No one seems to know who’s moving in, but at least we know breakfast will be served.
The Malibu Planning Commission on Monday authorized the vacant, unnamed restaurant space next to Nobu, which is believed to be owned by billionaire Larry Ellison, to serve food during breakfast hours, making it one of the few restaurant spaces along Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu that could offer an ocean view and a sit-down breakfast.
Under the amended conditional use permit (CUP), the mystery restaurant is now allowed to open as early as 7 a.m., though workers won’t be allowed to take out the trash before 8 a.m.
For Planning Commission Chair John Mazza, however, there’s still a problem: No one knows what the restaurant is going to be.
“There’s no tenant, but they want hours for breakfast,” Mazza said before casting the sole vote against the CUP in a 4-1 decision.
The site was once home to PierView Restaurant and Cantina, which closed in 2003. Rumors of who’s setting up shop in the poshly renovated digs have been swirling around Malibu for months, but the details remain sketchy.
Bouchon, an upscale bistro with locations in Beverly Hills and Las Vegas, was rumored to be a candidate, but reps for Bouchon on Monday quashed the idea.
“We currently have no plans to expand into Malibu,” spokesman Gerald San Jose said.
Renowned chef and restaurateur Wolfgang Puck also surfaced as one of the rumored candidates, but the restaurant’s designer, Severine Tatangelo, told The Malibu Times on Monday that Puck would not be moving in.
Tatangelo was the sole representative for the restaurant site at Monday’s meeting. The owner on the permit application is listed as “Malibu Cantina, LLC.”
“We’re trying to approve a restaurant, we have no idea what it is,” Mazza told Tatangelo. “I would like to know what kind of business you’re operating, what kind of restaurant it is, what kind of customers you’re planning on getting, is it upscale or downscale, so we can judge how busy it’s gonna be.”
Tatangelo offered little in return.
“I don’t exactly know what it’s going to be,” she said. “I believe [the owners] want to do a Mediterranean/Italian restaurant.”
After the meeting, Tatangelo said that although there’s yet to be a tenant revealed, the restaurant opening isn’t too far away.
“By the end of May, that’s what we’re hoping,” she said.
The restaurant already has a permit to begin selling alcohol on site after 11 a.m. and to stay open as late 11 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 2 a.m. on weekends— just feet away from Nobu.
With valet parking required after 11 a.m., the unnamed restaurant would have up to 74 valet spaces and approximately 50 spaces during self-parking hours before 11 a.m. Tatangelo said owners are exploring off-site valet parking for the peak season when the nighttime crowd could overlap with Nobu’s popularity.
And after neighbors who live next to Nobu complained that its workers were making too much noise at night when taking out the trash, Planning Director Joyce Parker-Bozylinski said the 8 a.m. trash disposal provision was added into the unnamed restaurant’s permit to prevent future conflict with neighbors.
“This was discussed and agreed upon with an attorney for the residents of the condos,” Parker-Bozylinski said.