Ventura Pier Dining Is Food for Thought

Staff writer Leonard Reed has written before about the Ventura Pier, which is, after all, one of the more historically and scenically significant sites in this county.

In his last piece, which ran during the final stages of rebirth, Reed chronicled the pier’s stormy and fiery history, the massive reconstruction effort to restore it and hopes that officials and others had for its glorious future.

Now, several months after the pier’s reopening--and after thousands of locals and tourists have made the pilgrimage to see the $3.5-million restoration--Reed is getting down to basics.

What are we going to eat when we get there?

“Everybody prays for a new good restaurant at the pier,” Reed said. “And so I’ve been curious about the forces that would choose our beachfront dining destiny.”

Everybody talks food and restaurants, but few people understand the kind of bureaucratic machinations that go into deciding what restaurant should go on a piece of public property, how it should get there and who should be paying for it.

“One of the great surprises in reporting this story was in discovering that the pier, while offering one of the great restaurant sites in the West, actually carries with it economic risk. While dining there seems everyone’s idea of a great time, it also turns out to be many a restaurant’s idea of a risky venture.

“Also, the problem of the pier restaurant begs the oldest question about successful restaurants: Do they depend on location, location, location? Or do great restaurants draw a loyal following no matter what their situation? In the case of the pier, it seems to be a little of both.”

Which makes everything that much more complicated. Should the city of Ventura be looking for a corporate partner that will promise excellence in the food, overcome parking and demographic obstacles? Or should it go for the biggest crowd-pleaser, drawing from locals and tourists alike?

“Few things are more memorable than a great meal in the last two hours of daylight at the beach,” Reed said. “Getting the great meal--even the consistently good one--is the hard part. There’s only one pier. There will be only one restaurant. It stands to reason that much is at stake in this one choice.”

Since it will be some time before any of us will get the opportunity to sample the catch of the day on the Ventura pier, this might be a good time to check out our Food page. Restaurant critic Hilary Dole Klein will tell you about eating Italian in Newbury Park, while Tidbits columnist Leo Smith offers some clues about eating healthy.

All of a sudden I’m hungry.