On the water -- An idea behind its time

June Casagrande

NEWPORT BEACH -- Twenty years ago, it seemed like a farfetched idea:

Take a rundown little building at the end of the Balboa Pier and turn it

into a 1940s restaurant whose ambience, menu and prices take diners on a

trip through time.

From this shaky beginning, Ruby’s became a Newport Beach institution

that how now become a national institution as well. And, though no one

can say for sure, it’s likely that the loved and successful chain of

diners owes a good portion of its success to the pier itself.

“I think we were fortunate to start out on the Balboa Pier,” said

founder Doug Cavanaugh, who named the restaurant chain after his mother.

“It allowed us to take the 1940s concept to its fullest. When you’ve got

a building so far removed from reality, people have a chance to transport

themselves through a time machine -- as they walk down the pier, it’s

like they enter a different era.”

As Ruby’s celebrates its 20th anniversary, Cavanaugh looks back on

these early days with a sense of nostalgia and gratitude that his little

dream of a restaurant picked such a good place to get its start.

But no one’s calling Ruby’s little anymore. Today, the business has

expanded to 34 stores, including a new one opening on Maui, Hawaii. And

the company operators carry enough clout to get city officials to

participate in their birthday celebration. In fact, a huge, three-day

event celebrating the reopening of Newport’s piers started out because of

Ruby’s anniversary. A ceremony for the restaurant chain became the first

in a series of events to create the highly successful “Salute to Summer”

on the Balboa Peninsula last month.

To celebrate its 20th anniversary, Ruby’s offered a little present to

its neighbors and admirers: 82-cent hamburgers all day on June 25.

Bringing back the 1982 prices for this one day also brought Ruby’s folks

and locals back to a time when the sky was the limit for one little

restaurant on the pier.

“The pier location was just a great little flagship to start with,”

Cavanaugh said. “It had it all: location, view, a wonderful surrounding

clientele -- the stars just aligned.”