Want Internet with those fries?

Andrew Edwards

The McDonald’s restaurant on Coast Highway is on the verge of being

back in action after it was bulldozed last year to make way for a

possible road project.

Franchise owner Terry Solon intends to have the restaurant in

business by Monday. On Friday, work crews were busy paving the

parking lot and tending to plumbing in the kitchen.

“We’ve got a lot of work to do in the next few days, as you can

see,” Solon said.

Solon, who owns six other McDonald’s franchises in Newport Beach,

Costa Mesa and Pico Rivera, tore down his Mariner’s Mile restaurant

about five years ago to move the store 12 feet back from Coast

Highway, he said.

Newport Beach’s master plan for streets and highways includes a

design for Coast Highway to be widened from four lanes into six. If

the widening had taken place before Solon moved his restaurant, the

road work would have eliminated his drive-through lane.

Any future widening of Coast Highway would be done under the

auspices of Caltrans. The agency has no plans in the works to

initiate a road-widening project, though Caltrans is preparing to

install new streetlights along Mariner’s Mile, spokeswoman Sandy

Friedman said.

Roadwork is not on the horizon, but Solon said he wanted to

renovate the more than 30-year-old restaurant anyway.

“The building was definitely tired -- the previous owner didn’t

invest in it enough,” Solon said.

Instead of walls, the old McDonald’s dining area was enclosed by a

glass atrium design Solon said got too hot on sunny days. The glass

was replaced by a seaside exterior and the inside was designed as “a

kind of contemporary nautical theme to fit in with Mariner’s Mile.”

The interior has tile walls, cobalt-blue glass partitions that

resemble waves and violets at the dining tables. High-tech touches

include a flat-screen television and wireless Internet access for

customers.

Though the aesthetic touches at Solon’s restaurant are unique, he

said most McDonald’s are slated to offer wireless access by the end

of the year.

Construction on the more than $1-million renovation was expected

to last about three months, Solon said. Problems included having to

reinforce wet soil with rocks and delays in the construction of a new

retaining wall to hold back the bluff behind the restaurant.

“We’ve had our loss of business in that time, and we’ve had to

carry our employees in other restaurants, so we’re anxious to get

open,” Solon said.