The long-anticipated Gladstone’s restaurant that was expected to open in Seaport Village more than two years ago is now on track to start construction within the next month, although its opening is still a year off.
Port of San Diego officials confirmed this week that Gladstone’s will soon be able to take over the space now occupied by the long-running Edgewater Bar and Grill, a Seaport staple for more than two decades. The 9,600-square-foot bayfront venue, which never ceased operating after San Diego Port Commissioners in 2021 approved a new tenant for the space, will serve its last meal on Monday. Gladstone’s is expected to take occupancy by Feb. 1, Port spokesperson Brianne Page said.
If all goes well with renovations of the 1970s-era building fronting San Diego Bay, the new Gladstone’s should be ready for an opening in early 2026, the Port said.
“Of course I’m sad to see it go,” said Michael Fry, who heads Water View Restaurants, which also operated the former Pier Cafe and Harbor House, also at Seaport. “This is the last of this group of restaurants that have been together since 1980. It’s sad but it’s been a good run and we’ve had a lot of good people working for us over the years, some as many as 30 years.”
Gladstone’s was one of two “celebrated” Southern California restaurant concepts that were approved as new Seaport Village tenants in 2021. The second was the Shorebird Cafe, which currently has locations in Newport Beach and Palm Springs. It took over the shuttered 2,272- square-foot Pier Cafe and began undertaking tenant improvements in August. It’s expected to open by late spring.
Gladstone’s, which will be occupying a space four times that size, is a brand widely recognizable for its ocean-view location in Pacific Palisades and has been around for more than a half-century. (As of early Wednesday evening, it was unclear whether the restaurant had been affected by the fast-moving Palisades fire. The Los Angeles Times reported that one of its reporters had seen it “partly smoking.”)
Restaurateur John Sangmeister, who operates a Gladstone’s restaurant in Long Beach, declined to comment Tuesday on his immediate plans for the Seaport location and the delays that have beset the project over the past few years.
In an interview in April, Sangmeister expressed concerns about the length of time it took to get his permits from the city of San Diego but said at the time he expected to start work on revamping the Edgewater space within 60 days. It never happened, though, and Edgewater continued to operate month to month at Seaport Village, with no interruption in service.
The Port of San Diego explained that before work could start, it needed certain requirements to be met by Gladstone’s, which only happened last month.
“Before the Port could give notice to Edgewater to vacate, Gladstone’s needed to submit its deliverables, as required in their lease, to the Port, such as a performance bond, construction contract, and insurance documents,” Page said in an email to the Union-Tribune. “The Port received the final Gladstone’s final deliverable, a performance bond, on December 5. On December 13, the Port provided Edgewater with a notice to vacate.”
Sangmeister has so far not divulged how much he will be investing in the new Gladstone’s, saying only that it is a “multi-million-dollar” project. As part of Gladstone’s 10-year lease with the Port, the restaurant is entitled to an improvement allowance of nearly $1.3 million but the operator is obliged to spend at least $2.3 million.
The decor, Sangmeister said last year, will be a contemporary Cape Cod look, and a lot more outdoor seating will be added. In addition, the bar will be relocated to a more central spot in the restaurant, under an existing atrium.
Heinrich Stasiuk, founder and chairman of Orange-based Wild Thyme Restaurant Group, whose portfolio of dining venues includes Shorebird, said his company plans to invest $3.5 million in a makeover of the former two-level, over-the-water Pier Cafe. His lease includes a $371,550 allowance for venue upgrades, but Wild Thyme must spend a minimum of $2.5 million.
The former restaurant, including patio space, is being updated with a new color palette of charcoal and white accents, according to Stasiuk. Shorebird Seaport Village, he said in an interview last year, will have an indoor-outdoor design with plenty of patio dining and unobstructed bay views. Currently out of the country, Stasiuk said this week by text that construction work is moving quickly, and he expects that Shorebird will open by late spring.
Both Gladstone’s and Shorebird are part of an ongoing effort by the Port of San Diego to elevate the culinary and retail offerings at at the 14-acre Seaport Village. One of the more recent projects is Malibu Farms, a $7.5 million project that took over the former Harbor House.
Danielle Moore, who chairs the Board of Port Commissioners, says she is not troubled by the lengthy delay in bringing Gladstone’s and Shorebird to fruition. She joined the board after the two leases were approved.
“I was recently at Malibu Farms, and it’s so exciting to see the developments we’ve seen coming in, and I attribute it to our staff’s efforts to revamp this area of San Diego,” she said. “This is all a part of the process when we have these types of developments, it takes time. I think we put a lot of effort in making sure we have the right partners so that they can open and thrive like the rest of the businesses at Seaport.
Longtime Commissioner Dan Malcolm echoed Moore’s comments, pointing out that the building Gladstone’s will be occupying dates to the 1970s and has its own set of challenges for refurbishing.
“Both Shorebird and Gladstone’s had some issues once they got in the space and there were unforeseen conditions that had an impact on what the scope of the tenant improvements would be,” Malcolm said. “That’s not an uncommon problem. And it worked for us to have Edgewater open during the holidays.
“It takes a lot to get these kinds of deals over the finish line. And when you’re dealing with space this old, it’s a problem we have seen.”
Under the lease agreements approved in 2021, Wild Thyme will pay minimum annual rent of $204,408 its first year, after which the payments will increase annually. It will be subject to what’s known as a percentage rent should its annual gross sales exceed $3.4 million. Once that threshold is met, the restaurant would pay 7% of gross sales over and above that amount. It began paying rent in May of 2023, Page said.
In the case of Gladstone’s, its minimum annual rent is $338,940, with a 6% fee that can be applied should Gladstone’s annual gross sales exceed $5.6 million. Its rent will commence once it is open or 90 days after its delivery date, whichever is sooner.
