TUSTIN : Landmark Ruby’s Cafe to Vanish

Ruby’s Cafe, a landmark on old Highway 101, will be demolished today, along with Mitchell’s Market.

The two buildings on El Camino Real were constructed in the 1920s when Tustin was just a few shops and houses surrounded by farms.

“Ruby’s was the only real good eating place between Los Angeles and San Diego, and of course that was the place to stop if you were headed south,” said John Sours, who has lived in Tustin for nearly all his 74 years.

Ruby’s served as a truck stop, a meeting place for locals, and a haven on cold nights for farmers setting up smudge pots in orange groves.

“I hate to see any of it go, but it’s like the rest of us. We can’t stay here forever,” Sours said.

Ruby’s and Mitchell’s have been closed for years and have fallen into disrepair. The city condemned Mitchell’s five years ago and notified the owners of Ruby’s of numerous code violations in August, 1989, during a code-enforcement review along El Camino Real. Both Ruby’s and Mitchell’s are owned by the Prescott family.

“The city wants the buildings to come up to present code, which means almost completely rebuilding them,” said Doug Prescott, the brother of Councilman Earl J. Prescott. That is not financially feasible, he said.

Prescott said he is not certain what will be done with the two sites, although several plans are being considered.

At one time, the Prescotts were in negotiations with the Ruby Restaurant Group, which operates six 1950s-style Ruby’s diners in Orange County. Prescott and Doug Cavanaugh, co-owner of the Ruby’s chain, said that reopening a restaurant there was impractical because of city requirements for seating and parking.

“We liked the location and the history of the place, but it just didn’t pencil out,” said Cavanaugh, who used to go to Ruby’s Cafe as a child.

Christine Shingleton, director of Tustin’s Community Development Department, said the city has done everything possible to accommodate the Prescotts and Cavanaugh. “We were told that the costs were too high,” she said.

Both Ruby’s and Mitchell’s have structural problems, substandard electrical systems and other dangerous code violations, Shingleton said.

Although the city condemned Mitchell’s in 1985, the Prescotts had the option of bringing Ruby’s up to code or demolishing it, Shingleton said.