The Ties That Bind

When the members-only Center Club in Costa Mesa opened 11 years ago, men did not pass through its gleaming glass doors without wearing the requisite jacket and tie.

Since then, the Center Club has given its dress code a significant make-over.

A year ago, after conducting a poll that showed 70% of nearby businesses allowed casual dress on Fridays, the club followed suit and instituted a casual Friday of its own. Men without ties and women who were not in a dress or dressy pantsuit were ushered into the club’s Garden Court for lunch.

The effect was dramatic:

“We were doing three lunches a day on Fridays in that room, and now that’s gone up to 60,” says Jill Stebbins, the member-relations director.

Now the club also offers casual Wednesdays and will soon devote its Garden Court as a permanent luncheon area for those who don’t want to dress up. Members who wish to hold more formal business meetings will be steered to the main dining room, where a coat and tie will still be mandatory.

As the Center Club and other Orange County restaurants have discovered, the era has largely passed when a meal at a fine eatery demanded a certain mode of dress, when a maitre d’ could play fashion cop and issue coats and ties to the underdressed--or even dismiss them from the premises.

“There used to be a tremendous amount of restaurants where you had to wear a jacket and tie, but a combination of events nullified the dress codes,” says Dan Marcheano, president of the Newport Beach Restaurant Assn. and owner of the Arches. “A lot of places have loosened up.”

The growing acceptance of casual business attire, coupled with the recession and increased competition for customers, has prompted restaurateurs to revise or abandon dress requirements. They’ve had to bow to the reality of changing lifestyles.

“We’re wearing more casual clothes when we work and play,” Stebbins says. “My father flew for American Airlines, and we weren’t allowed on the plane without a dress. Now even passengers in first class are all in sweats.”

Even on casual days the Center Club still maintains a level of formality, frowning on sweats, tennis outfits and jeans.

Hans Prager, owner of the Ritz in Newport Beach, has found that enforcing dress codes can be a diplomatic nightmare. Most people dress up when they dine at the Ritz, taking their cue from the restaurant’s Old World ambience. Yet not everyone feels compelled to don a jacket or dress, and some show up in jeans or shorts.

“As styles have changed, I may be just as confused as everyone else about the problem of dress. How do you tell someone who is wearing a pair of $100 designer jeans that they’re not dressed up enough?” Prager asks. “In the old days, we used to have a closet full of jackets, and we’d give one to a man if he wasn’t wearing one, but I don’t worry about that anymore.”

With other local restaurants welcoming diners no matter how they’re attired, places such as the Ritz can’t afford to be seen as too strict.

“When we opened 15 years ago, there was less competition,” Prager says. “Now people have more options about where to go. Times have changed, and we as operators need to change as well.”

Prager will turn away customers dressed in T-shirts, shorts and sandals, but he has another method for dealing with borderline patrons who are in casual--but not sloppy--clothes.

“They might find themselves seated in a corner somewhere. We call it dressing up the dining room. We put the dressed-up people in the middle. Most people who come here dress up anyway for the room, and the room can be pretty intimidating.”

Not only must restaurateurs cater to their casual customers, but they also must appease diners who continue to dress up for dinner and expect others to do likewise.

Prager occasionally hears from customers complaining that they sat near an improperly dressed diner. Though such missives have become increasingly rare, they make Prager realize that it’s hard to keep all customers satisfied when it comes to clothing issues.

“It breaks my heart. Sometimes it’s really hard. The older folks would like to see how it was 15 years ago, but the younger folks are more casual and relaxed, and we need to attract them. The new breed of restaurants has no restrictions. At Wolfgang Puck’s most expensive restaurant you can wear anything--and the more outrageous the better.

“But it could be a good thing. Maybe we were too uptight in the early days.”

Restaurateurs say their location often determines the dress. People on the coast don’t dress up as much as those in big cities. When the Ritz-Carlton in Dana Point opened in 1984, the hotel had an unyielding dress code, requiring a jacket and tie for men and dressy day or cocktail clothes for women.

“They used to turn people away at the valet,” says Lisa Smith, Ritz-Carlton spokeswoman.

The rules proved impossible to enforce. Too many guests brought only casual clothes for their stay at the oceanfront hotel and couldn’t eat in the dining rooms.

“We had to change. We’re a resort right here by the ocean,” Smith says.

Today, only the hotel’s five-star Ritz-Carlton dining room requires jackets for men and dressy attire for women. Other dining areas at the hotel, such as the Club Grill, no longer ask that men wear jackets, and the Terrace restaurant is even more casual.

“We prefer no short shorts, but walk shorts are OK,” Smith says.

The hotel will ask a woman wearing revealing shorts and a crop top to change; it will insist that patrons in the dining room keep their jackets on during the meal.

“It’s troublesome to ask them to change, but when people come to the Ritz-Carlton they expect certain standards,” Smith says. “We’re still upholding fairly stringent dress codes, even in casual California.”

Outside Southern California, in less casual areas, many established eateries with no shortage of customers still enforce draconian dress codes, Marcheano says. In New York, the 21 Club and other tony establishments still refuse to serve the too-casual customer.

“I’m going back to New York,” Marcheano says, “and I’m bringing my jacket and tie.”