Battle for ‘New Gladstones’ Turns Legal

By JOHN HARLOW | Editor-in-Chief

It takes a lot to get a normally lowkey county agency responsible for our beaches to get riled up enough to jab back at a critic in public. But the tensions over who replaces Gladstones restaurant on Will Rogers State Beach has prompted such an outburst.

The County of Los Angeles Department of Beaches and Harbors made headlines earlier this month when it recommended that supervisors, including Palisadian representative Sheila Kuehl, back a bid by restaurateur Wolfgang Puck and architect Frank Gehry to prepare plans to replace Gladstones when the county lease expires in November 2019.

“It will be a restaurant for everyone,” said Puck, who transformed dining in Los Angeles when he opened Spago in 1982—10 years after Gladstones Malibu opened near the site of Ted’s Grill, which itself dated back to 1909. (A lot of fish has been fried in this location.)

The supervisors looked at all four consortia bidding to inherit former LA Mayor Richard Riordan’s lease and invited a new consortium, Sunset on Ocean, to prepare to pitch again if negotiations did not work out with Puck over the next five months.

In the meantime, it has emerged, new management at Gladstones has “refreshed” its menu, replacing frozen with fresh-cut fries and planning a “pick-up breakfast” to be delivered to the car that includes a Caffé Luxxe coffee and a wrapped egg sandwich.

Sunset on Ocean, which includes Palisadian Mark Verge, an investor in Santa Monica restaurants and hotels, was unhappy on the day and has hit back a second time at the decision.

Its attorney, Randall W. Keen of Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, demanded that the county disqualify Puck because it did not provide enough financial information for a fair decision.

The county has hit back, saying they received enough data to judge that only Puck’s group, PCH Beach, appeared to be economically feasible and sustainable on a long-term basis.

Keen argued that PCH Beach was weighed down by pending litigation that could harm its prospects: The county said such issues only accounted for up to 15 percent on the “score” and nothing had been hidden from them. So, this did not change the outcome.

Keen said that there were scoring errors in a subjective system.

Mary C. Wickham, the county’s legal counsel, said not only was there an objective element in the scoring but also the gap between PCH Beach and Sunset on Ocean was so wide—almost 80 points—that even giving Sunset the points it claimed would not have brought Sunset close enough to challenge the Puck bid.

Sunset’s partners now have to decide how far they still want to be involved in this process or, alternatively, strike out for legal relief in court.

As the Palisadian-Post went to press, the beach ball was still in Keen’s court.