Restaurants hone fine culinary art of creating a buzz. (Up Front).

A photographer has already come by from a Japanese tourist guide. The crew of "EX-treme Dating" is wrapping up a taping. A writer from a restaurant industry newsletter is due in about an hour.

In her few free minutes, publicist Ann Flower talks to the bar manager about what glasses will be used for next week's "Media Martini Night." About 100 journalists, celebrity publicists and others are expected to show up for free cocktails and, if she's lucky, Flower will even get a few celebrities to attend.

It's a lot of work for the Beverly Hills nightspot Linq, already christened as "hotter than hot" in the 2002 Zagat Survey and earning mentions in USA Today and Wine Spectator magazine. But it's all part of keeping the 2-year-old restaurant's buzz going.

Flower figures there's no such thing as too much publicity. "If you have the opportunity for overkill, that would be such a beautiful thing," she said.

The restaurant business has never been more competitive and capricious. While consumer spending generally has held up in the aftermath of recession and 9/11, restaurant going is a discretionary expense that could easily be cut back--disquieting news in an industry whose failure rate is routinely high.

"The consumer's buying power has suffered," said John Dunlap, president and chief executive of the California Restaurant Association. "They're buying down, going to a different type of restaurant."

Added veteran restaurant publicist Joan Luther. "You will still go out to eat but you will drop down in class."

For restaurants that rely on trendsetters, the challenge is not only the economy, but the wattage. "You're trying to attract the same amount of clients...(but) you've got to pull them away from other restaurants somehow," said Stefani Newman, events coordinator at Linq.

There are all sorts of ways to get people talking--starting, of course, with a really hot chef. But there are also more subtle ways to create a stir. Luther has a list of "foodies" she can call up who like to eat and talk about restaurants. "That way, the word gets around, if the food is good enough," Luther said.

An appearance in a movie or a television show can also boost a restaurant's profile. Most recently, L.A. restaurateur Nobu Matsuhisa played the role of the evil Mr. Roboto in "Austin Powers in Goldmember." Several local restaurants, including Ca'Brea and Senoritas On Sunset, have been featured on dating shows like "Blind Date."

Star Power

Stars play a major role in getting an eatery's name out--a trend that many say started with the now-defunct Spago Hollywood. The same holds true for other Puck restaurants, such as Spago in Beverly Hills and Santa Monica's Chinois on Main.

"There's always the celebrity card, which is big in L.A.," Flower said. "When you talk to New York editors, they don't say to you, 'Do you have any celebrities?' but 'Who are your celebrities?'"

But restaurants have to be careful when boasting about star clients. Letting the media know Mick Jagger and Britney Spears eat at 11 Cielo in Beverly Hills might get the restaurant some press but it can also keep other notables away. (They've been there at least once.)

"If it's a regular customer, you're not going to go bandying their name around because you don't want to harm that relationship," Flower said. "You don't want to offend your celebrity clients."

Perhaps tougher than getting A-list entertainers in the door is attracting the critics-especially Patric Kuh of Los Angeles Magazine and S. Irene Virbila of the Los Angeles Times.

Virbila gets tips on restaurants from publicists, readers and co-workers. Anything from a good chef to interesting decor might pique her interest about a place but that won't necessarily get her to do a review. She has to like it well enough to eat there three or four times before writing about a restaurant.

"If it's just another Italian restaurant with a fake Tuscan menu, you're going to put that at the bottom of your pile to check out," Virbila said.

But being on a critic's radar screen isn't always a good thing. In a recent piece about Max in Sherman Oaks, Virbila described chef- owner Andre Guerrero's time at Linq as a "two-year sentence." She wrote that being a chef at a hot restaurant can "seem like a sojourn in hell" because maitre d's often overbook and patrons don't pay much attention to the food.

While not as influential, reviewers at smaller publications can't be brushed aside, said publicist Diana Daniele. "You never want to ignore the smaller daily or weekly papers because they're (readers are) the people who live closest to you, who can walk to your restaurant," she said.

Many L.A. restaurants depend on PR firms to get the attention of critics and the general public. There are countless ways to do that, from sending out press packets to hosting wine tastings to getting the restaurant on television or into Bon Apetit and Food & Wine. But ultimately, a restaurant has to prove itself to patrons to keep the buzz going.

"Manufactured buzz can only get you so far" Kuh said. "What gets you excited is good food, plain and simple."