ROBERT GARDNER -- The verdict

Near the end of Coast Highway in Corona del Mar is a building that

looks like it should be in England -- little surprise since it is an

exact replica of the Hurley Bell, a famous English inn.

It was built by two very proper English ladies, Marguerite McCullock

and her mother, who planned it as their home but quickly realized the

commercial potential of the place and leased it to a series of fine

restaurant operators.

The first was Bruce Warren, a ham actor who, with another ham actor,

had run Tail of the Cock, a very successful restaurant in Los Angeles.

Warren attempted to duplicate his success in Corona del Mar, operating

the site as Tail of the Cock. He fared well until World War II did away

with any automobile traffic at night and he went out of business.

After the war, Fred Hershon ran the place as the Hurley Bell, and his

operation may have been the highlight of restaurant operations in Newport

Beach until the Ritz came along.

Under Hershon, nothing left the kitchen without undergoing a personal

inspection by his wife, Mildred.

One afternoon I was watching a high-stakes gin rummy game at the

Irvine Coast (now Newport Beach) Country Club. One of the players had a

phone call. He asked me to take his hand. I did, drew and ginned. The

losers pushed across the table more money than I had ever seen in one

place. The man who won pushed it all to me and told me to work out a

dinner for all the players and their wives and my wife and myself.

I went down to the Hurley Bell, showed Hershon the money and asked him

if he could put together a dinner for the crowd with that money. He said

he could. We had dinner at the restaurant, and the guests, who were a

fairly sophisticated group, said it was the best dinner they ever had.

There is a story that the Hurley Bell was a brothel, but that is pure

hogwash. It was a gambling joint. I know because when two maverick cops

raided the place and arrested the operators, I was the city judge at the

time.

I fined the operators the maximum and ordered their equipment

confiscated. I knew that was beyond my authority and that the order

probably would be set aside, but I did it just for the hell of it. Sure

enough, a Superior Court judge set it aside.

Such are the vagaries of age that I don’t remember who operated the

Hurley Bell after Hershon, but at some point it became the Five Crowns

and it has to be one of the most consistently successful restaurants

around.

I walk by it every Sunday and am amazed at the brunch crowd. And as

for Mother’s Day, the traffic generated is so heavy the restaurant has to

have its own traffic officer. I imagine the two ladies who built it would

be quite pleased.

* ROBERT GARDNER is a Corona del Mar resident and a former judge. His

column is published Tuesdays.