Marine Room to debut luxury lounge on Oct. 5
The Marine Room, which is temporarily closed for renovation, will return next week with something extra: a new luxury lounge experience aimed at younger diners.
The Marine Room, which is temporarily closed for renovation, will return next week with something extra: a new luxury lounge experience aimed at younger diners.
In addition to the regular dinner service that has been offered at the oceanfront La Jolla Shores restaurant since 1941, the Marine Room is introducing on Oct. 5 a lavish new concept called the Lounge at the Marine Room. Situated at the base of the entryway stairs, the new lounge will have its own high-end small-plates menu, pricey specialty cocktails and a minimum $100 per person food-and-drink order during a maximum two-hour visit.
Michael O’Donohue, managing director of the La Jolla Beach & Tennis Club, said the new lounge will showcase the culinary skills of new executive chef Mike Minor, who took over the kitchen in April following the departure of chef Bernard Guillas, who stepped down in March after 27 years.
Minor spent 40 years in Las Vegas, starting out working for Wolfgang Puck, Susan Feniger and others before becoming executive chef at the Mandalay Bay Resort’s upscale Border Grill restaurant for 13 years. Along the way, he racked up numerous regional and national awards. But he always dreamed of moving to San Diego and was hired last spring to head the club’s culinary operations, which include the 160-seat Marine Room, the 200-seat Shores restaurant, the 100-seat members-only Club Dining Room, and the club’s banquet program.
“The Marine Room is an 81-year-old restaurant with classic appeal and historic charm that our guests love,” O’Donohue said in a statement. “We have an executive chef and culinary team that have the talent and ideas to evolve our offerings and expand our audience. The lounge is designed to attract a younger clientele who appreciate our upscale cuisine, fine wines and well-crafted cocktails but enjoy a laid-back atmosphere.”
Minor’s new eight-item Lounge at Marine Room menu includes the Golden Tartare, a $38 dish that includes raw tenderloin steak on pretzel bread with bone marrow butter, black truffle and gold leaf, and the $44 Surf and Turf, with Hokkaido scallops, kurobuta pork belly, caviar and bacon whiskey jam. There’s also a caviar flight with Champagne pairings and dry-aged bluefin tuna carpaccio.
The Lounge’s cocktail menu includes the $35 Whistle Pig Wagyu Old Fashioned served with a smoking bubble on top and the $44 Deconstructed Margarita, made with Avion Reserve Extra Anejo tequila. Wines by the glass and bottle service will also be available. The restaurant’s dress code — nice jeans are OK, but not T-shirts, shorts, ballcaps, flip-flops or casual beachwear — will also be enforced in the lounge.
“The lounge gives us a stage from which to showcase an all-new menu presented in a way that’s engaging, seductive and creative,” Minor said. “It’s all about luxury and indulgence in an atmosphere that’s refined but with a vibe that’s more relaxed than diners have known in the past.”
Service hours in the new lounge will be 4 to 11 p.m. Guests must deposit $100 when they make a reservation for a two-hour seating at the restaurant at 2000 Spindrift Drive, La Jolla. For details, call (858) 459-7222 or marineroom.com/lounge.
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