Tequila Nights

Rubi Rosa, the new margarita palace in West Hollywood, is like something out of “Sunset Boulevard.”

With its Gothic hacienda decor and dim, glamorous lighting, it’s the kind of place you expect to find aging movie stars having assignations with younger men.

“My design theme was 18th-Century crumbling bordello goes ‘50s Hollywood,” says Bruce Liebert, who designed the interior.

“There are these cushy, diamond-tufted banquettes, and then there are these 200-year-old Mesquite doors ripped from a cathedral deep in the heart of Oaxaca, rent and torn asunder.”

It’s hard to choose between the plush, seductive interior downstairs and the rooftop garden. For some, that choice might be affected by whether or not Rubi Rosa’s owner, actress Christina Applegate, is tending bar that night.

“She likes to dress like a grunge-muffin with her belly button exposed to tend bar,” Liebert says fondly. “She gives good navel, and she mixes great pink ladies.”

“And she tips really well,” adds star waiter and bartender Dan Mryglot, who is handy with a margarita himself.

A go-go boy named Adrian shows you to your table. He’s wearing some kind of sheer white sarong over his carefully sculpted loins, and he looks like something straight out of a Calvin Klein Obsession commercial.

Watching him climb the stairs in front of you is a truly breathtaking experience.

Chances are you will soon be accosted by a woman named simply Merho. Her business card gives a post office box in Beverly Hills and lists her as an Artist-Producer-Writer in one corner, and Creative Genius in the other, and for a dollar a minute she promises to give you a psychic reading.

Merho is unaffiliated with Rubi Rosa, but she appears to be a regular fixture.

If you’re having trouble deciding which margarita to order, Merho might be of some assistance, although she didn’t prove to be terribly accurate in discerning anything deeper.

The food is health-conscious fare billed as “semi-traditional Southwestern cuisine.”

But it’s the margarita menu that is distinctive here.

There are 31 flavors on offer, with names like La Novia Negra (with Blackberry liqueur), Ay Dios Mio (flavored with Rumplemintz) and El Diablo (with Jagermeister).

Be forewarned: The temptation to experiment is overwhelming. It’s also fun to collect the little fluorescent monkeys and mermaids that adorn the salty rims.

“You can’t see it now, but there’s a great view of Downtown,” says Charlie Alexander, licking a green monkey.

He and friends are on their way to a nightclub after margaritas and shots of Jagermeister all around. Given its strategic location on Santa Monica Boulevard, anyone with a weakness for tequila will find this the perfect place to begin or end a night on the town.

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Where: Rubi Rosa, 8865 Santa Monica Blvd., West Hollywood; (310) 657-3116.

When: Open every night until 2:00 a.m.

Cost: House margarita $3.75. Specialty margaritas $4.50 to $6. Dinners are about $10.