Earlier today, I took you inside Noble Ace, Laguna Beach’s newest restaurant opening this coming Monday, June 29th. I talked about the design, the team, the remarkable talent behind it and why I believe it’s an exciting addition to our culinary scene.
But yesterday, as I drove home from my interview with Co-Owner Elizabeth Schreiber, I couldn’t stop thinking about something really disturbing she had shared with me …
It wasn’t about the menu. It wasn’t about construction delays. It wasn’t even about permits.
It was about us.
As a Community, We Have an Opportunity …
As we can all clearly see, Noble Ace is not a random pop-up that thinks it might take a swing at Laguna Beach’s summer season. This is a carefully curated effort by two polished and experienced restaurant business partners. And they are personally laying everything on the line.
We often say we want independent restaurants.
This is what that actually looks like:
Remember, indy restaurants are NOT backed by large investment pools or bank loans.
It actually looks like people risking their savings.
Risking their homes.
Risking their future.
Risking their reputation …
All because they believe they can build something our town will love.
I found it disconcerting, then, to learn of the immense strain, stress and rebuffing these partners have endured in the last three months to bring this dream alive.
For the record – and after interviewing thousands of entrepreneurs over four decades – I can assure you Elizabeth Schreiber is no whiner drama queen. That was clear from the moment I met her in March. But when I met with her yesterday, she was emotionally drained.
When I asked her “What was the most difficult part of this buildout?”
Her response was: “Pretty much all of it.”
She (very briefly) pointed to delays with the unexpected involvement from the California Coastal Commission, and daily and weekly City of Laguna communications. While we didn’t go into detail from there, the longstanding reputation of added complexities here in this “unique” city seems to continue to prove itself.
The City has pointed out that they’re rapidly working to expedite the process and progress for restaurants and retailers here. And, having been in restaurant development for decades, and after covering our F&B scene here in Laguna Beach for 25 years, I can personally say that I’ve seen many favorable changes take place in that endeavor.
It was disheartening, though, to hear her mention the struggles.
More distressing to me, though, was her report of how avowed residents of Laguna Beach are popping their heads in regularly to tell her that - as she told me - “We’re doing the wrong concept here,” and “Our restaurant will never work in Laguna Beach.”
As I’ve previously noted, I’ve been in restaurant development at all levels, from site selection to well past Opening Day, and we ALL get it …
These operators expect construction delays. They expect new permit requirements. They expect budgets to go sideways.
But what they don’t expect is complete strangers walking through the front door simply to tell them they’ll fail.
Why, oh why, would we do this to an incoming business with a beautiful dream?
Telling an incoming - and very purposeful restaurateur - that their restaurant won’t work here is like telling a new mother who’s just endured 42 hours of labor that her baby is the ugliest baby you’ve ever seen.
Would you rather have this glorious Heisler Building space stand vacant for another dusty year … or 10?
Would you rather see another successful and experienced independent restaurant operator choose to exit our town, just as Reunion Kitchen and Asada Owner Scott McIntosh announced a day ago?
I hear people everywhere nostalgically refer to “Our Carmel-like days” in the late 1980s, ’90s and early 2000s when Laguna Beach was recognized as a global culinary destination.
We didn’t become that destination without experienced and independent restaurant operators and international chefs purposely choosing this town … people like David and Nancy Wilhelm (Kachina, Sorrento Grill, French 75) … Claes Anderson (Claes in Hotel Laguna), Chef Michael Kang (Five Feet) and Chef Marc Cohen (230 Forest, Watermarc) … all who put it all on the line to start something new in this sleepy town.
Their willingness to take that first risk paved the way for more internationally acclaimed chefs to choose Laguna Beach.
I could list the litany here, but in addition to what Scott McIntosh told me yesterday, one of our most globally renowned chefs, Amar Santana (Broadway by Amar Santana) has two other restaurants in Costa Mesa and L.A., each of which is doing financially better than his stake here in Laguna Beach. But Chef Amar recently chose to renew his lease here because he’s personally connected to this town.
And if no one noticed, our own Rebel Omikase is - as of this week - now the ONLY Michelin starred restaurant in ALL of Orange County.
We have magic happening here in Laguna Beach.
Elizabeth told me yesterday that, despite the many negative comments from the residents, the city’s own chefs and restaurant owners “have showed up and supported us like nothing I’ve ever experienced.”
They were welcoming another dream.
When Chef Rainer Schwarz unexpectedly passed away on April 6th this year, his memorial a month later was PACKED with Laguna Beach chefs and restaurateurs – in fact more than 20 showed up, lugging in all sorts of food from their own kitchens.
That says something for the unflagging support these individuals provide each other.
They are each other’s net.
I think it’s time for all of Laguna Beach’s residents to consider what it looks like to be that same net for the people who continue choosing to invest their dreams here.
That’s the Laguna Beach I know.
It is, after all, what put us on the map - a community not only known for supporting its arts and culture and the subsequent businesses that have sprung up – but for the dreams it welcomes.
If we truly want the next generation of remarkable restaurants, galleries and independent businesses to choose Laguna Beach, then our welcome has to become as remarkable as our expectations.
- Diane Armitage
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