Newport eatery sold to Outback

Deepa Bharath

Desert Island Restaurants, an Arizona-based company that owns two

eateries in Fashion Island, has sold one and kept the other.

Chief Executive Randy Schoch said his company, after almost a year

of negotiations, has sold Roy’s of Newport Beach, a high-end

restaurant with a predominantly seafood menu crafted by chef Roy

Yamaguchi. That restaurant has now teamed up with Outback Steakhouse.

But Schoch also owns Thaifoon -- Taste of Asia, which opened about

six weeks ago. That will continue to operate, he said. Desert Island

has owned Roy’s for about three and a half years.

“Roy’s is a great restaurant, and I love it,” the part-time Lido

Isle resident said. “It was hard for me emotionally to make this

move. It was purely a business decision.”

And a good one, for many reasons, he said.

“For one thing, the menu is complicated,” Schoch said. “It is

totally chef-driven. It’s high-end.”

He is now interested in moving from fine dining to casual dining

that his Thaifoon restaurants epitomize, he said.

“This is good timing for us,” he said. “Thaifoon and Roy’s were

totally different concepts, and I didn’t want to run so many

different concepts at the same time.”

Roy’s also has a restaurant in Scottsdale that Outback has taken

over. However, the Roy’s restaurant in Phoenix will remain under

Desert Island’s banner through a venture created by local

restaurateur Franco Fazzuoli.

Schoch said he sees Thaifoon as his company’s future.

“We’ve had a tremendous response in our Fashion Island location,”

he said. There is also a Thaifoon at the Irvine Spectrum

entertainment center.

* DEEPA BHARATH covers public safety and courts. She may be

reached at (949) 574-4226 or by e-mail at deepa.bharath@latimes.com.