Sid Soffer Wants to Rebuild Musical Mecca of ‘70s at Old Blue Beet

The Blue Beet at 107 21st Place on the Balboa Peninsula in Newport Beach has gone bankrupt and has been taken over and renamed by its original owner and continuous landlord, Sid Soffer, who says he once again plans to make the place a popular music mecca as it was in the ‘70s.

Closed May 24, reopened under Soffer’s management on June 3, it is being called Sid’s by the Sea, at least for now. Soffer also owns Sid’s in Costa Mesa.

Soffer says the restaurant “will look like the old Blue Beet, back before ‘78” when he turned over control. First opened in 1960, the Blue Beet brought in such acts as jazz greats Art Pepper and Les McCann, and Delta blues legend Son House. (714) 675-2338.

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Pronto Grill, an Italian restaurant in the South Coast Plaza mall in Costa Mesa, closed its doors during the last week in May. Mall spokeswoman Barbara DeHart has referred callers to Steve Slesinger, an attorney in Garden City, New York, who represented Pronto (Slesinger says he will only answer written inquiries). An Ann Taylor store is moving into the space, which is about twice the size of Ann Taylor’s current location in the mall, according to another spokeswoman, Jan Roberts.

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Fair Share 502, a nonprofit organization that provides money to homeless people in Orange County, will host a wine tasting and auction of notable vintages Sunday at the Ritz restaurant, 880 Newport Center Drive in Newport Beach. More than 200 bottles will be auctioned, including signed magnums and rare imperial-size bottles.

Admission is $25 a person. All proceeds from ticket sales and the auction will benefit Share Our Selves, Someone Cares Soup Kitchen and Project HOPE (Homeless Outreach Project for Education). Organizers said a Fair Share auction two years ago raised more than $40,000 for charity.

The wine tasting will start at 1 p.m.; the auction begins at 2:30 and is scheduled to last an hour. The Ritz and the Five Feet restaurant in Laguna Beach are co-sponsors.

For reservations and information, call Peter Zeughauser at (714) 720-2286 or 760-6800.

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August Moon in Long Beach is owned by Michael Chang. Newsbites listed the owner’s name incorrectly last week.

Anne Michaud is a staff writer for The Times Orange County Edition. Information for the Newsbites column can be Faxed to (714) 966-5663, or addressed to: Newsbites/OC Live!, The Times Orange County, 1375 Sunflower Ave., Costa Mesa. 92626. Or call (714) 966-7898.