Hot New Potato

How do you go about opening a new club based on an old one? Especially when the original is still drawing full-house business?

Very carefully. Which is exactly how Justin Randi created the Baked Potato Hollywood--an attractive new version of the original Baked Potato jazz club in North Hollywood. It retains the eccentric charm of the old venue while creating an open, trendy ambience more suited to its Sunset and Vine location.

“I felt the city needed another jazz room, a nice room that wasn’t Catalina or the Jazz Bakery, or even the original Baked Potato,” Randi says. “One that wasn’t too expensive and had a great vibe. So we did everything we could to find the perfect-sized room, and install the perfect sound system. And it had to be here in Hollywood.”

Randi came to the task with the right credentials. The son of pianist/club owner Don Randi, he ran his father’s rooms--the original Baked Potato, as well as the now-defunct Baked Potato in Pasadena--for 10 years. But when he turned 30 last year, he decided it was time to see what he could do on his own.

“My dad, who had been touring for years with acts like Nancy Sinatra, decided he was ready to stick around and manage his club full time,” Randi explains. “So I decided to make the move.”

He moved in high gear. The location--formerly an Italian restaurant on Sunset Boulevard, just east of Vine Street--went into escrow in October, and became available on Dec. 14. After three weeks of extensive renovation, it opened the first week of January.

“My pal [guitarist] Steve Lukather wanted to be the opening act and that was great,” Randi says. “I had bookings lined up after that through January, so I knew that one way or the other, we had to be open.”

Despite the rush, however, there’s nothing slipshod about the open but still cozy atmosphere. Its layout, in fact, is reminiscent of the original Baked Potato, with a large performance stage, tables arranged on tiered levels with a bar and additional tables to the left of the stage. But its capacity--150 patrons--is more than twice that of its forerunner.

The menu, also familiar to patrons of the North Hollywood club, is dedicated to inventive toppings for the lowly spud, and reasonably priced. The sound system, as promised by Randi, is first-rate and plans are in the works to activate a 24-track setup for live recording.

Randi’s booking policy underscores his desire to fill a gap in the Los Angeles jazz scene.

“I don’t see us as being competitive with the other jazz clubs,” he says. “Those rooms are great, but they’re primarily straight-ahead jazz, and we’re focused on younger, contemporary jazz and blues. Phil Upchurch, Dave Weckl, Andy Summers, Larry Carlton, Harvey Mason, Bobby Lyle, acts like that. I couldn’t really handle those kinds of well-known players in North Hollywood, so they just kind of bypassed L.A. to stop at San Juan Capistrano and Ventura. Well, now they’ve got a place to work right here.”

The upcoming schedule confirms what Randi is saying. Already scheduled this month are appearances by Carlton, Mason, Lyle, Summers and others. Upchurch drew an enthusiastic crowd last weekend.

But Randi is equally concerned with the development of new talent. And the club’s booking and pricing policies--most shows have a $5 to $15 cover--make for a welcoming environment for young artists.

“We’re the only place in town that pays the band 80% of the door,” Randi claims. “Every night, every band, well-known or not. That’s our deal. I tell them: If you promote, if you do your job of getting people here, I will hold up my end of the bargain by having a great club, with great service, with ads in the paper, and do my side.”

His booking also sets aside certain nights for specific styles of music. “Audiences like to know what they can hear on any given night,” he says, so Tuesdays are dedicated to blues, and Thursdays mix blues and jazz. Sundays are for new acts, and Wednesdays will serve as a $5 showcase night, when three bands each will play for an hour.

Weekends will feature the name acts--with some exceptions, since Carlton appears at the room on a Tuesday and Wednesday, March 16 and 17.

Is Randi worried about the hazards of opening a new club in the nightlife-thick Hollywood-West Hollywood area?

“Not really,” he says. “The only thing that worries me is that people might not want to take the trouble to go out to hear music. And that would be a shame because the greatest joy of being a club owner is getting to hear all this music, to realize what a great cultural benefit all this music represents. I just hope I can figure out a way to get it heard by as many people as possible.”

BE THERE

The Baked Potato Hollywood, 6266 1/2 Sunset Blvd. Open daily at 11:30 a.m. for lunch. Happy hour 4-7 p.m. Shows nightly at 9:30 and 11:30. Two drink or dinner minimum. (323) 461-6400. Tonight: the Capital Homeboys, $10. Friday: David Garfield, Mike Miller, Walfredo Reyes, John Pena, Michito Sanchez, $10. Saturday: John Novello and Gloria Rusch, $10. Sunday: Benefit for Scarlet Rivera with special guests John Mayall, Les McCann, Keb Mo, Alex Libertwood and others, 6 p.m. $40.