Island Hotel restaurant, lounge going for informal

The Island Hotel in Newport Beach will close the Pavilion, its fine dining restaurant, to recast it in what executives hope is a more laid-back and inviting light.

The hotel’s Garden Lounge will also be closed during the renovations. Both areas will be combined after the renovation and renamed the Palm Terrace Restaurant and Lounge.

The new restaurant is scheduled to open June 1.

“Although it’s still a very beautiful and timeless room, it hasn’t been touched in, well, probably for 20 years, with the exception of some carpet and tablecloths,” The Island Managing Director Raymond Jacobi said. “It was always prepared to be a very nice fine-dining room, used more or less as an occasional-type restaurant, meaning special moments, birthdays, anniversaries, engagements.”

But, under the direction of executive chef Bill Bracken, the new restaurant will be less formal, with a tropical oasis theme.

“We’re trying to warm it up … take the hotel edge out of it and make it a little more conducive to a business resort,” Jacobi said. “Formal hotel restaurants are so often perceived to be rather stuffy.”

Through a new color scheme — deep greens, bronze and pale greens — as well as lush landscaping, the hotel hopes to encourage a broader range of customers, both locals and visitors.

Along with a new moniker, the restaurant’s menu will be more expansive and also include “small bites.”

“If you don’t feel like, say, a huge prime Kansas City steak and you want a small bite version … you can do that,” Jacobi said. “You can be creative and shop the menu any way you want.”

The lounge will be closed for four weeks, while the main restaurant area will be closed for six weeks. But the hotel will not stop serving its fine-dining menu. The restaurant will be moved to the Cabana, which used to be open as a restaurant at the hotel and is now used for private parties.