Alfresco Expansion

Look for Chef Neil Rogers and his partner, Phillippe Gris, to expand the seating capacity of their Sherman Oaks restaurant, Cafe Bizou, by adding a new patio this month.

The patio out back will add some 30 seats to the restaurant, which now seats 107 in two interior dining rooms and another 25 on a patio in front.

“We just got our permits last week, and now we’re talking to contractors,” Rogers says. “It was a long process to get the city to issue the permit, but now we’re ready at last to start building.”

Cafe Bizou opened three years ago and moved to its present location in 1995, when Rogers and Gris bought out Shain’s Restaurant, run by Don Shain, now general manager for Cafe Bizou.

Cafe Bizou offers a simple menu with a dozen or so entrees and half that many salads. The real attraction is Rogers’ ever-changing list of specials.

By the time you read this, he will no doubt have some new items to offer, so if you can’t order one of the dishes that follow, take this list as evidence of Rogers’ inventive interest in the great variety of seafood and produce available in Southern California:

* Halibut sauteed and sauced with tomatoes and garlic, and served with a vegetable strudel and mashed potatoes, for $13.95.

* Maine lobster served over handmade linguine with oysters and mushrooms in a sauce of tomatoes, basil and cream, at prices reflecting the daily market price.

* Ahi tuna grilled rare, sauced with a soy vinaigrette and served with ravioli stuffed with shiitake mushrooms, for $14.95.

“You could describe Cafe Bizou as French California--with the influence of the Pacific Rim thrown in,” says the Welsh-born Rogers.

“I like the specials to reflect the best of what’s available. The northern halibut and ahi tuna are really very good right now, and the Maine lobster has been very consistent. I got some very fine New Zealand green mussels, and I also do some sashimi, too.”

Cafe Bizou is open for lunch weekdays, brunch weekends, and dinner every night. It is located at 14016 Ventura Blvd., Sherman Oaks, (818) 788-3536.

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Haleh and Allen Adel revamp the menu of their Studio City restaurant Pasion this week to feature a number of new specials by Chef Franco Rosi.

The new menu shows the influence of Rosi’s Italian heritage--along with the interest of the Adels themselves in California cuisine.

Among the new appetizers, each at $9.95: smoked salmon with a dill Dijon sauce and julienne cucumbers marinated in soy; pepper-crusted ahi with early greens and salmon roe; and bluepoint oysters with champagne and caviar.

Among the new pastas: crab ravioli in a coulis of red pepper and saffron, $16.95; linguine with clams, shrimp, scallops and fish in a cream curry sauce, $18.95; and ravioli stuffed with goat cheese, wild mushrooms and herbs, $15.95.

Rosi also serves two new seafood dishes--lobster stuffed with shrimp, scallops and mushrooms, for $28.95; and a seared filet of John Dory with roasted almonds, for $23.95. (The John Dory is a warm-water fish with a round dark spot on its side. The spot is said to be the thumbprint of St. Peter, who, according to legend, removed a coin from a John Dory fish--and if you know how the name John Dory comes into the picture, you know more than this writer.)

Finally, Rosi offers three new meat dishes--a lamb steak marinated in thyme and garlic, for $20.95; honey-glazed quail Normandine with a sauce made of the French brandy Calvados, distilled from apple cider, for $21.95; and a pan-roasted duck breast with caramelized julienne ginger, also for $21.95.

Pasion is in the Times Square Mall at 12215 Ventura Blvd., Studio City, (818) 752-7333.

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Saddle Peak Lodge hosts a prix-fixe dinner Monday featuring Fetzer wines.

Chef Josie Le Balch will serve a barrel-select chardonnay with four tapas--Hog Island oysters with a mango mignonette; maple-grilled quail; an ostrich crostini tri-tip with horseradish; and barbecued rabbit with a dipping sauce of cactus pear.

On the dinner menu: a tomatillo, poblano chile and gigante bean chowder topped with crispy pheasant pouches, served with a reserve dry gewurztraminer; a lobster and portabello mushroom salad with a vinaigrette of walnut oil, with a reserve Sangiacomo chardonnay; and a venison chop with autumn vegetables, warm figs and a sauce of autumn berries, with a reserve Usibello cabernet.

The price, $125 per person, includes tip and tax. Saddle Peak Lodge is located off Las Virgenes Road between Calabasas and Malibu, at 419 N. Cold Canyon Road, Calabasas, (818) 222-3888.

* Juan Hovey writes about the restaurant scene in the San Fernando Valley and outlying points. He may be reached at (805) 492-7909 or by fax at (805) 492-5139 or via e-mail at JH[email protected]