Cookout at O.C. Coral

FOR THE RECORD

In a story in Wednesday’s Daily Pilot, “Cookout at O.C. Coral,” Bill Allen was identified incorrectly. Allen is OSI Restaurant Partners Inc.’s chief executive officer, and Paul Avery is the chief operating officer.

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Deep teal-colored glass mosaic tiles cascade down the walls and soft waterfalls trickle over sleek TV screens behind the bar of Newport Beach’s newest fine-dining establishment, which had its first official dinner service Tuesday evening.

Blue Coral Seafood & Spirits hosted 120 reservations in Newport Center on Tuesday, after more than a year of construction, design and training.

Specializing in simple, but elegant, seafood dishes, the restaurant went through a rigorous process choosing suppliers that had to pass a litany of guidelines to make the cut, said Michael Doctulero, a Culinary Partner at the restaurant.

“A lot of our purveyors didn’t make the cut Â? we’ve lost about 30 or 40%,” Doctulero said. “Standards are so stringent, so it protects the business and ensures the quality of the product.”

Dishes, including lobster en fuego, caviar service, baked goat cheese and blue crab cakes, will set guests back anywhere from $9 to $36, and more than 60 premium vodkas and wines sit behind the bar. Each cocktail is made with freshly squeezed fruit juice, and diners are able to taste-test their vodka prior to the cocktail’s creation.

The restaurant takes sail under the direction of OSI Restaurant Partners Inc. and Paul Fleming Â? OSI’s Chief Operating Officer Bill Allen and Fleming also created Fleming’s Prime Steakhouse & Wine Bar Â? and the duo expects the restaurant to not only succeed in Newport Beach and Southern California, but also on the national scene.

“Although we launch here in Newport Â? it’s where I live, it’s where we office for our high-end business Â? but quite honestly, it’s our vision to replicate the success nationally,” Allen said. “We are not specifically looking at the category and check average in Newport, we’re really trying to understand if this idea has national potential.”

The company hired Steven Langford, who also worked on Fleming’s, to oversee architecture, design and construction, to create a light, casual environment that would appeal to both men and women, with general construction costing about $1.8 million, Langford said.

The restaurant is at the old Hard Rock Café spot.

The company executives were looking for an underserved niche, and they found it in high-end seafood with only one real national competitor, Allen said.

“We spent a lot of time to determine how we were going to position ourselves in that category and how we were going to differentiate our concept from the others out there,” he said.

Another Blue Coral location is under construction in La Jolla.

For more information visit www.bluecoralseafood.com or call (949) 856-2583.