Jar Holds a Wide Selection of Favorites

Jar Jar: Jar Restaurant (not The Jar, mind you) welcomed guests through its doors last week at Indochine’s old space, brightened up with new windows and a lighter color scheme of yellow and green. The dining room seats about 90.

After former Michael’s manager and wine director David Rosoff left the project, Jason Lapin, who helped open Spago in Las Vegas and Guastavino’s in New York, joined Campanile’s Mark Peel and former Jozu chef Suzanne Tracht as partner.

Tracht can be found in the kitchen most nights grilling the steaks ($19 to $29), braising the lamb shank ($19) and simmering the pot roast ($21). You can get your steak with bearnaise, green peppercorn, wild mushroom, Bourbon, tamarind or creamy horseradish sauce.

Side dishes, meant to serve one to two people, run $5 to $7. Fish is always on the grill, perhaps monkfish cheeks ($19) or halibut ($20), and more seafood can be found in the appetizers, such as lobster cocktail ($14), fried Ipswich clams ($13), cured salmon with cucumber salad ($12) and calamari salad with fennel, mint and red onions ($9). There is a beer list along with wines by the glass and cocktails. Desserts run along All-American lines: fruit cobbler ($7), hot fudge sundae ($6), banana cream pie ($6).

Peel pops in to answer questions and help execute the idea of Jar, but he’s still cooking at Campanile, not here.

Jar is open nightly for dinner from 5:30 to about 11 p.m. Look for a late-night (say, until 1 a.m.) menu and lunch in the next few weeks.

* Jar, 8225 Beverly Blvd., L.A.; (323) 655-6566.

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So How Do You Grill Water? Bluewater Grill migrates north into L.A. County waters soon with the opening of a Redondo Beach location. The Orange County seafood chain already has locations at South Coast Village and Newport Beach. Richard Staunton, Jim Ulcickas and Robert Hyman (one of the Il Fornaio partners) will run the show with the help of silent partners.

The Bluewater formula is fresh market-priced fish, steamed clams, lobsters, crab, chowders, smoked fish and seafood cocktails, along with teak floors and an exhibition kitchen. Brian Hirsty, chef of all three restaurants, will bring on oyster tastings and clambakes once the doors open to the old Charley Brown’s space. His vast lunch menu also includes Caesar salad with chicken or fish ($9.95 to $10.95), shrimp or crab Louie ($9.75 to $12.95), calamari fritti ($6.95), linguine with vongole ($14.75), cioppino ($28.50) and a beer-battered fish sandwich ($5.95); dinner has most of the lunch menu plus Eureka sand dabs ($12.95), steamed Alaskan king crab legs ($34.20), New York steak ($16.95) and more. Seafood prices are market-driven and subject to frequent change. Bluewater Grill should be open by Oct. 8.* Bluewater Grill, 665 N. Harbor Drive, Redondo Beach; (310) 318-3474.

Deutschland Nacht:: Dieter Grenier, of Staatsweingut Kloster Eberbach Weinabend, will be on hand at Knoll’s Black Forest Inn in Santa Monica for a wine dinner Saturday night--one that is really more wine than dinner. On display and in your glass are famous German wines such as Rauenthaler Baiken, Hochheimer Domdechaney and Rudesheimer Berg Rottland. The food is merely fladlesuppe (consomme garnished with sliced crepes), stuffed veal breast with spaetzle and apple strudel with vanilla sauce.

Dinner begins at 7:30 p.m. and will set you back $110. To reserve a space, call Ed Masciana at (310) 539-5552.* Knoll’s Black Forest Inn, 2454 Wilshire Blvd., Santa Monica; (310) 395-2212.

Maggiano’s Expands: Another link has been added to the Italian restaurant chain known as Maggiano’s Little Italy. The newest Maggiano’s opens in early October in the Promenade in Woodland Hills. The sprawling 350-seat restaurant will dish out moderately priced southern Italian fare with entrees such as chicken Marsala, rosemary roasted chicken, a veal chop and Italian sausage with peppers in the $11 to $31 range. The Woodland Hills branch will be open for lunch and dinner daily.* Maggiano’s Little Italy, 6100 Topanga Blvd., Woodland Hills; (818) 887-3777.

Dine Out With Andre: Instead of always taking Andre’s food home with you, for a change of pace on certain nights you can now dine inside the Pasadena take-out. On Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights Dining With Andre now serves its Provencal cuisine from 6-9 p.m. Says owner Cristina Williams, wife of chef and owner Andre Averseng, “It’s a big step for us.” During those dinner service hours, take-out service will be suspended. Dining With Andre has no liquor license so guests are encouraged to bring their own bottles. There is nocorkage fee.* Dining With Andre, 1000 Fremont Ave., S. Pasadena; (626) 799-5052. *

Reach Angela Pettera at (310) 358-7647 or [email protected]