Gladstone’s Restaurant In Pacific Palisades Will Be Closing After More Than 50 Years

Bruce Haring
·2 min read

Editor’s note: This report has been updated with more information from Los Angeles County officials.

After a half-century, the landmark Gladstone’s restaurant in Pacific Palisades apparently is ending its run.

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The oceanside restaurant on Pacific Coast Highway is expected to close in October, a source told Deadline. The State of California owns the land and leases it long-term to Los Angeles County, which has entered into contractual agreements with PCH Beach Associates LLC. That group was selected in 2018 after a request for proposal went out. That deal calls for the construction of a Frank Gehry-designed, Wolfgang Puck-operated restaurant on the current Gladstones site, the County rep said. That vote was not unanimous, however.

UPDATE: As the Pacific Palisades location dies, another rises to take its place. A new Gladstone’s will take possession of the Edgewater Grill space in downtown San Diego’s Seaport Village early 2024. It joins the existing franchise in Long Beach at the Pine Avenue Pier.

The Los Angeles Times reported in 2018 that Supervisor Kathryn Barger cast the lone dissenting vote, “expressing concern about how the Department of Beaches and Harbors made its selection.”

This isn’t the first time Gladstones has been troubled financially. The restaurant was reported to be in jeopardy as far back as 2016. However, it managed to weather that crisis and continue on.

In fact, it paradoxically has often been one of the highest-grossing independent eateries in the U.S. As recently as 2017, the seafood spot ranked in the Top 100 nationwide, according to Restaurant Business.

During Covid, then-L.A. County Supervisor Sheila Kuehl sponsored the “Gladstones Rent Relief” motion, which was approved by the council. Kuehl’s 2020 motion allowed Gladstones to pay only a percentage of its agreed-upon rent “for only such time as the applicable County Public Health Order restricts restaurants from operating below 100% capacity (i.e., 707 seats at Concessionaire’s restaurant), or until October 31, 2021, whichever is later.”

In 2016, Kuehl had called the property “seriously deteriorated and outdated.”

The restaurant has been operating under a 20-year lease. Kuehl and others were seeking a 40-year lease for any new tenant as an incentive to either rebuild or modernize the existing structure.

Gladstones was owned for decades by former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan, who died in April.

Although it has had a reputation for being tourist-oriented, Gladstones has been popular to many in the Malibu and Santa Monica areas for sunset cocktails and dinners. It first opened in 1972.

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