CRITIC'S NOTEBOOK

Blue Velvet in the Flat complex has a Westside vibe without the traffic.

By S. Irene Virbila, Times Staff Writer

The view from the dining room of Blue Velvet, a new restaurant and lounge in downtown Los Angeles, is like a shot from a futuristic film noir. The camera scans the shivery blue of the empty pool, lifts higher and focuses out through the iconic palm trees, past the unseen hum of the 110 Freeway toward the Hotel Figueroa sign and Staples Center in the distance.

In the bar and lounge, a young urban crowd sips cocktails or spirits and text-messages each other from the lean, low sofas and the sunken granite communal table with a bit carved out for dangling feet. The place has a great look, offbeat and subtle, so it comes as no surprise to learn Blue Velvet was designed by Tag Front, the same firm that did the original Boa in the Grafton on Sunset hotel.

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The location is unusual — at the bottom of the Flat, a former Holiday Inn turned residential apartment complex, so Blue Velvet has some of its clientele built in, so to speak. For the young professionals and assorted hipsters in the neighborhood, it's a godsend. Why drive to the Westside when you have this slick backdrop? You can hang in the bar, nibble on small plates or adjourn to the dining room for dinner from chef Kris Morningstar, who has worked at Patina and Meson G.

As you'd expect, his menu reflects both of those influences. You've seen everything on it before; the novelty is finding it here, minutes from Little Tokyo and the loft district.

This is no amateur night. Partners chef Robert Hartstein, developer Bret P. Mosher and lounge manager T Elliott have been involved in a number of other trendy L.A. venues, and they're very hands-on.

In the dining room, the tables are already set with sparkling stemware. A long table of diners in their late 20s is doing damage to some serious wines, but they look to be having a fine time and networking like crazy. Next to me, two couples are simply having dinner together, catching up before the holidays send everyone off in different directions.

Starters include hamachi with marinated eggplant, shimeji mushrooms and blood orange. Lobster albondigas (meatballs) in consommé seem like a lot of work for something that doesn't taste that much like lobster, but I like the way the meatballs are sparked with chile and cilantro. If you love pork and beans, zero in on the chef's dish of marrow beans with spicy chorizo and morcilla sausages. There's also a fine starter of roasted quail breast and braised quail legs in a sherry sauce with mustard greens.

Main courses run to duos and trios of this and that, which allows the chef to strut his stuff. The duck includes the rosy breast with the confit leg and, more unusually, the duck liver in tempura. The pork is pork broth with udon noodles, braised pork shank and the crispy belly.

If you want something plainer, consider the chicken breast with brown butter puréed potatoes and Brussels sprouts. The dish that caught my fancy, though, is slow-poached Scottish salmon with soft scrambled eggs, smoked Yukon gold potatoes and crème fraîche.

As we taste each other's dishes and look around, none of us at the table can remember ever being someplace like this, especially downtown. Except for the food, which is a dead giveaway, we could be anywhere at all.

But step outside and a flat-screen monitor mounted on the wall displays nighttime aerial shots of the freeways in all their snarly splendor. It's L.A. all right. Just a different view.

virbila@latimes.com

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Blue Velvet

Where: 750 Garland St., L.A.

When: Lunch, 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Mondays through Fridays; dinner, 5:30 to 10:30 p.m. Sundays through Thursdays, 5:30 to 11 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays. Lounge open 4 p.m. to 2 a.m. daily.

Price: Appetizers, $9 to $16; main courses, $23 to $32; desserts, $8. Full bar. Valet parking.

Info: (213) 239-0061