Clubhouse Restaurant priced out of mall

The Clubhouse Restaurant, an upscale eatery and mainstay in South Coast Plaza for the past decade, will close for good at the end of the year, company representatives said Thursday.

The restaurant’s owner and the mall’s owner could not settle on the price of a new lease, said Scott Suckow, president of the restaurant’s Chicago-based parent company, Really Nice Restaurants.

“We’re at the end of our lease. We couldn’t find middle ground. They wanted rent that we’re unwilling to pay,” Suckow said.

“But we’re not cutting our standards. We’re not doing anything. It’s going to remain at the level that our guests and our staff has come to expect over the last 10 years.”

Officials from South Coast Plaza were not immediately available for comment Thursday.

The restaurant employs 118 people who will be out of a job come Jan. 1, company officials said.

The only other Clubhouse Restaurant is in Illinois, and the company’s other businesses are in the Midwest, Suckow said.

“We’ve had a good ride. Nothing against our guests; it wasn’t that they were not supporting us,” Suckow said. “It’s one of those things...it [wasn’t] a home run. It’s a big risk to say we want to continue paying rent at the higher rent to go for the extension of the lease. It’s easier to say thanks, but no thanks. It’s a very amicable split with the mall. It doesn’t make sense for either one of us.”

The Clubhouse Restaurant opened in December 1999.