A Place Where Talk Is Chic

Nothing complements night life better than a touch of sophistication, n’est-ce pas ? So while other clubs content themselves with such churlish pleasures as high-decibel dance-floor mayhem, at Highball, cheri, things are a tad more refined.

Bryan Rabin and Jimmy Medina, erstwhile hosts and promoters of the defunct Prague, bring this well-heeled concept called Highball to Checca’s, a new restaurant/bar/club in West Hollywood, every Saturday night. Like Prague, Highball prides itself on drawing a diverse, ambisexual crowd. And although most people will naturally tell you that they’re “personal friends of Bryan and Jimmy’s,” everyone, Bryan and Jimmy would like to assure you, is invited.

“We’re trying to bring back the glamour of ‘30s Hollywood,” Rabin says.

And while the “cocktail attire” dress code may be more stringently enforced in the future, for the time being it is being loosely interpreted to include medieval outfits, Gaultier shirts and a lot of what is known a few cities to the north as grunge.

Also planned for the club are a few singers and performers, “but,” assures co-promoter Medina, “very demure, with that lounge-act feel. More than anything,” he emphasizes, “it’s the people that make the club.”

So while a second room at Highball has a small dance floor tucked under a rather large and imposing oil painting, much of the real energy is dissipated at the tables and around the bar. Those people with riche tastes but recessionary bank balances will be cheered to learn that entrees are moderately priced (kitchen closes at 11 p.m.). And there are always Highball specials--$2 for a Cosmopolitan (sure, it’s just a Kamikaze with cranberry juice but doesn’t the name itself suggest an urbane worldliness?)--to ease the civilized chatter along.

“The point of all this is to bring back the lost art of conversation,” Medina explains. “And when you have a certain kind of glass in your hand, you talk a certain kind of way.”

* Where: Highball (at Checca’s) 7321 Santa Monica Blvd., West Hollywood. (213) 893-2895

* When: Saturday nights 10 p.m.-2 a.m. Admission $7. Beer $3.50-$4. Other drinks $4-$5. Entrees $6-$7.