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...ContinuedJUST DcSScHTS: Exotic cookies, pastries and cakes follow an exotic Vietnamese meal at Delices Deprepared and cooked in a micro-wave oven.%u201dBesides quality, the prix fixe dinner fosters an intimacy between chef and client as if the latter were eating in someone%u2019s home%u2014which is where Hubert%u2019s. Villa Storica, and Pate Vite began.Hubert%u2019s started out in the Cobble Hill home of Len Allison and Karen Hubert, whose weekend cooking was meant to fund a video documentary. They called their venture (reasonably enough) Home Cooking, and invited 50 friends for dinner%u2014as paying guests. The %u201c guest%u201d list grew until it grew right out of their kitchen and into a one-time tavern at Hoyt and Bergen Streets.%u201c We wanted to make a change but we wanted to continue the care and concern we had done at home,%u201d said Karen Hubert, who learned her French cooking from her grandfather, a Marseilles chef.Casa Storica was home and business to James Longbardi but it was an antique business at this Park Place and Sixth Avenue address. Then one day a friend noted porcelain tables bound for shipping in Longbardi%u2019s parlor and convinced him to start a restaurant. That night.%u201c He said, i %u2019ll call up some friends, don%u2019t worry,%u2019 and I began cooking that evening,%u201d said Longbardi, whose eclectic culinary skills range from Continental to Filipino. %u201cPeople began calling up asking, %u2018do you have a restaurant there?%u2019 %u201dLongbardi certainly did, but since space limited success to 22 persons at a time, he decided to expand into the Villa Storica, a renovated rooming house in larger surroundings at 225 Ninth Street.Rothenburg, a painter and Cordon Bleutrained caterer,discovered he liked cookingSaigon, 440 Atlantic Avenue.better. So he put his objets d%u2019art, such as chicken liver flan and baurride (fish stew),on %u201c display%u201d in a vacant storefront at 178 Atlantic Avenue.Success and failure gave birth to Delices de Saigon and Verandah, respectively. The success of Tram Nguyen%u2019s imperial rolls and her other Vietnamese specialties at the 1977 Atlantic Antic convinced her and John Hamilton-De Grussa to open a VietnameseFrench restaurant at 440 Atlantic Avenue.But Verandah might still have been a dry cleaning establishment if California hadn%u2019t failed Kolbein Waag and Robert Gerstein. Formerly Park Slope plant store owners, they first tried for the taste trade in the Golden State. Waag had cooked for 30 years for private affairs, families, and the United Nations. But California ordinances and other complications trounced their ambitions. Back in Brooklyn (after extensive renovation of a storefront at 228 Clinton Street), Waag%u2019s talent for northern European cuisine, Norwegian in particular, found expression.%u201c We%u2019re here from 10 a.m. until 11:30p.m. sometimes 1 a.m., because it takes time to prepare and cook%u201d says Gerstein. %u201c We buy each day for the evening meal and will spend six or seven hours on a gravy.%u201dMixing business with pleasure is a trait uniting the prix fixe chefs, for theirs is a business that demands hours most chefs abhor, Hamilton-DeGrussa and Nguyen settled on prix fixe precisely because of the time required by Vietnamese cooking.%u201c It cannot be hurried, so the dinner has to be planned by both cook and guests,%u201d says DeGrussa.Hubert%u2019s has even imported guest chefs of renown, such as Mahdur Jaffrey and Irene Kuo, specialists in Indian and Chinese fare respectively.%u201c We are bringing other chefs here because we are accessible to our customers%u201d said Allison. \cooking ideas have come from our customers and we%u2019re always talking restaurant because we learn from them.%u201dFAMILY FOOD: Hubert%u2019s began as a small, homey operation and graduallyblossomed into a thriving French restaurant at the corner of Hoyt andBergen Streets.Brooklyn Leads The Way For Prix Fixe DinnerDELICES DE SAIGON%u2014Five-course Vietnamese meal; Friday and Saturday choose Vietnamese or French entrees. Lunch 12 to 3 p.m., dinner 6 to 10 p.m ., closed Sundays. $10 adult, $5 child. 440 Atlantic Avenue, 852-0139.HUBERT%u2019S%u2014French cooking with surprises from house and guest chefs. Threeto four-course meal, five to six courses on occasion. Open Tuesday through Sunday. Weekday lunch 12 to 2 p.m.; weekend brunch 12 to 3 p.m. Two dinner sittings, 7 to 9 p.m. (Additional early sitting Saturday at 5:ju p.m.) %u00bb%u00bb.ou to >14.00. Corner of Hoyt and Bergen Streets, 858-0400.PATE VITE%u2014Four-course French cuisine. Open Monday throqgh Sunday. LunchMonday through Friday, 12 to 2 p.m. Dinner Wednesday through Saturday, 7 and 9 p.m., Sunday, 6:30 and 8:30 p.m. $16.50. 178 Atlantic Avenue, 624-8852. VERANDAH%u2014Continental cooking with a northern European accent, choice of five entrees. Bring your own wine. Dinner Tuesday through Sunday, 6 to 11 p.m. $14. 268 Clinton Street, 596-2683.VILLA STORICA%u2014A Corsican approach to Continental cuisine, including southern Italian fare, and vegetarian dinners prepared on request. Five courses. Dinner by reservation Wednesday through Saturday, 6 to 11 p.m., Sunday, 4 to 9 p.m. $8.50 weekdays, $10.95 weekends. 225 Ninth Street, SO-8-5680.MIX MASTER A chef prepares a meal of French delicacies at Pate Vite, 178Atlantic Ave.November 16,1978, THE PHOENIX, Page 11,3i lodmavott ,A(r.jt