Anywhere but the Patio!

Watch the Rustica parade: New arrivals follow a cheerful hostess to the restaurant’s near-deserted back patio. Most of them wander back a few minutes later. Like everyone else, they want to sit in the pretty, flower-filled dining room. The hostess now wears an expression of strained exasperation. Ten degrees chillier than the rest of the place, Rustica’s patio--at least in the winter, during dinner--is a true restaurant Siberia.

You take in the roar of Old Beverly Hills schmoozing. You eat your California-style meal--chopped salad, smoked salmon pizza, black pepper linguine--and leave fairly satisfied. But it isn’t until you’re almost home that you realize you’ve just eaten at a Spago clone, right down to the free-range veal chop and enclosed patio that no one wants to sit in.

* Rustica, 435 N. Beverly Drive, Beverly Hills, (310) 247-9331. Pasta, pizza and entrees $9.50 to $23.