Newport Hopes to Bait Fishermen, Others With New Pier Galley

After 12 years of fishing off the end of Newport Pier, Ruth Martinez wasn’t happy when the pier’s old, weather-beaten hamburger stand was demolished over Thanksgiving.

She missed the hot chocolate she bought there on cold days. And when she needed more bait, she had to walk to a shop at the base of the pier.

But restaurateur Hal Griffith said the old hamburger stand was “scuzzy” and full of dry rot and “varmints.” This week, work is expected to begin on a new restaurant at the end of the pier, which will be operated by Griffith’s Seattle-based company, HEG Enterprises.

The new restaurant, called Fisherman’s Galley, will sell seafood, hamburgers and fries, Griffith said. And like the old shop, it will sell bait and tackle for the anglers who frequent the pier.

That will please Isadore (Pops) Greenbaum, 78, of Tustin, who has fished off Newport Pier for 30 years. Although Greenbaum had heard that the restaurant would not sell bait, he liked the idea of a better place to eat.

“Before it wasn’t well taken care of, but they’ve got good management now. It’ll be like the one they have over in Balboa,” Greenbaum said, pulling in his fishing lines last week.

Ruby’s Diner on the Balboa Pier was remodeled in 1982 and success soon followed. The city took notice and was inspired to replace the Newport Pier restaurant, said Kenneth Delino, executive assistant to the Newport Beach city manager.

“We’ve been educated by the experience down at Ruby’s. People really like it,” Delino said.

The city owns both restaurants, which are operated by concessionaires. Delino said the city receives 5% of the gross income and a flat monthly fee. That money goes to a tidelands fund, which pays for such expenses as lifeguard salaries and beach cleaning, he said.

The Newport Pier project has not aroused the public concern that the reconstruction of storm-damaged pier restaurants in Seal Beach and Huntington Beach did a few years ago.

When the one-story Seal Beach restaurant was rebuilt, Griffith’s company proposed adding a second story to create an upscale steak house. But residents and business owners protested that it was too fancy and would alter the ambiance of the pier. The city rejected the plan, and the more modest Ruby’s Jewel Cafe opened in September.

In Huntington Beach, some local business owners and pier regulars protested the expansion of the End Cafe from one story to two stories when it was reconstructed after the 1983 winter storms. The expansion was finally approved, and the restaurant reopened in the fall of 1985.

Because the new restaurant on Newport Pier will essentially be the same as the old, City Hall has received no public protest, Delino said.

“One of the things we wanted to be sure of was not to take pier space away from the fishermen,” Delino said. The restaurant’s upper deck will be slightly expanded, but the bottom floor area will remain the same, he said.

Griffith said that piling work should begin early this week and that construction of the building should be completed in about four months. The restaurant should be ready to open by summer, he said.