A new menu for Larchmont?

The economic microbes that have been massing around it in recent years, as property values in that area of Los Angeles have shot skyward, are raising some residents' temperatures, and, especially, rents.

Some residents fear rising rents will overwhelm the neighborly character of the village and kill off some of its most prized attributes, such as Larchmont Hardware, which has existed for 75 years, and Chevalier's Books, a mainstay for 67 years.

The concern of many residents of the affluent neighborhood centers at the moment on the fate of La Luna Ristorante, a family-friendly Italian restaurant and community favorite for 17 years. La Luna has lost its lease, according to its landlord, in a rent dispute and could be out of business in as little as six weeks if eviction proceedings run their course.

Village preservationists are haunted also by tales of a wealthy businessman who recently went into escrow, at enormous purchase prices, on three commercial buildings on a block-long stretch of Larchmont Boulevard. They fear he'll rent out the buildings at rates so high only chain stores can afford them, further diluting the village's local flavor.

Chain stores already exist along the strip, including Rite Aid Drugs, Starbucks Coffee, Peet's Coffee and Tea, Jamba Juice, and Blockbuster Video.

The La Luna imbroglio centers on whether the restaurant and its landlord, longtime Larchmont property owner and former village merchant Francis "Mickey" McCullough, had a binding oral contract to extend the restaurant's lease long-term in exchange for doubled rent, to $6 per square foot.

La Luna opened in 1990. "We came because we liked the European look, the neighborhood look and the people walking," said chef and co-owner Robertino Giovannelli. "We also liked having the butcher across the street, and the little market, but they're all gone now."

The restaurant, which the chef owns along with the husband-and-wife team of David Whitworth and Theresa Kim-Whitworth, was a success with local residents from the start, in large measure because of its neighborly atmosphere.

"My son grew up going there," said neighborhood activist Diana Buchantz. "The restaurant opened a month before he was born and I waddled in there during that time. Afterward, Theresa used to literally carry my son around for 20 minutes so I could eat."