When a movie producer renovates a restaurant there’s got to be a grand vision. And when that producer is Joseph McGinty Nichol — better known as McG — you can almost see an army of clipboard toting assistants in his wake, jotting down every word.
As he speaks over the phone about his latest project, CdM, opening late summer in Corona del Mar, he telegraphs ideas in perfectly formed sound bites, firing off some zingers. Here’s a guy who digs design, capable of articulating precisely what he wants.
“I see pros and cons with and without tablecloths. We’re gonna work the room and respect the fung shui.”
“We’re getting lights from salvage shipyards so we make sure that each fixture has soul.”
“No two tables will have the same salt and pepper shakers. I want them all to be vintage and overweight.”
“Nautical is too strong a term of art. I think there’ll just be an awareness there.”
If he’s talking 90 miles a minute it’s because he’s stoked about starting from scratch on his second venture with Jordan Otterbein, a fellow Corona del Mar High School alum, his business partner in River Jetty Restaurant Group. Otterbein and McG were also among the partners in a 2007 project that triumphed by transforming the old The Arches restaurant location, a beloved landmark fuddy duddy, into A Restaurant, a stylish hangout so old school it’s new school.
“McG was a founder of this place,” says Otterbein, seated at a booth in A Restaurant, where he’s the GM, with McG on the phone. “It was a tip of the hat to what was here before with red leather booths and wood panel walls. But there it’s a clean slate. We’ve completely demo-ed it. Forget everything you remember about the Crow Bar because it’s going to be brand new and super stylish.”
Otterbein is referring to CdM’s location at 2325 E. Coast Highway. Its best known former occupant was The Crow Bar and Kitchen, a local leader in the gastropub movement opened by chef Scott Brandon in 2007. The spot’s most recent iteration was The Dub, a bar by the operators of The Auld Dubliner in Tustin.
On the first project, McG couldn’t change the look of The Arches too much for fear it would turn off the crowd that grew up with the 1920s institution. But this time he’s not holding back.
“We’re gutting Crow Bar,” McG says. “It’s really been stripped down and we hope to resurrect it as its best self.”
Architectural changes will bring more light into the place. The bar will move to the center of the main space and a smaller “speakeasy” style bar will be created downstairs in a room with a vintage photo booth. The flooring will be handpicked tile and 19th-century wood pulled out of a Chicago warehouse. “It will have a great deal of spirit and soul,” says McG.
The 100-seat dining room will be outfitted with comfy booths and its own chairs which will not match those in other parts of the restaurant. “We embrace irregularity,” says McG.
Jon Blackford, chef at A, will be the executive chef of both properties, sous-chef Roberto Gomez will be elevated to chef de cuisine. The menu will be “Creative American,” less “steak centric” and seasonal, changing 4-5 times a year. It will not be identical to A Restaurant’s menu and it will definitely not be formal or stuffy.
“We absolutely must have the best culinary experience, but we want to do that in a way that’s very comfortable and approachable,” says McG. “We never want it to be event dining. We want it to be easy to say ‘Let’s head to CdM’ once or twice a week.”
The two partners are mindful of their neighbors in Newport. McG praises local restaurants such as Bandera, Gulfstream, Country Club and The Stag, calling out the owners by name. Otterbein praises Alessandro Pirozzi who turned a former Kentucky Fried Chicken into a successful trattoria practically overnight.
Hanging out in Corona del Mar in his youth, McG still remembers when the spot for this project was called Matteo’s, he walked by often on his way to and from the beach and to his best friend’s house.
He began to make a name for himself shooting stylish music videos for bands including Sugar Ray, then graduated to directing and producing feature films such as “Charlie’s Angels” (2000), “Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle” (2003), “Terminator Salvation” (2009) and the TV series “Lethal Weapon” (2016-2018).
He lives in Los Angeles in a Kelly Wearstler house but still spends many weekends in Orange County, and two months each summer in France because his wife is French.
He acknowledges that many Orange Countians are well traveled too and that informs his design choices. “We’ve always maintained that there’s a real cognizance of Paris, London, New York and L.A. as ingested and redefined to work for the people in Orange County, and that’s been our north star.”
His influences range from Roman and Williams to Dick Jones and Ralph Lauren. His style is eclectic and that will be reflected in the restaurant. “It’s like the movies I make,” he said. “There’s a little Tarantino, a little John Hughes, a little James Cameron but in the end it’s a McG film. And hopefully in the end this will be a Jordan and McG offering that will be unlike anything else.”
Of course he wants CdM to be cool. But not so cool that it makes anyone uncomfortable. “We never want to set the vibe of ‘this is too groovy for this person or that person.’ One thing I love about London culture is you can see a woman who is in parliament and holds an incredible influence over the nation having a passionate discussion in a pub with a punk rocker kid.
“That doesn’t happen so much in America and what we wanted to do so desperately down at A is we wanted the Velcro Valley of the surf industry… to work with the guys who just came from Big Canyon or Newport Beach Country Club and the ladies that came from hot yoga or SoulCycle and everybody feels at home. And to me that’s the master trick at A. Everybody feels like ‘this belongs to me’ and that’s what I’m most proud of.”
