Restaurant Review: Cache in Santa Monica

Josiah Citrin peers into the dining room, looking slightly rumpled and just a little anxious. Though he's been cooking in Santa Monica for almost two decades, first at JiRaffe (opened with longtime friend and collaborator Raphael Lunetta in 1996), and then at his own French-accented Mélisse since 1999, this just isn't his usual crowd. Or at least not tonight. It's party time as guests lounge on the red sofas in the two-level patio lounge of this sprawling indoor-outdoor space and a social butterfly in a sparkly dress darts from group to group, Champagne glass in hand.

By S. IRENE VIRBILA

September 23, 2009