Sagging economy hits local restaurants

French 75 at Fashion Island will have new management and a new name in the next couple of weeks, and Savannah Supper Club in Costa Mesa’s arts district shut its doors Tuesday night.

Both high-end French restaurants were among the once-considerable holdings of Newport Beach company Culinary Adventures, which at the height of its holdings had restaurants throughout Orange County and Los Angeles, but has lately had to liquidate its locations to pay off creditors after filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in August.

The company closed three restaurants in August — two in Los Angeles and one in Irvine — when it declared bankruptcy, and gave up its Laguna Beach French 75 in February.

However, Culinary Adventures President Bob Rourke believes that what remains of the pared-down restaurant group is profitable enough to propel it out of bankruptcy by summer.

The company’s two remaining holdings — Savannah at the Beach at the Huntington Beach Pier and Savannah Chop House in Laguna Niguel — are extremely busy and pulling 20% profit margins, Rourke said, which is unheard of in the present market.

“We’re not going anywhere. We sold a couple units and we’re paying off the creditors. I can tell you right now we’re doing very well,” he said.

The two Newport-Mesa restaurants are no longer part of the picture for Culinary Adventures, though.

Savannah Supper Club plans to reopen within 60 days, once the landlords approve the transfer to an as-yet unnamed group of restaurateurs, Rourke said.

Its last night was busy and frantic as several waiters didn’t show up for work and the rest ran around to get entrees out on time.

One waitress said that there were a few staffers who were trying to move to other Culinary Adventures restaurants, but the rest had yet to find jobs.

French 75 will continue as a French brasserie, but the sign on the front and the chef in the back should be different by the end of the month. Culinary Adventures is waiting for court approval of the transaction before naming the new owner, whom Rourke called a “well-known Orange County restaurateur.”

Culinary Adventures management attributes some improvement in business to a promotion in which participating restaurants offer up a filet mignon or a plate of crab for $10.

Savannah Supper Club had the special before its closing, and both remaining Savannah restaurants will continue the deal because management says it has been incredibly good at filling tables.

“It’s always the price point, especially right now,” said Sheri Drewry, the president of the Newport Beach Restaurant Assn.

Discounts and all-inclusive menus that allow customers to know right from the outset that they will get out of the door without ringing up too large of a tab help in a slow economy, she said. It’s also more difficult for newer restaurants without an established clientele.

Reporter ALAN BLANK may be reached at (714) 966-4623 or at alan.blank@latimes.com.