Chapter 8 Steakhouse & Dance Lounge   

Rarely, if ever, do the words 'steakhouse' and 'dance lounge' occupy the same restaurant name, but it's fitting here due to C8's fusion of a strikingly innovative red-drenched design with an elegant menu fraught with substance. Falling somewhere between a Dodd Mitchell acid trip and a place where the Pussycat Dolls might chow down, Chapter 8's Vegas-like spectacle supercedes gimmicky, entering a classy stratosphere all its own. From the 14-foot high wall of cascading iridescent glass behind the bar to the red booth alcoves, designers Davis Krumins and Grady Cooley do a masterful job of capturing your imagination and airlifting you to planet cool. There are even barely lit unisex bathrooms and a shared washbasin for the svelte crowd. As a sibling to Agoura's P6, Chapter 8 could be a crafty club destination on its own, if it didn't have an equally attractive menu, full of $30-$40 cuts of beef to go with the infinite eye candy. Possessing a flavorful Kobe rib-eye, New York strip, a Dakota bison rib-eye and Porterhouse (for two), Chapter 8 also does many blends of gourmet sauces, involving everything from Maytag bleu cheese to lobster bernaise. But the steak doesn't require it. After 9PM, diners can segue through the red-leather lined tunnel (co-owner Brad Finefrock's baby) into the dance lounge or yield to the younger velvet rope crowd. Whether you're here for the meat market or the meet market, one thing's for sure -- you'll definitely see red.