DINING BEAT.

Byline: Larry Lipson

Stefano Mazzi, the new chef at Gaetano's, 23536 Calabasas Road, Calabasas, has unveiled a new spring lunch menu.

Mazzi, who previously cooked at Tuscany in Westlake Village and was opening chef at Denari in Encino (since closed), is also pleasing dinner patrons with his versions of seared ahi tuna prepared with ginger and orange juice ($21), roasted rack of lamb stuffed with a porcini mushroom mousse ($24.95), four grilled jumbo scallops on primavera risotto ($21.95) and Chilean seabass (around $21 or $22).

The latter is sometimes served with lobster sauce, sometimes flavored with sun-dried tomatoes and sometimes cooked in the traditional manner with lemon, white wine and capers.

Mazzi's kitchen makes its own dressings, creates its own pastas from scratch with Gaetano's in-house pasta machine, and produces its own gelati, sorbetti and dessert truffles.

Information and reservations: [phone].

TANGO AROUND THE WORLD

Who said grazing is dead?

Cafe Tu Tu Tango, which opened this week in the expanded Universal CityWalk along with several other eateries, brings us a tapaslike menu of 50 appetizer-size dishes priced from $4 to $9.75.

But the recipe accents are not all Spanish. They're globe-roaming, promising flavors from Italy, Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean and Middle East.

Look for slices of beef tenderloin alternated with spinach and portobello mushrooms on a crispy wonton; a melange of stir-fried chicken, calamari, shrimp, andouille sausage, mushrooms, peppers and garlic with a lemon demi-glace; and spring rolls filled with blackened chicken, goat and cheddar cheeses and delivered with a Creole mustard sauce.

The spacious restaurant features a unique sort of local artists-in-residence program where the artists work, as well as sell their art, in exchange for food. Also, Tu Tu Tango allows local performers to strut their stuff or sing spontaneously.

Information: [phone].

EAT, DRINK LIKE CANDIDATE

Restaurants downtown are already gearing up for the Democratic National Convention in August.

Traxx in Union Station, for example, has conceived a cocktail called ``Gore-juice'' which is concocted with Jack Daniel's (made in Tennessee), sweet and sour and a splash of Rose's grenadine.

And it has come up with a three-course, prix-fixe, delegates' dinner for $33 and a three-course, prix-fixe lobbyist's luncheon for $22.

Information: [phone].

NAPKIN NOTES

Moving from its present location to larger, more handsome quarters is City Wok, currently located at 4444 Lankershim Blvd., North Hollywood. The new location, in the recently opened Ralphs Shopping Center at Ventura Boulevard and Vineland Avenue in Studio City, will make its debut in May, according to City Wok owner Stuart Davis. ... The newest Buca di Beppo, 1000 Universal City Plaza in the expanded Universal CityWalk, is the sixth location in Greater Los Angeles, the 40th in the nation and a huge place, two stories high and 10,000 square feet, fitting dimensions for an eatery serving such huge portions.