Blessing the Boathouse
Here he grows again.
Clayton Peterson, the Costa Mesa native who took over a 1940s industrial building on the west side of town to record local bands, showcase his personal art collection and host a private venue, is now hoping to liven up the space with an urban bar and restaurant at 17th Street and Pomona Avenue.
Boathouse Collective relaunched as a restaurant Wednesday. Peterson hopes the site will become a happy-hour, lunch and dinner hangout for the downtown crowd, gathering the community to partake of local talent.
Set within an aged, corrugated metal building lined in thatch-edged wood shingles, the interior has been refurbished with recycled and reclaimed materials.
A steam pipe was converted to a yellow beer tap. The planters scattered throughout the patio were once freight boxes. The outdoor wooden tables were trade-show palettes that were on their way to the dumpster.
“I’m a perpetual reclaimer,” Peterson said. “I ask myself, ‘What am I going to use this for?’”
That’s the question he asked himself 10 years ago when he first drove past the industrial district.
Peterson, a 45-year-old surfer, artist, musician, husband and father of two, needed a place for his art. He saw potential in the abandoned building on Costa Mesa’s Westside. The two-lane street and nearby cul-de-sac catered to automotive service shops, a motorcar museum and an auto dealer specializing in windshield advertising.
But why open a restaurant away from the Triangle or South Coast Plaza?
“That’s the beauty of it,” Peterson said. “It feels like a destination you had to drive to. They’re getting to the other side of tracks, finding a gem in an industrial building.”
For many years, the Westside has been considered a landscape of decaying homes next to industrial property. Day workers wait to be hired. Lawns are littered. Jaywalkers dart in front of vehicles.
But in March, Costa Mesa Mayor Jim Righeimer commented that the Westside was the subject of an innovative revitalization plan. Because of the growing economy, developers and city planners knocked down dilapidated apartment complexes and rundown industrial properties to replace the land with new housing developments. Modern condominiums and detached homes were built to attract young professionals. The Westside Gateway residential development will replace an industrial site and cover nine acres at 17th Street.
Peterson remembered what he saw in 2004 when he first leased the property.
“It was quite thrashed,” he said, closing his eyes. “But I could see the diamond in the rough.”
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Grown on the premises
On a Tuesday afternoon, Peterson, sporting a shaggy blond haircut and scruffy beard, stood on the restaurant’s patio and pointed to shelves of potted plants.
“We use those basils, mints and various gingers for our drinks,” he said before taking a seat on a bench made from reclaimed wood.
Boathouse Collective, Peterson explained, is a local-sourced venue.
The produce for the restaurant’s menu is grown within a 150-mile radius. But with the drought, Peterson had to expand the distance of his partnership with local farms from Orange to San Clemente. To promote healthy eating, he located farms that treat soil with a natural approach.
Peterson installed a commercial kitchen and, after two years, obtained a full liquor license to serve a 16-seat bar.
He hired Mathieu Royer, who has been a professional chef for 10 years, to oversee the kitchen.
“The space and the vision and the concept — I couldn’t say no,” said Royer, who has been in the kitchens of Pizzeria Ortica, Hinoki & The Bird and Morimoto in Napa Valley.
Royer and Peterson wanted a menu offering California fresh with an international angle. Royer, who has a foundation in Japanese food and has trained with French chefs, sampled dishes with chicken katsu bites and Kalbi short rib with chimichurri.
The full bar will serve cocktails crafted with herbs from the outdoor garden, and 12 craft beers from local and national breweries will be served on tap.
“This is a secret spot,” Royer said of the restaurant’s location. “But hopefully not too secret.”
And that secret spot has a past.
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An industrial legacy
After World War II, Pomona Avenue was where boat makers established their factories. Peterson learned the building was used by Ditmar-Donaldson, the makers of the many first wooden-hulled ships that once filled Newport Harbor.
Costa Mesa Historical Society curator and archivist Mary Ellen Goddard researched the building’s origins and learned that a C.E. Chapman and R.D. Kaylajian were once in that unit.
“Working under the business name Chapman and Kaylajian, [they] were in business at that address as boat builders as early as 1958,” Goddard wrote in an email.
After Ditmar-Donaldson stopped constructing ships, Leo Schroff opened an auto-body shop. His son, Peter Schroff, used the space to shape surfboards.
Today, a few of the remaining surfboards are displayed on wooden planks below the restaurant’s ceiling. A few photographs Peterson took are stretched on canvases. He framed the pictures out of wood.
Peterson kept the original paint on the structure’s beams.
“We tried to keep it raw as possible,” he said.
It’s an aesthetic that the Costa Mesa Chamber of Commerce applauded.
“Much like the Lab Anti-Mall opened as an alternative to conventional shopping malls especially with its unfinished appearance, the Boathouse Collective is carving out a niche for events and performances that buck that conformity,” president Ed Fawcett said.
Peterson, who once collaborated with Volcom on an art exhibition in the building, said that, along with the restaurant, he wants the space to serve as an arts and music venue. He wants monthly art shows through a submittal process. He wants guest speakers, comedians and performers on stage. He wants audiences to hear a variety of sounds, from a single acoustic guitarist to a pianist playing Beethoven.
That passion for the arts stemmed from his childhood. Peterson’s parents supported music by buying him a drum set, guitar and piano. Since 2004, he’s helped musicians record songs. He’s sharing that love of music with his son and daughter.
“I really want to introduce creativity to children and see what art and music does to their minds,” Peterson said.
A clothing retailer neighboring the restaurant was delighted to learn of Peterson’s vision.
“It would be nice to have a flourishing culture in our neighborhood,” said Gloria Brandes, chief executive of BB Dakota in a phone interview. “It would be great to have a restaurant next door, but also because the area could be a fabulous cultural center in Orange County.”
Cindy Harding of S.S. Metal Fabricators hadn’t known of the latest restaurant popping up in the industrial area.
“Where are they going to park?” she asked about future patrons. “But that food part sounds good since it’s local.”
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‘It’s all been a journey’
As he finished a taco at the kitchen counter, Peterson rattled off memories of his path toward Boathouse’s opening.
He remembered the venue’s beginnings in 2004 when, after trying to create an art space, he struggled to pay the rent. He remembered that time in 2009 when he started to turn the venue into different initiatives, like offering the space as a wedding reception site. He remembered that moment when he applied for the restaurant’s liquor license in 2011 and, after a two-year process, secured investors.
The food prepared, Peterson glanced up at a ship’s wheel mounted on a wall.
“It’s all been a journey and not easy,” he said with a laugh. “But if it’s not hard, then nothing is worth anything.”
IF YOU GO
What: Boathouse Collective
When: Lunch 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, happy hour 3 to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Friday; Starting Oct. 14, dinner 5 to 10 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, late night snacks 10 p.m. to midnight Tuesday through Saturday, brunch 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday; special events online
Where: 1640 Pomona Ave., Costa Mesa
Information: (949) 646-3176 or boathousecollective.com