Latest incarnation is most Svelte yet

Alicia Robinson

First-time restaurateur Kurt Conrad will introduce the public to

Svelte on Wednesday, a year later than he expected when he bought the

restaurant in April 2003.

Svelte’s former incarnations as an eatery include the Pirate’s

Inn, Trees, and Mistral, a French restaurant that opened in 1997.

Conrad bought the restaurant last year and operated it for a month as

Mistral, then closed it for what he thought would be a three-month

remodeling job.

But his plans for an eclectic restaurant, reflecting the best

qualities of his favorite cities, hit a snag when he started the

demolition process. Workers would tear down a wall and find another

wall behind it that they didn’t expect, so Conrad had to go back to

the city for approval of plan changes.

“I had to keep redrawing plans and resubmitting [them] because we

found all these surprises,” he said.

Another unpleasant surprise was reaching his project’s budget when

he was only half done. Eventually, he hired a new contractor, gutted

the building and redesigned the entire restaurant. It ended up

costing three times what Conrad initially expected and taking three

times as long to renovate.

“Basically, this is a brand new building, almost,” he said.

The restaurant is an eclectic mix influenced by New York, Aspen,

Miami, London and St. Tropez in the south of France. Each room’s

walls are a different shade of Venetian plaster, with the main dining

room done in blue and featuring a long, onyx-topped table that seats

18 people. Conrad added new bathrooms near the front entrance with

upscale features such as a gold sink and faucets shaped like swans’

heads in the men’s room.

The tiled patio for outdoor dining in front of the restaurant is

also new, and guests are greeted at the entrance by a one-of-a-kind

sculpture made by Mara Modlin, an artist who is also Svelte’s bar

manager.

“I wanted to have a kind of ‘wow’ factor with everything you

looked at,” Conrad said. “I wanted everything to be a conversation

piece.”

The menu has Californian, French and Asian influences and includes

veggie spring rolls, truffle macaroni and cheese and a deluxe Kobe

beef burger.

This is Conrad’s first pass at running a restaurant after a career

in finance.

“I was a regular customer here when it was Mistral, but I always

wanted to get into the restaurant business,” he said.

Based on how popular Mistral was, Conrad expects to do brisk

business. Corona del Mar Chamber of Commerce Chairman Chip Stassel

said the area has a broad demographic, so Conrad has a range of

customers to draw from.

“[The property has] been a known icon in the community as a

restaurant,” Stassel said. “Restaurants have a tendency to do pretty

good in Corona del Mar because it’s a destination spot. It’s a nice

place to go to.”

Modlin, who met Conrad while working at Mistral, said neighborhood

restaurants are popular right now because people want to avoid

traffic and prefer not to drive when they’re going out for drinks.

“People want a place that they can walk to, be recognized and have

fun,” she said.

Svelte, at 440 Heliotrope Ave. in Corona del Mar, will be open

from 5:30 p.m. to midnight daily beginning Wednesday.