Silverman, general manager. Silverman is associated with Bon Appetit Management Co., the San Francisco-based catering outfit that operates the dining room.

The food is contemporary Californian, conceived with such lightness that, executive or not, you will remain in good shape for serious work during the afternoon. The three entrees offered one day were headed by poached fillet of sole with Santa Barbara sauce, a variation on sole bonne femme with a light sauce based on shrimp stock (presumably made with Santa Barbara shrimp) rather than the original fish stock. Alternatives to the sole were medallions of veal with wild mushroom ragout and grilled breast of chicken with sun-dried tomato and vermouth sauce. That day’s starters were delicate little shrimp quenelles with cucumber coulis, an orange and endive salad with lime vinaigrette and a soup that blended the mellow flavors of walnuts, fresh shiitake and button mushrooms.

The cooking is upper crust, in keeping with the setting, but has gutsier moments too. One example of that was squid pasta, as black as night, set on a yin yang swirl of red and yellow tomato sauces.

Other top-flight dishes included a first course of grilled beef tenderloin in a subtle star anise sauce, a sausage-shaped, pistachio-studded duck meat pate, and a duck salad with pistachios scattered through the greens and, on the side, poached pear and the sweetest imaginable raspberries. Don’t go looking for these dishes though, because the menu is never the same, and their reappearance is unpredictable.

The kitchen is surprisingly small, but chef William Harry and his staff manage well in the limited space. The ice cream maker is a diminutive, household model. Yet one day it contributed to an ambrosial dessert of pistachio ice cream in a crisp cookie shell, set on a bed of papaya coulis. This was not the usual bright green, commercial pistachio but a subtle, pale brown ice cream flavored with an infusion of pistachios simmered in milk and a dash of Frangelico liqueur.

Other notable desserts offered recently were a flourless chocolate cake with raspberry sauce, a chocolate espresso cake, pears in Zinfandel-raspberry sauce and a lush sorbet that blended Crenshaw melon and cantaloupe with melon liqueur.

Bon Appetit does not serve dinner, but what a setting for a power breakfast. The restaurant opens at 6 a.m. and offers a changing parade of breakfast entrees such as French toast, Belgian waffles and chicken hash.

This is definitely not the place for a casual bash or a quick bite. The ambiance is hushed and distinguished. One friend thought it needed the softening influence of background music, but an attorney disagreed. He was thrilled to find a place where, as he said, “you can have a quiet conversation and not scream at each other.”

Bon Appetit at the Bank of America Tower, 555 S. Flower St., Los Angeles (213) 228-2452. Open Monday through Friday. Breakfast from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. Lunch from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Reservations advised. Visa, MasterCard and American Express accepted. No liquor, but license has been applied for. Prices range from $11.75 and up for a light lunch to about $22.95 for a combination of appetizer, entree and dessert. Validated parking in the Arco Plaza garage.