It’s still the Ritz — mostly
Taylor Gibson said she grew up with the Ritz Restaurant and was sad to see it close last year.
The 26-year-old Long Beach resident first started working at the upscale restaurant when she was 18, and said she saw it as a staple in the Newport Beach community.
But the beloved Ritz Restaurant is back, in a new space along Mariner’s Mile and with a seafood-centric menu and a modified name — the Ritz Prime Seafood.
“A sense of nostalgia definitely comes into play,” Gibson said. “There was a very strong sense of family and community when I was there before. Everybody involved was pretty distraught to see it go.”
The Ritz Prime Seafood will open Monday at its waterfront location, 2801 West Coast Hwy., in the space formerly occupied by the Chart House, a seafood restaurant that shuttered last year.
The original Ritz Restaurant, famous for its red-lipped waitresses and three-martini lunches, had a long history in Newport Beach.
Hans Prager opened the upscale eatery in the city in 1977 near the Newport Pier and then relocated to the chic Newport Center in 1982, where it remained until the site manager, the Irvine Co., declined to renew its lease.
Grill Concepts’ CEO Bob Spivak partnered with owner Charles Mathewson last year and decided to revamp the restaurant at a new location overlooking Newport Harbor.
Spivak said it was important to acknowledge Prager’s impact on culinary history with the Ritz concept.
Outside the new location is a bronze plaque that pays homage to the late restaurateur.
“At the time Hans opened the Ritz, it was a cutting-edge restaurant, but 35 years later things had changed,” Spivak said. “We knew if we were going to do it, it would have to be the type of restaurant Hans would open if he was opening it in 2015.”
The wood tables, sans the Ritz’s classic white tablecloths, and windows that span floor to ceiling, bring natural light into the restaurant, making the decor more modern than the landmark restaurant’s black leather booths and red chairs, Spivak said.
Gibson, who said she is the only former employee returning to the restaurant so far, said she expects the new location to uphold the reputation of the original.
“It’s a completely different concept as far as the food, ambience and atmosphere are concerned, but we always had the best customer service, utmost level of class and sophistication, and those things are going to follow through with this new establishment,” she said.
The restaurant can accommodate 186 guests indoors and 40 on the patio.
The location, Spivak said, informed the menu.
“When you look out at this water with the sun, and wonder what you’re going to serve, there’s only one thing that comes to mind, and it’s seafood,” he said.
At a media preview on Wednesday evening, guests had the opportunity to sample seafood dishes such as the Block Island Swordfish and Lobster and Squid Ink Pasta.
The menu will also feature dry-aged prime steaks with umami butter or foie gras butter, and the restaurant will have a raw seafood bar.
Grill Concepts’ executive chef, Phil Kastel, developed the menu with Michael Stewart, who will take charge as executive chef, providing dinner and weekend brunch.
“The menu at The Ritz Prime Seafood represents the way people dine today,” Kastel said in a prepared statement. “Our approach and preparations let the wonderful flavors of our ultra-fresh seafood, meats and other ingredients shine through in an appealing, modern and clean way.”
Diners will find one memorable item on the menu from the original restaurant: the Ritz Egg, which is a soft-scrambled organic egg topped with caviar and smoked salmon with a shot of cold vodka.