Out at Meson G

Eric GREENSPAN, the 29-year-old chef with the impressive resume (he was executive chef at the old Patina), who opened Meson G on Melrose Avenue in November, was given his walking papers Sunday night by owners Tim and Liza Goodell.

The news came for Greenspan and sous-chef Dan Newell, who was also told the night was his last, after a long day and night cooking for In Style magazine’s Oscar party.

It didn’t come as a total surprise to Greenspan. “The writing was on the wall for a long time,� he said. “I think we had a different vision in a lot of things. When they hired me, it was like, ‘This is your show. Run it like your show.’ I think that’s what they thought they wanted.�

Tim Goodell also cited “creative differences.�

Josef Centeno, chef de cuisine at the Goodells’ Newport Beach restaurant, Aubergine, has been named as Greenspan’s replacement. “It’s much easier for me to work with people who have come up through my ranks,� said Goodell. “I have great respect for Eric and nothing personal, but business is business, and I feel like we needed to make a change.�

And what’s next for Greenspan? “Probably going into business for myself,� he said. “When you’re young and strong-willed and what you do is fairly well validated by the people around you, you gotta stick with what you do. It’s time for me to put my vision into action.�

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Radical concepts

Celebrated designer Philippe Starck is known not only for his influential interiors, such as the Asia de Cuba restaurants (in London, New York, San Francisco and L.A.) and Miami’s Blue Door at the Delano Hotel, but also for bringing his magic touch to objects as diverse as Microsoft’s optical mouse and an iconic lemon squeezer for Alessi. Now he has signed a deal with Los Angeles-based entrepreneur Sam Nazarian, chief executive of SBE Entertainment Group, to design nine restaurants in these parts during the next two to three years.

Foremost among the SBE projects will be an L.A. branch of Megu, the year-old, ultra-hot, modern Japanese restaurant in Manhattan’s Tribeca district. Starck will design the restaurant, which takes over the La Cienega space of the nightclub Prey.

Nazarian started pursuing Starck shortly after acquiring the old Coconut Teaszer space on Sunset Boulevard. “It took me about a year to get through to him,� says Nazarian.

Shelter, the nightclub SBE opened in that space, will get a major overhaul courtesy of Starck, and a new name: Slab. And before Slab and Megu open (in mid- to late 2006), Katsu, with chef Katsuya Uechi of the popular San Fernando Valley Katsu-ya restaurants at the helm, is slated to open in the old El Dorado space in Brentwood. Starck’s design for this concept will serve as a template for other Katsu restaurants.

What sort of design can we expect from Starck for Slab, Megu, Katsu and the to-be-determined restaurants and supper clubs?

“It’s a little too early to say,� offered Starck via telephone from his home in Paris. “Because these concepts are so new and so modern, because there are so many people who copy what I do, I don’t want to explain. All I can tell you is, today we work on five new concepts. They are the most advanced, radical concepts ever made in the world. Even me, I cannot wait.�

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Paris calling

A little over a week ago, someone hacked into Paris Hilton’s cellphone address book, and soon the list was posted on the Internet. Naturally, there were numbers for celeb buddies like Christina Aguilera and Eminem. But restaurants including Chaya Brasserie, Mr. Chow, Koi, La Scala and the Spanish Kitchen were also listed.

Says Chaya Brasserie general manager Francis Liong, “We’re getting a couple hundred, three hundred calls a day beyond what we usually get. It got so out of control that I put on more hostesses to take care of our guests. People were hanging up, asking where we were, making fake reservations. For example, tonight Paris Hilton made a reservation. But we doubt it was her.�

It’s a similar story at Mr. Chow, where one exasperated hostess put it this way: “It’s been an extremely annoying, frustrating headache. It’s just ridiculous. People have no life and are calling from everywhere to say nothing. Or they ask, ‘Is Paris Hilton there?’ It’s just stupidness.�

Fortunately, the affected restaurateurs say the volume of calls has diminished in the last couple of days, which means regulars (like Paris?) should once again be able to get through.

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-- Leslee Komaiko