Citrus: The restaurant is a no-show

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I thought I’d go check out what was happening Tuesday night at Citrus at Social, now that Michel Richard’s Hollywood restaurant has a new chef (Omri Aflalo) and a revamped bistro menu.

When I called to make a reservation, no one answered the phone: I’ve been encountering a lot of that lately as restaurants cut costs in order to stay afloat. The phone message did say that the restaurant was open on Tuesdays. And so we set off, not worrying about the fact that we didn’t have a reservation. It’s a big place. How full could it be on a Tuesday night?

It turns out, not full at all.

The fact that there was no valet out front should have been the first clue. I chalked it up to more cost cutting. We pulled into the adjacent public parking lot beside my friend Rene’s car, paid the parking attendant $10 upfront and the three of us walked around the corner to Citrus’ entrance on Sunset Boulevard, only to find the door locked, the restaurant closed.

Great.

You’d think that if the restaurant is going to close on a day it’s supposed to be open, somebody would at least change the phone message. I see this morning that its website has been updated to say dinner is served Thursday through Saturday, so I guess the closure was no anomaly. The restaurant has cut back to just three days a week: what a shame.

Citrus at Social, 6525 Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles; (323) 337-9797; www.citrusatsocial.com

-- S. Irene Virbila