HANGOUTS : SING WITH YOUR SUPPER.

Byline: Jenifer Hanrahan Daily News Staff Writer

What: Dimples.

Where: 3413 W. Olive Ave., Burbank; [phone].

Hours: 11 a.m. to 2 a.m. weekdays. 6 p.m. to 2 a.m. weekends.

What is it: A karaoke supper club.

What's it like: Maybe you'd prefer to forget the night you stumbled onstage and sang Frank Sinatra's ``My Way'' into a karaoke microphone. At Dimples, owner Sal Ferraro won't let you. Warblers risk appearing on ``Showcase to Stardom,'' a karaoke show on public access cable that is taped at the supper club Friday and Saturday nights.

Ferraro edits the show in a back room of the restaurant, but not everyone makes the cut. ``We like sexy girls, real talents, people having a lot of fun, people that are nervous, people that are funny,'' Ferraro said.

On a recent evening, master of ceremonies Eddie Driscoll propped onstage a black velvet portrait of a crying Elvis - whom Driscoll calls ``the patron saint of karaoke'' - and beseeched the crowd to take their turn. ``The whole idea of the Dimples Showcase is that you show yourself,'' Driscoll coaxed. A guy in western-style shirt and boots sang Garth Brooks' ``Friends in Low Places.'' A woman professing to be a professional singer sang a tune by Karen Carpenter. A guy in a suit sang Bon Jovi's ``You Give Love a Bad Name.''

All the while, singers could watch themselves on several monitors and a wide screen on a back wall.

``Everybody wants to sing secretly,'' said Bill Wolf, a film producer who sang a song by the Doors. ``Everyone has a secret fantasy. With this, you can be Jim Morrison or Karen Carpenter for the 3-1/2 minutes they allot you.''

Even with some 9,000 songs to choose from, no karaoke evening would be complete without someone belting out Sinatra's ``New York, New York.'' Mario Rosales, 38, did the honors, impressing his date, Rachel Diaz, 37, with his resonant base that sounded an awful lot like the Chairman of the Board himself.

``Now I want to hear Elvis so I can melt,'' said Diaz, confiding that the two had met at another bar and came to Dimples to hear Rosales sing. ``That's a man of heart who can sing. It's so romantic.''

Ferraro introduced karaoke to Dimples - which is named after the old film starring Shirley Temple - in the early 1980s. He hired a cameraman, director and film editor to put together the first karaoke show in 1986. The show was a hit with his customers, so in 1990 he bought cameras and film-editing equipment and started producing the show himself.

``I'm trying to expose my people and hope that some of them get a job,'' Ferraro said. ``I like doing it, and it's a good tax write-off.''

As of now, there is no evidence that any singer was discovered on public access cable.

Entertainment: For the brave, it's singing, of course. If you would rather not expose your voice to the world outside your car or shower, there's a cramped (intimate?) dance floor in front of the stage that filled quickly when five guys in hard hats and feather headdresses sang the disco classic ``YMCA.'' If you can neither sing nor dance, you can sit at a booth and snicker at everyone else.

House specialties: A full menu of mostly Italian fare, including pastas, chicken, fish and steak. Most entrees are $9.95. There is also a lunch menu. If you sing during lunch, your meal is free. (That's a one-time-only deal.) A domestic beer is $3 on weekends. Imported beer is $3.50. Cocktails are $3.50 to $5. Drink prices are generally 50 cents cheaper on weekdays.

Last call: Viewing times for ``Showcase to Stardom'' vary month to month (call your local cable company to get information about the public access channel and its lineup). In June, you can catch Dimples karaoke on Century Cable (Channel 3) at 11 p.m. Sundays.

CAPTION(S):

3 Photos

Photo: (1) Romy Jacobson of Studio City belts out a tune at Dimples, a karaoke supper club in Burbank. Singers have a shot at appearing on the club's public access cable TV show, ``Showcase to Stardom.''

(2) ``The whole idea of the Dimples Showcase is that you show yourself.''

Eddie Driscoll

Dimples' master of ceremonies, whose black velvet painting of Elvis Presley, ``the patron saint of karaoke,'' graces the stage

Joe Binoya/Special to the Daily News

(3) Editor Sean Ruder, right, shares a laugh with Dimples owner Sal Ferraro during work on one of the club's cable TV shows.