Rusty Pelican still flying after 30 years

Young Chang

The Rusty Pelican really did start with a pelican.

A former Newport Beach man named Pete Siracusa wanted to start a

business. He was sitting on the beach one day thinking up names for a

restaurant when he saw a pelican on a jetty in the distance.

“That’s how he came up with the name Rusty Pelican,” said Jim

Dufault, director of operations for the restaurant’s parent company,

the Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. “Basically he was looking for some type of

endeavor to keep himself occupied.”

The restaurant opened in April of 1972, but Siracusa is now

retired and lives in Hawaii.

The Newport Beach restaurant, on Mariner’s Mile, has been

celebrating its 30th anniversary all year. Here’s what the Rusty

Pelican was like three decades ago.

The biggest change involves the sort of fish that was and is

caught and served. In the early days, fresh fish including swordfish

was caught from local waters and brought into the restaurant’s back

doors. Today, fisherman capture their meat from waters off of the

coasts of the Hawaiian islands, South America, Alaska and the South

Seas.

“It’s changed drastically,” said Dufault, who was also manager and

general manger of the restaurant in the nineties. “That we can get

purchased fish from the South Pacific and get it into our back door

in a day and a half ... the efficiency has increased tenfold.”

The most popular dish 30 years ago was the coquille, a

shrimp-and-scallop number in a light cream sauce that was baked with

parmesan. Today, it’s the swordfish Cajun malia, which features an

oyster brandy marinade.

Prices then for entrees ranged from $8.95 to $10.95. Prices now

are $15 to $25.

The restaurant also attracted celebrities, as did much of Newport

Beach in earlier decades.

Chick Hearn, Bob Hope and John Wayne were among the famous

patrons.

Other customers included a lot of old regulars.

“The Newport elite would gather and have their martinis off to the

corner and light up their cigars,” Dufault said. “The upstairs area

was smoking ... that was allowed back 30 years ago.”

Some of what has stayed the same at the restaurant include the

casual uniforms -- deck shoes and Reyn Spooner shirts -- and the

overall casual environment.

“I think what the Rusty Pelican has done is it has offered ... a

place of gathering for local clientele to really enjoy each other’s

company as they watch the sunset over Newport Bay,” Dufault said.

* Do you know of a person, place or event that deserves a

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e-mail at young.chang@latimes.com.