Seal Beach : Ruby’s Diner Enters Pier Restaurant Picture
The City Council has decided to end negotiations with a Seattle caterer who wanted to operate a restaurant on the pier. The council now will try to work out an agreement with a Newport Beach company.
The council Monday night rejected the proposal for an upscale seafood restaurant by Hal Griffith of H.E.G. Enterprises Inc. It voted to hire a leasing agent to negotiate instead with Ruby’s Diner, a 1940s-style eatery. The company operates similar diners at the Balboa Pier and in a Mission Viejo shopping center.
Opponents said Griffith’s plan was too expensive and too fancy and would alter the ambiance of the 77-year-old wooden pier. It was destroyed by storms in 1983 and then rebuilt.
Ruby’s president, Doug Cavanaugh, who attended the Monday night meeting, said the restaurant could be open for business within 30 days of approval by state agencies.
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