A good dinner party often ends up with everyone crowding into the kitchen.

Which is great if it’s at someone’s home. Not so great when it’s the star-splattered grand opening of a brand-new Beverly Hills restaurant.

At Wolfgang Puck’s piping hot new steak spot – Cut – located in the Regent Beverly Wilshire, guests were invited to dinner; seatings at 7 and 9 P.M. Wednesday nite.
 
But there was no formal service and so few tables that everyone just stood around all evening drinking, hoping and praying for food to be passed by. Even the celebs – Ryan Seacrest, Randy Jackson, Buzz Aldrin and Oscar  nominee Virginia Madsen – had a lean and hungry look.

By 9:15 the pickings were so slim, starving guests stormed the glass-encased kitchen, pushing waiters out of the way and grabbing plates of prime nibbles as fast as Wolf (that’s what his friends call him) could dish ‘em out.

Wolf offered ZZ Topper Billy Gibbons a plate with some toothpicks of “Houston barbecue.” Gibbons snarfed one down but left minutes later complaining about a nasty cold he’d caught from some sneezing sicko on his earlier flight. Or maybe he just wanted to go grab dinner somewhere. La Toya Jackson hit the kitchen too but stayed just long enough to raise a glass of pink champagne with the culinary king.

Puck plans to pull some big Awards Season parties from Spago to Cut. “I’m going to tell Clive Davis that he should have his pre-Grammy after-party here!”

Yeah, well, let’s hope they get the seating and serving drill down before then.

Seated at one of the two well-body guarded celeb tables: Sidney Poitier, Jackie Collins and Barbara Davis, taking a break from planning her next Carousel of Hope ball that raises big bucks for childhood diabetes. Speaking of children, no one dared ask the poor woman if she’d caught her grandson Brandon Davis’s recent potty-mouthed rant about the color and quality of Lindsay Lohan’s down-under on TMZ.com or on any of the Hollywood new TV shows.

Word is Lindsay considered filing a defamation suit. Chill, Linds. All he defamed was his own character. Now the whole world – not just Hollywood – knows what a spoiled rotten brat looks and sounds like. 

Photo Credit: Virginia Madsen was one of the lucky guests who actually found food at Wolfgang Puck's new restaurant, Cut, in the Regent Beverly Wilshire.
WireImage/Jeff Vespa