The Malibu Inn is changing management on Sept. 1, with an owner of the Mexican eatery Casa Escobar confirming the restaurant is taking over the lease on the historic music venue and restaurant. The restaurant and venue will now be called Casa Escobar at The Malibu Inn.
Rumors about the transfer of power had been making the rounds through town for several weeks, along with other rumors the restaurant and music space would no longer host concerts and events. Casa Escobar co-owner Kathy Escobar-Harvey said this week The Malibu Inn will remain a venue for live music.
“I want to do charity events, art exhibits, salsa dancing, just whatever,” she said.
Longtime concert promoter Matt Diamond said he was told to stop booking shows after Aug. 31, leading him to worry live shows would no longer be hosted at the Inn.
“We’re going to have late-night entertainment, and the only reason Matt Diamond is running around crazy is he’s losing his job,” Escobar-Harvey said in a telephone call to The Malibu Times, implying she would cut ties with Diamond once Casa Escobar took over the space.
The Malibu Inn and Duke’s Restaurant are the only two venues in Malibu with permits for live entertainment, according to planning director Joyce Parker- Bozylinski.
Escobar-Harvey, a Malibu native, emphasized a local-friendly approach to her new venture at The Malibu Inn. She has long been hoping to open another Malibu location after Casa Escobar at the Malibu Village was bought out in the 2000s. She currently operates another location in Westlake Village.
“The locals have gotten The Malibu Inn back. It’s going to be clean and nice, and we can have nice family dinners and [make it] affordable for everybody,” she said.
Escobar-Harvey did not specify whether any major interior renovations would take place, or whether she would keep some of the current artwork, which dates back to the 1960s.
The artwork’s fate was also another concern for Diamond.
“The Malibu Inn is extremely old, it’s almost a 60-year-old venue [in its current location], and there’s a lot of historic artwork that’s withstood the test of time,” he said.
While Escobar-Harvey didn’t say if the current work would remain, she did explain Malibu history would be featured.
“[We want to have] historical photos, maybe some artifacts. We’d like to incorporate history of the Chumash Indians, also old black and white photos of Malibu,” Escobar-Harvey said.
Parker-Bozylinski said the city has received an application for The Malibu Inn to “change the location of their ADA bathroom” and “relocate the [bathroom] fixtures,” but no other applications for the location.
Escobar-Harvey did not say whether The Malibu Inn would need to be closed for any amount of time before her restaurant takes over, or when it would begin serving a new menu.
The reasoning behind the change in management is not clear, but previous management teams have had difficulty attracting regular foot traffic to the location. Current managers Steven and Alex Hakim did not return several requests for comment.
The Hakim brothers took over the historic space in 2011 after their father’s real estate company purchased the Malibu landmark for $5.3 million in 2009. Following a major renovation of the interior, with an emphasis on old Malibu history and rock music, the brothers hoped to make the Malibu Inn a local hangout once again.
“It’s always been known for music, food and a cool bar scene where people can go hang out,” Alex Hakim said in 2011. “We didn’t want to change it too much from the core fiber. There’s really a voice that’s been missing for the past two years where people can listen to cool music and get good food, and not pay an arm and a leg.”
The Malibu Inn has hosted dozens of famous rock acts, including Lindsay Buckingham and Jerry Lee Lewis, and was once operated by Neil Young. Its history dates back to 1920, when it was located further west on Pacific Coast Highway as a hotspot for the biggest names in old Hollywood, through the 1930s and 1940s. In the 1950s, it was moved to its current location across from the Malibu Pier.