Restaurants nearing completion

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The outdoor patios for both restaurants will have a breathtaking view of the Pacific Ocean. This is Nobu’s deck. Julie Ellerton / TMT

Architects for two restaurants under construction at the former PierView and Windsail sites say Nobu should open in late summer, although second tenant has not been named.

By McKenzie Jackson and

Julie Ellerton / Special to The Malibu Times

After more than two years of construction, food connoisseurs could possibly be able to dine at two newly constructed Carbon Beach restaurants by the fall. The architects of the restaurants say the two eateries south of the Malibu Pier should open within the next few months in the space once occupied by restaurants PierView and Windsail.

Nobu Malibu is moving from its location of 12 years on Cross Creek Road to Pacific Coast Highway. It has been at the Country Mart since 1999. The identity of the second restaurant is still a mystery.

Oracle CEO Larry Ellison reportedly bought the PierView property in 2003 for an undisclosed sum from longtime owner Chuck Spencer. He then purchased the Windsail structure, which was already vacant, from local resident and developer Richard Weintraub the following year. The existing buildings were torn down in July 2010 and new construction began in Oct. 2010. Original estimates for completion were summer 2011, but the construction is still ongoing.

Architects Alexia Convers and Severine Tatangelo of Malibu design firm Studio PCH said the process of putting two restaurants at the location has taken more than half a decade.

“They’ve been long projects. We’ve been working on them for six years, so we are going to be happy to see it finished, finally,” Convers said. “We’ve had a very long phase to get all the permits and approvals and it takes a long time, and then the construction.”

Convers and Tatangelo declined to reveal the price tag for the two restaurants, which are referred to on the Studio PCH website as Restaurant 1 (the Nobu property) and Restaurant 2.

Once completed, Nobu Malibu will have two inside fireplaces, one outdoor fireplace, indoor and outdoor dining areas and an indoor bar. The building is 6,800 square feet.

The second structure, which is 6,900 square feet, will be home to an undetermined restaurant. A fact sheet about the restaurants describes the second restaurant as having a “playful sand deck area with luxury cabanas is reminiscent of San Tropez’ fashionably fun private beaches.”

That description would lend credence to a rumor around town that the second restaurant would be a new location of Club 55, a posh club/restaurant in San Tropez, France known there as “Cinquante Cinq.”

Both structures will be able to house around 220 diners at a time. Tatangelo said when the two restaurants open they will work in conjunction.

“I think the two are going to be complementary, that’s the idea of having one big [complex] embracing the two restaurants,” she said.

Nobu and the neighboring restaurant will share a 134-space parking lot with valets.

Convers said they do not foresee the business causing any traffic problems on Pacific Coast Highway.

“There is a huge parking lot and it’s valet,” Convers said. “There is a [traffic] light here so everything has been thought through. There should be no more traffic congestion than usual on PCH.”

She also said they could not release the names of any potential restaurants that could be located in the second building, and was tightlipped about a potential opening date for the restaurants.

Tatangelo said Nobu could potentially be ready to open this summer.

“It’s better not to say,” she said. “Soon, but we’d rather not give a date.”

Convers said Nobu will probably have a grand opening, but it would be up to the restaurant’s operators to decide when it would happen and to arrange the event.

Calls by The Malibu Times to Nobu management were unreturned as of press time.