Beloved restaurant’s first priority is taking care of its employees
Anyone who’s ever driven into Malibu from Topanga or Santa Monica knows The Reel Inn. It’s been a landmark restaurant welcoming visitors and locals to Malibu for nearly four decades and has been giving drivers a chuckle with its iconic billboard featuring daily puns. Have you ever seen the same one twice? Probably not.
The Reel Inn is now another iconic landmark along the Malibu coastline that’s become a casualty of the Palisades Fire, but the funky, rustic seafood establishment that’s been a favorite of tourists and locals due to its laid-back beach-town vibe is hoping to avoid fading into history. Its owners would like to rebuild and serve the community that’s made The Reel Inn a cultural marker for Malibu and go-to family destination restaurant.
Teddy Leonard is an owner of The Reel Inn, along with her husband Andy. “He’s had it 36 years. I’ve only had him for 20,” she quipped.
In the time the Topanga couple has owned the iconic seafood establishment, they’ve become part of the fabric of boththe Malibu and Pacific Palisades communities who’ve been their regulars. According to Teddy Leonard, locals “have stepped up in a way that has overwhelmed us. The comments and the photographs and the memories that people have shared of family celebrations …” her voice trailed as she mentioned one family, “It was their son’s Make a Wish to come to Malibu and go to our restaurant before he died, and he passed and another family, their father, it was his last meal out before he made his transition.” The Malibu gem was also a celebratory venue for weddings, engagements, and anniversaries.
It’s a personal loss for Teddy who said, “I’ve been able to hold it together, except when I read other people’s comments and beautiful posts about the restaurant. I find myself weeping for their loss too. We didn’t just lose the restaurant. The whole community lost the restaurant. They lost their safety. It’s the family place where people met their family and friends. It was a little fish shack and you could go there. You didn’t worry about what you wore, you didn’t worry about anything. You just walked in, ordered your food, sat down, and you waited for your name to be called. And everyone felt like it was their restaurant and I think that’s the culture that my husband Andy started day one.”
Teddy is especially proud of the “crew,” employees who’ve continued, some longer than 30 years because of the friendly culture of the gathering place that “became everyone’s spot.” One employee, Mattias, has been there longer than Andy Leonard, who bought The Reel Inn in 1988 from Warren Roberts. But Teddy Leonard is also concerned about the workers’ livelihoods. “They’ve stayed with us the whole time and they’ve seen us through COVID,” she said.”They were amazing through COVID. We have 22 employees and they take care of us.” And the Leonards took care of their employees, paying them from their personal savings during COVID and then with their stimulus check.
After the fire, Teddy said, “Their first phone call to us was ‘how can we help you? What do you need?’ Not ‘oh no, we’re out of a job or how are we going to get paid?’ You don’t hear about that kind of loyalty in the restaurant business very often. I’m just very grateful that we were blessed enough to be in business in the community, that we’ve been in business with our employees for 36 years.”
Now the couple has set up a GoFundMe raising at least $165,000 for the crew.
As for rebuilding, “That’s a question for State Parks,” Teddy explained. The restaurant’s lease was up in December. A meeting to discuss next steps on Jan. 10 was postponed in the emergency.
“That’s sadly up to them,” she said. “It’s not up to us.” But if it were up to the community, The Reel Inn would surelybe rebuilt.
“We have wonderful customers offering to come pick up a hammer and a shovel,” Leonard stated. “That’s how much this place belongs to everyone. Our customers are offering to rebuild it, but we can’t start that process until we know that we can. Right now, our focus is on our crew and getting them taken care of. I think there’s going be a lot ofrestaurant workers looking for work.”
By the way, those famous puns originated with Andy, but Teddy said with so many screenwriters on their way to work, they’ve had a few suggestions that they’ve used over the years.
Customers are already clamoring for a virtual billboard with daily puns. “After this fire the community wants something that brought them joy and comfort back, and I understand that we can’t rebuild the restaurant that fast, but maybe we could put the sign back that might make people feel better,” Teddy said.
