Pier’s Surf-Themed Diner to Open Today

When Ruby’s Surf City Diner opens today at the end of the municipal pier, it will serve up not only hamburgers but also seaside ambience and a sensational ocean view.

City officials hailed the new restaurant as an anchor for the downtown area that will attract visitors and bring in revenue that will eventually help pay for other improvements on the landmark pier.

“Everyone I’ve talked to is thrilled that we will have a restaurant back on the end of the pier,” Mayor Dave Sullivan said.

In the late 1980s, the pier and a restaurant that then sat at the end were damaged by winter storms. The pier was rebuilt and reopened in 1992. A city panel recommended that a new eatery be erected and chose the Ruby Restaurant Group to operate it.

Community Services Director Ron Hagan said the city is paying about $1.2 million for the two-story, octagon-shaped building with red-tiled roof, which also has a take-out window.

The Ruby Restaurant Group is paying for interior improvements, which include displays of surfboards, historic surf photos and replicas of Hawaiian shirts from the 1940s.

Doug Cavanaugh, Ruby’s president, said the aim of the surf-theme decor is for “diners to see movement and feel like they are actually on the sea.”

Hagan said the restaurant will employ 50 people full time and 100 part time. He projected that it will pay at least $250,000 a year to the city in lease and tax revenue.

Part of that money, Hagan said, will be used to pay for new restrooms, a lifeguard tower and a bait shop on the pier.

Hagan, optimistic about the restaurant’s success, added: “We should be able to do those other buildings in the next couple of years.”