Red Onion

The Red Onion restaurant chain, under investigation by two state agencies for alleged racial discrimination, outlined plans Friday to adopt non-discriminatory hiring and training policies and reach out to the minority communities of Orange, Riverside and Los Angeles counties.

The Red Onion restaurant chain, under attack for allegedly making racial distinctions about who is admitted into its nightclubs in Santa Ana, Fullerton and other Southland communities, agreed to a settlement with 39 people who had been turned away. The restaurant chain agreed to pay each of the 39 blacks, Latinos and Middle Easterners $500 and to set aside $20,000 for complaints that may be filed.

The Red Onion restaurant chain, which two years ago paid the steepest civil fines ever levied in Orange County for health and safety code violations, agreed Friday to a new record payment of $380,654 for repetition of most of the old violations at its four restaurants in the county.

The lights are already down--and the decibel level up--at the Woodland Hills Red Onion by the time Antoinette Flores and her two girlfriends arrive. It is early evening, and the three have come, as they often do, to dance, to meet people, and to party. "It's a place to come and mingle, to enjoy yourself," said Flores, 21, before slurping from a huge container filled with a potent cocktail called Sex on the Beach. "Everybody gets along here really good."

Peering through a window of Thousand Oaks' Red Onion just after 1 a.m., manager Michael Catanzarite smiled tolerantly at the teen-age girls in bustiers and tight shorts dancing under purple disco lights. "People perceive this place as a pit of sin, but really the kids are mainly jacked up on dancing and being around the opposite sex," he said. "If you look, it's pretty innocent--just kids dancing and sweating." But local politicians aren't convinced.

Total time: 1 hour Servings: 4 to 6 1/4 cup farro Water Salt 1/4 cup mixed dried fruit (such as sour cherries, cranberries, raisins) 1 tablespoon orange-flavored liqueur, such as Grand Marnier 1 pound kale (about 2 bunches) 1 tablespoon olive oil 1/4 cup crumbled blue cheese 2 tablespoons minced red onion 2 tablespoons chopped toasted pecans 2 teaspoons red wine vinegar Freshly ground pepper to taste 1. Toast the farro in a dry medium saucepan over medium heat until it smells nutty and turns golden, about 5 minutes.

Dear SOS: I would love the recipe for the wild rice salad from the Gulfstream Restaurant in Newport Beach. It was totally addictive. We ordered seconds. Mary Ann Osborn Los Angeles Dear Mary Ann: What a good salad for this time of year, and what a good salad to take to a Thanksgiving celebration. And here's something nice -- you can combine the fig-nut-onion mixture the day before (cover and refrigerate), then cook the rice and toss with the mixture the day of. It's a little do-ahead.

We know where residents of a plush Marina del Rey tower didn't go to toast their good fortune the other day when they finally won a decade-old fight against noisy neighbors. They didn't go next door to the Fantasea Yacht Club--the current occupant of the building at the center of the noise dispute.