WEEKENDS, twentysomethings on the prowl for a fun, splashy evening gravitate to La Cienega or Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood, or to the Cahuenga corridor and Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood. That's where most of the extravagantly appointed restaurant-lounge-clubs -- places like Republic, Citizen Smith, Sunset Beach and Geisha House -- are located.
But what's a girl to do if she lives in Glendale or Burbank or Eagle Rock? Come 1 or 2 a.m., after a night of drinking and partying, it's a long way home.
Enter Minx, a sprawling new Glendale club that offers some of the glamour of those West Hollywood and Hollywood spots, a fine-dining restaurant and a bar menu, and the bonus of a crowd of geographically similar club-goers. If you meet someone at Minx, located near the junction of the 134 and 2 freeways, he or she just may turn out to live nearby. The club is open Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, so you can have dinner and stay to party until 1 a.m.
On those three nights, in fact, the place is jammed. Just before 10 p.m., when the club officially opens, the line of people waiting to get inside stretches into the parking lot and dozens of cars inch their way up Harvey Drive and past a strategically placed In-N-Out Burger.
Hard to believe this free-form contemporary structure with enormous white canvas sails shading the wraparound outdoor terraces was once a humble Rusty Pelican. Designer Margaret "Peg" O'Brien, who has decorated Republic and other trendy venues, has sprinkled a little stardust over the exterior and interior of the once-prosaic space.
The spacious main dining room has floor-to-ceiling windows with views of the city and mountains. O'Brien's design features whimsical lighting fixtures, pebble trails embedded in the floor and dark wood tables. A trio of high-sided booths are large enough for six to squeeze into. There's also a leaf-shaped communal table with high stools for larger groups of friends. Tables are bare, each place set with woven silver-and-turquoise vinyl placemats and stemware in good, all-purpose shapes. On Saturday nights, an outdoor bar is in full swing and VIP cabanas are for rent for those who want to entertain in high style.
But if you come for dinner as opposed to lounging, you may go away as disgruntled as the occasional Rusty Pelican customer who wanders in and wonders what on Earth has happened to the old place. Though the owners have hired 33-year-old Joseph Antonishek -- an experienced chef who has worked at Jean Georges and Mesa Grill in New York, among others, and was most recently chef at O-Bar in West Hollywood -- the food, with only a few exceptions, just isn't very good.
