Salsa’s for Chips as Well as Dancing at La Paz

La Paz, the Woodland Hills seafood restaurant whose menu recalls the distinct cuisine of the Yucatan peninsula of Mexico, has begun hosting a monthly dance party with Latin and American music.

The restaurant also has a new manager, a host of low-calorie additions to its lunch and dinner menus, and a new Sunday buffet lunch.

Maria Iturrialde, who hails from the Yucatan, opened La Paz eight years ago. She brought in her nephew Ray Carrillo to manage the place in the fall, and it is Carrillo who has set about revamping things.

Carrillo hosts a dance party Saturday night, and he expects a crowd. The music will range from salsa to cumbia to ‘70s American disco tunes.

The restaurant’s dinner menu includes a dish called camarones al mojo--butterflied shrimp sauteed with garlic and topped with cheese--and a similar dish, ancas de rana, done with frog legs. Then there’s a Yucatan-style carne asada, and a New York steak grilled in the seed of a mild red pepper, calle anatto, which is found in the Yucatan.

Prices range from $7.95 to $19.95, but if you’re flush, you can order a special lobster dish for two--a whole lobster removed from its shell and grilled with crab, mahi mahi, and abalone, and then replaced in the shell and served with cheese and sour cream. The tab for this dish hits $49.95.

La Paz is open for lunch and dinner seven days a week at 21040 Victoria Blvd., Woodland Hills, (818) 883-4761.

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Dave Evans, who runs the White Horse Inn in Northridge and the Seahorse Restaurant in Simi Valley, has restaurants in the blood.

His family went into the business four generations ago, in the 1890s in Chicago, and Dave Evans himself has been at it for nearly 39 years, since his parents opened up the Northridge place in 1958.

“This restaurant was a little tiny place when my parents opened it up,” Evans says. “We’ve added seating three times since then, the last time I think in 1968.

“It seats 240 now. We have a banquet room there that seats about 60 people, and we do a lot of holiday and birthday banquets.”

The White Horse Inn’s menu is divided about equally between meat and fish dishes. The Seahorse Restaurant, which seats 100, concentrates on fish--as the name attests--and prices range from $8 to $20. They go slightly higher at the White Horse Inn.

The Seahorse Restaurant is actually the second establishment Evans has had at the same Simi Valley location. His first sojourn in Simi Valley lasted from 1980 to 1985, then he sold out to a proprietor who turned the place into a fish-and-chips restaurant.

“I bought the place back a year ago, so I’m now back at the new old location,” he says.

The White Horse Inn is at 17710 Roscoe Blvd., Northridge, (818) 343-1985. The Seahorse Restaurant is at 5835 E. Los Angeles Ave., Simi Valley, (805) 527-7793.

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Vijay Talwar has expanded the lunch buffet menu at his Jewel of India restaurant in Sherman Oaks.

For $8.95 you can help yourself to a groaning board of Indian treats--tandoori chicken, chicken or lamb curry, chicken or lamb with spinach, a host of vegetable dishes made without butter or oil, and rice in many guises.

You can also have papadum, crispy lentil wafers baked in the high heat of a tandoori oven--or vegetable fritters dipped in a batter made with garbanzo beans.

The restaurant’s day-to-day menu ranges over the traditional cuisine of India salted with a variety of Greek dishes as well--a combination not likely to be found in any other restaurant in the San Fernando Valley.

Jewel of India is at 4523 Sepulveda Blvd., Sherman Oaks, (818) 986-8555.

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Dan Bergman went from the frying pan into the fire six years ago when he founded his popular Bergie’s Steak House, which caters to a regular crowd in Canyon Country.

Bergman--who recently added a nightly all-you-can-eat special to his dinner menu Sundays through Thursdays--was in the construction business before the Southern California real estate market went down the tubes as the 1980s ended.

So why go from one tough business to another?

“I thrive on punishment,” he said, laughing. “Actually, I needed to do something when the construction business died and I got tired of watching soaps.

“My wife had waitressed at one time, but that was the extent of our restaurant experience. So we just got into the business and learned fast.”

On Sundays the all-you-can-eat special is fish. On Mondays it’s a top sirloin sandwich, on Tuesdays a tri-tip steak, on Wednesdays a double chicken breast, and on Thursdays a New York steak sandwich.

Prices range below $10 for the all-you-can-eat special. Prices range are $15 for the items on the restaurant’s regular dinner menu, which offers a variety of steaks, chops, chicken and fish.

Bergie’s Steak House is at 16404 W. De Lone, Canyon Country, (805) 251-3133.

Juan Hovey writes about the restaurant scene in the San Fernando Valley and outlying points. He may be reached at (805) 492-7909, or fax (805) 492-5139 or e-mail him at JH[email protected].