A new watering hole on Newport Harbor

At former Hooters site, owners of Sútra Lounge are creating Kantina, an upscale Mexican restaurant.Construction workers have a lot of work to do before Doug McAllister can open a new restaurant called Kantina on the Balboa Peninsula.

Kantina, like Sútra Lounge in Costa Mesa, is organized under the banner of Culinary Management Group. McAllister, president of the company, said he expects Kantina to be open in early February.

Kantina will be a contemporary restaurant and bar. McAllister said the menu will feature Mexican dishes with a slight infusion of Japanese flavors.

“We have tacos that have spicy tuna ingredients,” McAllister said. “We just want it to be lighter and easier Mexican.”

The menu will include dishes like chorizo and egg sopes with chipotle hollandaise, masa-crusted chicken salad and habañero-marinated flank steak.

“The reason I like Mexican is it has the most flavor, with the different salsas and lime,” McAllister said.

Serving breakfast, lunch and dinner, Kantina will be a “total restaurant,” McAllister said. His other local venture, Sútra Lounge, is more of a nightclub.

Since it opened in 2004, Sútra Lounge has gained a reputation as a raucous nightspot. Costa Mesa police Sgt. Marty Carver said the scene has calmed recently; in the past there were reports of “too many alcohol-related crimes and too many fights,” he said.

Carver said police have worked with Sútra Lounge management to tighten security, and that police think those efforts have been successful. McAllister said his company spent about $500,000 to enhance security around Sútra Lounge.

If all goes according to plan on the peninsula, Kantina will replace a Hooters restaurant that shut down in December 2004. Hoot-Winc LLC, the Oceanside-based company that owned the Balboa Peninsula Hooters, shuttered that restaurant before opening a new Hooters in Costa Mesa.

Friday, workers were in the process of converting the building into Kantina. The sounds of construction and smell of lacquer thinner filled the air as McAllister described his plans for the building. McAllister wants to use several windows to create an airy environment and let diners see the waterfront as soon as they enter the door.

Design plans, McAllister said, call for substantial use of mahogany, warm brown leather and couches in the upstairs bar to create a lounge atmosphere. He said his renovation budget is about $1.4 million.

Before renovations started, the building was a “beat-up 12-year-old Hooters,” McAllister said. “Floors were buckled up. It was pretty gross.”

The waterfront location should give Kantina more than a nice view. McAllister plans to keep slips open so boaters can cruise to the restaurant. He said he would have space to accommodate up to three big boats or about 20 Duffy boats.

“People can bring their Duffys over for dinner,” McAllister said.

* ANDREW EDWARDS covers business and the environment. He can be reached at (714) 966-4624 or by e-mail at andrew.edwards@latimes.com.

20060109issjryncMARK DUSTIN / DAILY PILOT(LA)Doug McAllister, president of Culinary Management Group, shows off the future dining room -- which overlooks Newport Harbor -- of the company’s Kantina restaurant on the Balboa Peninsula.