TIKI TOWN: The restaurateurs saving South Bay staples and tiki culture
by Laura Garber Brian Eldridge and Patrick Mescall are on a mission that is partly cultural, oddly archeological, and wholly audacious. They are collecting and reviving South Bay restaurant classics that otherwise would have fossilized as only a nostalgic memory. “They’re like our dinosaurs,” Eldridge said, “that we just keep alive, keep going, keep growing.” Eldridge and Mescall met in 2007 at Salt Creek Grill in El Segundo. The East Coast-born bartenders struck a friendship that turned into a South Bay restaurant resurgence. In 2017 they opened Paddy O’Brien’s Irish Pub in Redondo Beach, the classic pub was known as O’Hearns for decades. “That was a big thing for Brian and I to make sure we save these really cool places where it’s a melting pot of every demographic, every income level,” Mescall said, “Everybody meets there and becomes family at Paddy O’Brien’s.” They would go on to revive other struggling bars and restaurants; The Torrance Tavern, the Hula Hula Room, the Bounty Room and Sly Fox in Lawndale. In 2024 Eldridge and Mescall took over Eat At Joe’s, a Redondo Beach staple since 1969 known for its burgers and “John Wayne” breakfast special. They are only the third…
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