No beef with local restaurant scene

Arizona company to open steakhouse in South Coast Metro, hoping to draw arts center patrons. The same firm runs Ocean Club Fish House in Newport Beach.An Arizona-based restaurant company is set to follow up its summer opening of a Newport Beach seafood restaurant with a Costa Mesa steakhouse next year.

The Mastro Companies, headquartered in Scottsdale, Ariz., entered the Newport-Mesa market in August by opening Mastro’s Ocean Club Fish House in the Crystal Cove Promenade. Oliver Badgio, Mastro’s director of business affairs, said the firm plans to open a Mastro’s Steakhouse in the South Coast Metro area in early 2006.

The restaurant will do business on Anton Boulevard near the Orange County Performing Arts Center, Badgio said. The locale would give the restaurant the ability to capture customers from concert and theater audiences.

“The Performing Arts Center, wow, what a facility that is,” Badgio said.

Mastro’s steak and seafood restaurants debuted in Scottsdale. A second Mastro’s Steakhouse is open in Beverly Hills. Badgio said the company plans for the Costa Mesa version to be about 17,000 square feet, somewhat larger than the Beverly Hills restaurant.

“It’s an upgraded version. It’s a little newer,” he said.

Mastro’s regional operations manager, Jason Miranda, said he and his colleagues have been encouraged by the first months of business at Mastro’s Ocean Club Fish House in Crystal Cove.

Miranda acknowledged Mastro restaurants have pricy menus and said Orange County, with its many affluent residents, is a natural location for them. In Miranda’s view, the area compares favorably with Scottsdale and Los Angeles.

“We probably wouldn’t perform well in a different area because we do charge a lot. But we do that because we serve a high-quality [product],” Miranda said.

If the launch of Mastro’s Steakhouse in Costa Mesa goes as planned, it will compete with another recent entry to Costa Mesa’s restaurant scene, OnotrÃa Wine Country Cuisine.

OnotrÃa owner MassÃmo Navarretta said his restaurant opened Nov. 9 and has been off to a booming start.

“It’s been beyond our wildest expectations,” Navarretta said.

OnotrÃa is on Bristol Street near the Corona del Mar (73) Freeway. Massimo opened OnotrÃa after closing Newport Boulevard’s Scampi Trattoria Bar and Grill in September. He believes his location has the advantage of being between South Coast Metro and Newport Center’s attractions, though he considers the menu to be more important than locale.

“If you have something unique, then people are willing to give you a chance,” he said.

20051125iqfnfbknDOUGLAS ZIMMERMAN / DAILY PILOT(LA)Mastro’s, which runs the Ocean Club at the Crystal Cove Promenade, has plans to open a steakhouse in Costa Mesa.