House Specialty: Rack of Newspaper

Part of the appeal of his restaurant is being around books and newspapers and people who pore over them. But getting meals out puts the squeeze on the reading habits of Andre Lechien. As the new executive chef at Book Soup Bistro on Sunset Boulevard, he has to leave all those French newspapers on the rack.

Lechien says he likes readers, but getting them to try new things takes time. “They’ve been eating the same thing for years,” he says, “so I work slowly.”

His new menu has been road-tested, so to speak. For weeks he has been previewing the new menu he introduces this week by offering the new dishes as specials of the day.

Whitefish seared in cumin with a fennel vinaigrette is one. “Some of the herbs are Vietnamese and I don’t know the names in English,” he says.

Cured salmon with ginger, and the seafood casserole in white wine with Provence herbs are a few of the daily specials that will be presented with the new menu.

Lechien, the 31-year-old son of a Vietnamese mother and French father, was born in Saigon and sent to Paris at the tender age of 2 for boarding school.

Any influence of Vietnamese flavors took a back seat to learning French cooking for four years in hotel school in Strasbourg. And five years working in the City of Light in the kitchens of Jamin and Jacques Cagna. He even had a little place on the Ile de Saint-Louis.

He moved to California and worked as sous chef at Pascal in Orange. He married a chef, Megan, and opened Andre on Balboa Island.

“Book Soup is just right. I like the size, location and having so many solo diners. They come, get a book, read and take their time,” he says. “Thank goodness they don’t sell Vietnamese newspapers. I have no time.”

* Book Soup Bistro, 8800 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood. (310) 657-1072.

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On the Drawing Board: The ink is still wet but Maureen Vincenti, who owned Rex Il Ristorante with her late husband, Mauro, just bought restaurant space occupied by Lotus West on San Vicente Boulevard in Brentwood. No sooner did she close Rex than she hauled out the blueprints to sketch in her plans for the kitchen and dining room for the 90-seat restaurant. Rex’s Gino Angelini will be chef.

“I haven’t even got a name for it yet. It’s going to be casual--no tuxedoed waiters,” Vincenti says. “But it will be very much in the spirit of Mauro. We’re planning to have a weekly prix-fixe menu and a bar with a full view of the kitchen--somewhere a solo diner can feel comfortable.”

Rotisserie chicken, roast lamb and sausages will fill out the menu. In April, Vincenti leaves for a holiday in Italy, where she’ll meet up with Angelini to check out what’s new on the Italian restaurant scene. “I’ve got lots to think about on the airplane,” says Vincenti. She hopes to open midsummer.

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Dining With a Purpose: Dine out tonight and lend support to Dining Out for Life. More than 200 restaurants in Los Angeles will join restaurants around the country in donating a portion of today’s earnings to benefit individuals with AIDS. A list of participating restaurants can be heard on the KYSR-FM (STAR 98.7) Interactive Information Line at (888) 313-STAR. Or visit the Web site at https://aid4aids.com. Organizers restaurateurs Victor Drai, Barbara Lazaroff and Eddy Kerkhofs hope to raise $200,000. Last year’s efforts totaled $100,000.

Site to Dig: Xi’an, the ancient capital of China before Beijing, has always been regarded as the cultural crossroads at the end of the Silk Route. Traders left influences from Central Asia and Europe in their wake.

It shows in the menu created by restaurateur Vicky Mense. Her 8-week-old restaurant, Xi’an, on North Canon Drive in Beverly Hills, crisscrosses China’s culinary regions. And also bows to California’s taste for low-fat.

“Most Chinese don’t really care about fat like Californians,” says the Taiwanese-born Mense, who owned Le Cine Wok in Bel-Air for five years until last year.

For the health-conscious there are three versions of Chinese-style chicken salads and even a Zone Diet highlight, Power Zone Rice. And most dishes can be requested with minimal oil. Her five cooks come from Canton, Beijing and Taiwan.

“The name Xi’an is a conversation piece,” she adds. “Most people stumble in trying to pronounce the X. But once they get it [she spells it out on the menu as “Shee-Ahn”] they feel pretty accomplished.”

* Xi’an, 362 N. Canon Drive, Beverly Hills. (310) 275-3345.

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New Arrivals: More fusion on Ocean Avenue in Santa Monica when Rice Man opens Friday. Adjacent to Ocean Avenue Seafood, it occupies a corner location and seats 70, according to project manager Martin Koleff.

The owner is a Tokyo-based businessman in the travel and computer industries. Filled with maple wood, beige and burgundy, Rice Man was designed by a team of architects from Japan with help from Ben Shick and Michael Hricak.

Chef Seiji “Waka” Walabauashi, an alumnus of Cafe del Rey and Spago, gets inspiration from California, not Japan, going beyond sushi with green tea spaghetti, pepper-crusted chicken breast with lemon grass sauce, rice dumpling filled with lamb, baked apple tart and a compote of the day.

* Rice Man, 1401 Ocean Ave., Santa Monica. (310) 458-4771.