RESTAURANT ROUNDUP:

MOR Project, a group that has opened a number of restaurants and nightclubs in Southern California, plans to open Blanca, an Italian- and Spanish-themed restaurant, next month in Newport Beach.

The restaurant at 3420 Via Oporto, overlooking Newport Harbor, will be open for dinner Monday through Thursday, lunch and dinner Friday and Saturday, and brunch and dinner Sunday.

Menu items include crudo, an Italian raw fish dish in which the diner can choose among a number of garnishes, salts and oils, as well as harissa-rubbed lamb rib-eye and a number of seafoods.

“From the moment guests park their cars until they depart, every point of contact they have will be focused on providing them impeccable personal attention,” Anton Posniak, the chief executive of MOR Project, said in a release. “And our menu, meticulously created by renowned chef Nick Weber, will delight the palate of the most discriminating patron.”

Blanca is scheduled to open April 25.

For more information, visit www.blancanewport.com.

Marco Polo to depart Newport North Center

The Marco Polo Italian Eatery, which has resided at the Newport North Center for 18 years, plans to move out at the end of March.

General Manager Tony Hibbard said the restaurant’s lease had run out and that he could not afford to pay the higher rent his landlord required. The restaurant’s last day is scheduled for Sunday.

“We’ve loved it here in Newport and we would like to stay, but we didn’t have a choice,” said Hibbard, who hopes to reopen his restaurant in the Newport Beach area.

A spokeswoman for the Irvine Co., which owns Newport North, said Champagnes Market and Deli would move into the former Marco Polo space later this year.

— Michael Miller