Lid may come off Cannery
Mathis Winkler
CANNERY VILLAGE -- At the moment, the Cannery won’t welcome patrons.
It pretty much hasn’t for the past 20 months, since its former owner,
Bill Hamilton, closed up shop in September 1999.
But if things go smoothly, the restaurant’s new owners plan to open
for business in September. And when they bring one of Newport Beach’s
eating institutions back to life, they hope to do so with a sense of
history.
That’s where it gets tricky, because Hamilton’s Cannery was a
reincarnation of the original Western Canners Co., which began operations
about 1919 and went out of business in 1966.
As it stands, the building is about 30 years old. Its weathered,
cream-colored, corrugated-iron facade and rusty signs inside make it
appear like the real thing. But the historic significance of today’s
Cannery lies more in personal memories of romantic marriage proposals,
festive anniversaries or simply enjoyable meals than its role as a
reminder of the city’s disappearing past as a fishing hub.
“We’re just preserving an idea of history and not necessarily
preserving history,” said Steve Herbert, who is the operating partner for
the new restaurant.
Together with Ron Salisbury, who operates the El Cholo restaurants in
Los Angeles, among others, Herbert is raising about $2 million from
private individuals to revive the Cannery. Newport Beach resident Jack
Croul, who bought the building from Hamilton in 1999 and is leasing it to
the business duo for at least 20 years, also gave a “nice sum” to help
fix up the place, Herbert said.
The focus will remain on seafood -- a specialty Herbert is familiar
with after working as the general manager at Gladstone’s 4 Fish in
Pacific Palisades for eight years.
“We want to do something that you don’t get a lot in Newport Beach:
live product,” Herbert said during a tour of the building Monday,
pointing out the place for a future tank for lobsters and crabs.
Right now, the building’s virtually empty except for a mountain of
wooden chairs rising in a corner. The smell of freshly cut wood, rather
than culinary aromas, fill the large space. Blueprints show there will be
a dining area on the Cannery’s lower level, with an outside patio
overlooking the Rhine Channel. Upstairs, patrons will lounge on sofas and
chairs around an open fireplace and nibble on sushi from a bar in the
corner.
“We’re going to have the best of all seafoods: the fresh, the live and
the raw,” Herbert said, adding that there are no plans to include live
entertainment at the restaurant.
“We’re not here to be a night club,” he said. “Our focus is food.”
That sentiment was welcomed by nearby residents who had opposed an
application to add live entertainment to the old Cannery. While the
city’s Planning Commission and Police Department approved the
application, City Council members overturned the decision and denied the
request.
While not the only reason that led to the restaurant’s closure,
Hamilton has said in the past that he needed live entertainment to
survive.
If the new owners have live entertainment, “it’s not going to sit well
with me,” said Don Gregory, who’s a Newport Beach arts commissioner and
lives across the street from the Cannery. “Otherwise, I will be one of
the first to come [and eat there.]”
FYI
The owners of the new Cannery restaurant are looking for stories about
and photographs of the building’s history to print in their menus each
week. People whose submissions are selected will be invited to dine at
the restaurant with their family. Information: (949) 566-0060.
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