Zubieta provided many a slice of life

Mathis Winkler

NEWPORT BEACH -- When John Zubieta died Friday, Salvador Jimenez

almost felt like he’d lost his own father.

“He helped me a lot,” Jimenez said Tuesday as he stood at the entrance

of Zubie’s Chicken Coop, the Newport Beach restaurant Zubieta sold to him

five months ago.

The son of two outstanding cooks, Zubieta began his career in the food

industry as the manager of a Corona del Mar grocery store. When the

company offered him a promotion that would have forced him to leave

California, he decided to try it on his own.

He opened his first pizza place in Corona del Mar in the early 1960s.

Later, at the height of the Zubie’s empire, he owned two restaurants in

Costa Mesa and another in Huntington Beach.

It was 17 years ago that he hired Jimenez as a dishwasher and helped

him climb up the ranks.

“I didn’t speak any English,” Jimenez said, adding that his brothers,

Horacio and Victor, had also joined Zubieta’s team from their native

Mexico and now help run the business.

As Zubieta decided to cut back on his work to travel with his wife,

Brenda, he urged Jimenez to take over the Chicken Coop.

“There’s too much overhead,” Jimenez remembers telling his boss.

“You can do it,” Zubieta responded.

“So one day, I said to my brother, ‘Let me try,’ ” Jimenez said. “It’s

like when your dad says, ‘This is yours. Keep going.’ ”

Right down to the sawdust on the floor, not much has changed inside

the restaurant since Zubieta left.

“I don’t want the customers to see any changes,” Jimenez said.

Sipping on early afternoon drinks at the bar, Newport Beach residents

Dean Patton and Peg Fether said they had frequented Zubieta’s other

restaurants before he opened one in their neighborhood.

“This place is definitely upscale,” Fether said, laughing at the

peanut shells strewn across the floor.

At the Costa Mesa joint “there were picnic tables and no waiters,”

Fether said. “They’d yell your name out and someone would go and pick up

the order.”

Other regulars said they appreciated Jimenez’ commitment to keeping

the Coop looking the way Zubieta had envisioned it.

“If they didn’t have Zubie’s, I’d starve to death,” said Mary

Macdonald. Carrying the leftovers of her chicken sandwich in a container,

she added that she eats at Zubie’s almost every day.

Zubieta “was always kind,” Macdonald said. “Whether you were a king,

queen or whatever, all were welcome at Zubie’s. He’ll certainly open

another Zubie’s in heaven.”

As she was turning to leave, Jimenez asked Macdonald if she would

attend Zubieta’s memorial service the next day.

“Oh my dear, I wouldn’t miss that for anything,” she replied.

Jimenez paused for a moment.

“I don’t want to go,” he said. “It’s too hard for me. Bye Mary! See

you tomorrow.”

Zubieta was 62 years old. Family members said he died at the USC

Medical Center on Friday from complications related to a brief illness,

adding that it had come as a complete surprise.

“He meant everything to me,” said Brenda Zubieta.

She added that a trip to Spain’s Basque region, the birthplace of

Zubieta’s father, had been the highlight of his life.

He is survived by his wife, Brenda; a daughter, Trisha Rintoul; a son,

Tom Camponera; and grandchildren Martine and Bryon.

FYI

A memorial service for John Zubieta will take place at 11 a.m. today

at Calvary Church, 5772 McFadden Ave., Huntington Beach.