Well-Traveled Chef Tries Her Own Place

Cindy Black has cooked in many different contexts over the years.

She started off as an apprentice at the legendary Madeleine Kamman’s Chez La Meaigure Madeleine in Boston, then worked at places as diverse as the respected Le Cabanon in Mages in far southwestern France), Apley’s in the Boston Sheraton and Sheppard’s at the Sheraton Harbor Island West in San Diego. Subsequently, she became executive chef of the San Diego-based Piret’s group of delis and bistros, for whom, among other things, she supervised the opening of the short-lived Piret’s in Beverly Hills in 1987. When San Diego’s Paragon Restaurant Group took over Piret’s, she became corporate chef for the whole organization, developing dishes and menu concepts for such Paragon properties as the Hungry Hunter, Rusty Pelican and Monterey Whaling Company restaurants.

Now, for the first time in her life, she has opened her own restaurant--called simply Cindy Black’s. Located in the Bird Rock area of La Jolla, the place serves Black’s interpretations of country French dishes, with occasional Italian and American touches. Typical specialties include barbecued eggplant salad, chicken liver rillettes , spaghetti with pancetta and a fried egg, Provencal-style chicken stew, and roast leg of lamb with garlic mousse. Cindy Black’s is open for dinner only, Tuesday through Sunday, with a special fixed-price dinner on that last day, featuring what Black calls “Sunday-dinner sort of food.”

THE BRITISH ARE COMING: Is Beverly Hills going British-club crazy? It was reported recently in this space that London-based entrepreneur Peter Stringfellow plans to open a local branch of his Stringfellow’s “restaurant-clubs” in the Golden Ghetto’s new Two Rodeo Building later this year. Now comes word that another Londoner, veteran club owner Alfred Barnett, is coming to town. Barnett, who has owned and operated such London hot spots as the Four Hundred, the Curzon House, the Palm Beach Club and the Ad Lib Club, plans to install an establishment called Madeleine’s on the corner of Roxbury and Little Santa Monica. Like Stringfellow, Barnett promises that his dining room will be “among the best restaurants in L.A.” Both will also feature piano music and “touch dancing.” Madeleine’s will have a cozy, intimate atmosphere, it is promised, giving Angelenos “a place to go where they can dress to the nines without attending a society fund-raiser or opening.” There is nothing, of course, that Angelenos have been crying out for more plaintively in recent years than a place where they can go “dressed to the nines.” That’s the L.A. style, all right. . . .

NOT SO BOUZY: Bouzy Rouge in Newport Beach has instituted an “under-indulgence” policy, offering half-size cocktails and after-dinner drinks (at half-price) for customers who might wish to sample something alcoholic without making a serious commitment of blood alcohol. Here’s another idea along the same lines: In Germany, wine is sometimes packaged in 500-milliliter bottles, halfway between a half-bottle and a full one. Though our own Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, which establishes federal policies for alcoholic beverages (including labeling laws and bottle-size limits), won’t approve 500s for the American market, there’s nothing to stop restaurateurs from offering 500-milliliter carafes of decent house wine. Carafes are almost never used in U.S. restaurants for anything more than bulk wines, and I think that’s a pity. A 500-milliliter serving of decent sauvignon blanc or zinfandel, pinot grigio or chianti would be a perfect accompaniment to a light meal for a sensible couple of diners.

WHAT’S COOKING: Opera in Santa Monica has remodeled and reopened as Opera on Ocean, with two of the original investors in the place, Lou and Bernice Weider, as new owners. Chef Steve Neveaux continues in charge of the kitchen, with a menu that includes items from the original Opera menu as well as a number of new dishes. . . . Rannock Moor venison on a pickled walnut and game glaze, and a dessert of oatmeal, heather honey, and hazelnuts soaked in malt whiskey are among the contemporary Scottish specialties to be prepared by Billy Campbell, executive chef of the legendary St. Andrews Old Course Hotel in Scotland, Monday through Saturday at the Newport Beach Four Seasons. . . . Kurt Niklaus reports that he has entered negotiations to build a third Bistro Garden with the developers of the forthcoming Water Garden office in Santa Monica. That development will include 1.26-million square feet of floor space, a 1.4-acre lake, a health club and a day-care center. . . . And Tony Roma’s in Beverly Hills has closed, the victim of (as is so often the case in that community these days) escalating rents.