The popular, four-year-old Marine Street Cafe, at Marine Street and Highland, closed last week after owner Skylar Tourigny and landlords Michael Leigh and Michael Quagletti were unable to agree on a lease extension.
The neighborhood restaurant is to be replaced by a French restaurant, according to Leigh. He said the new owner is an award winning chef from the Brittany area in France who had been looking for a Manhattan Beach location for several years.
Marine Street is the second, mid-priced Manhattan Beach restaurant in the the past month to be replaced by a more upscale restaurant. Scotty McColgan, owner of the 14-year-old Sharks Cove announced two weeks ago that he has sold his downtown Manhattan Beach sports bar to the Sharkeez restaurant group. Shakeez owner Greg Newman said he plans to convert Sharks Cove into a second Palmilla Cocina Y Tequila restaurant. The original Palmilla is on Pier Plaza in Hermosa Beach.
Unlike the Sharks Cove transition, the Marine Street Cafe closure was not consensual. On September 1, Marine Street received an eviction order, requiring them to vacate by September 8.
Last week, Marine Street Cafe owner Cliff Guy called the police to “protect myself against myself,” he said. Quagletti visited the restaurant last week with residential locksmith services to caution Guy that if he removed fixtures, Quagletti would change the locks. Subsequently, the new tenant visited the restaurant, complaining that the restaurant was being graffited, Guy said. That’s when Guy called the police.
“He thought we were graffiting the restaurant, which wasn’t true. We had another week to move out and I was so mad I didn’t trust myself to handle the situation professionally, so I called the police. The police were very helpful,” Cliff said.
The only graffiti in the restaurant, Cliff said, was derogatory comments about the landlords that customers had written on the menu chalkboards. Tourigny’s Facebook page received over 100 comments lamenting her restaurant’s closure.
Tourigny said her lease included a five year extension option, but that she failed to exercise the option because she had hoped to renegotiate the terms of the lease. Leigh said Tourigny could have exercised her option to extend the existing lease.
Guy, who has managed the restaurant since it opened in 2012, said their customers ranged from Junior Lifeguards who came in for ice cream sandwiches from Manhattan Beach Creamery, to neighbors who didn’t mind spending $145 on a bottle of Caymus Cabernet. Entrees ranged from $10 grass fed beef burgers to $36 filet mignon.
“We’re the fourth restaurant in this location since the building opened in 2006 and the only one to have lasted more than a year,” he said.
Tourigny and Guy said they hope to find a new location. Leigh said the French chef plans to extensively remodel the 40-seat restaurant. ER
