San Juan Capistrano mourns Steve Nordeck, 76, proprietor of Swallow’s Inn and El Adobe

For Rancho Mission Viejo CEO Tony Moiso, Steve Nordeck’s dedication to his craft was exemplified when he ducked into the bar he co-owns during a Swallows Day Parade in the 1990s.

Moiso and his business partner Gilbert Aguirre wanted to watch a basketball game on an office television and found Nordeck, the proprietor of Swallow’s Inn and the nearby El Adobe de Capistrano Mexican restaurant, fervently working.

“The business was roaring, and he was the guy who was counting the bottles,” Moiso said. “It was then I was reminded how hard that business really is.”

Nordeck died June 25 after a months-long battle with cancer. He was 76.

The Swallow’s Inn, a landmark country western bar in downtown San Juan Capistrano with a wild reputation and an eclectic, bra-inclusive decor, closed for several hours Friday so staff could attend his funeral Mass at Mission Basilica. The service included a procession from the Basilica through Mission San Juan Capistrano for the tolling of the old bell wall, followed by a reception at El Adobe.

Mechelle Lawrence Adams, executive director of Mission San Juan Capistrano, said Nordeck was a dedicated preservationist who loved the community.

“He might tell you that he ran a bar, but he really did so much more than that,” Lawrence Adams said. “He was a larger-than-life figure that represented a real connection to the history of San Juan.”

Revered for his straightforwardness and down-to-earth personality, Nordeck took over the Swallow’s Inn in 1993. It was a partnership with Aguirre and Moiso that extended to the neighboring Mission Promenade, then the storied El Adobe when they bought half the business from Moiso’s uncle, land baron Richard O’Neill, in 2002.

They bought the other half when O’Neill died in 2009. Nordeck was in charge of both places, and he was a frequent presence at each until he was diagnosed with what Moiso described as “an incredibly aggressive” throat cancer several months ago.

“Steve’s a huge loss, not just because he was a business partner, but mainly because he’s our friend. This is really tough for all of us here at the Ranch,” Moiso said. “He was our pal, and he came from the heart.”

San Juan real estate agent Erin Kutnick Beyer said Nordeck “had an ability to see right through you.”

“You were either a genuinely cool person, and he liked you, or you were a jerk and he didn’t have any patience for you, and he’d tell you that right to your face,” Beyer said.

Beyer and her husband, Ed Beyer, were Ms. Fiesta and Señor San Juan for the Swallows Day Parade in 2017, the same year Nordeck served as grand marshal. He’s one of few recent grand marshals who’ve ridden a horse in the parade, and he did so wearing Swallow’s Inn chaps and a shirt commemorating the 50th anniversary of El Viaje de Portola, also known as the Portola Riders, a men’s Western heritage group started by Moiso and Aguirre.

“A lot of people didn’t really know that, but he actually knew what he was doing,” Moiso said.

Nordeck joined the Portola Riders in the late 1980s after he moved to South Orange County from Manhattan Beach, where he was a twenty-something-year-old mayor and city councilman. He for several years owned the Trabuco Oaks Steakhouse, a destination restaurant near where Moiso and Aguirre were developing Rancho Santa Margarita.

Moiso said the restaurant had a unique atmosphere: “If you went there with your necktie on, they cut it off and put it on the wall.”

Friends say Nordeck brought that unpretentious approach to everything he did, from helping his employees to navigating the conflicts that often engulf small-town politics. He lived just outside the city in the Sendero neighborhood of his friends’ latest development, Rancho Mission Viejo, but the San Juan Capistrano City Council named him an honorary citizen in 2015.

“It’s a very active community, and a lot of people have a lot of opinions,” Moiso said. “He worked hard to try to solve problems, not be a problem.”

San Juan Capistrano residents filled social media with tributes to Nordeck, including one from Tom Scott, the director of Camino Real Playhouse.

“Many times in the 28 years for Camino Real Playhouse I’ve felt a big, rough hand on my shoulder and heard that gruff voice saying, ‘Tom, we need to talk about something.’ And Steve would take me aside and give me some excellent advice about something going on in town that was important to the success of the Playhouse,” Scott wrote. “I will miss those talks.”

Suzy Bregy-Fairchild Fisher remembered introducing herself to Nordeck after she and her husband, Randy Fisher, opened Five Vines Wine Bar in San Juan Capistrano in 2013. He was friendly, offered great advice, and he stayed in touch with occasional emails “in all caps but never yelling,” Fisher said about wine jokes and tips on wineries and new gadgets.

“We were just a very small little blimp to a very busy man, but he always took the time and energy to make us feel supported, remembered and special,” Fisher wrote.

Nordeck’s right-hand man at the Swallow’s, Cal Grimes, described Nordeck as “my father figure, my mentor, my friend.”

“I’m a better man because of you,” Grimes wrote. “I assure you, Swallow’s Inn is in good hands, I promise.”

Meghann M. Cuniff is a contributor to Times Community News.