It will be a pivotal 2012 for Ray Jacobi, former managing director of the Island Hotel in Newport Center and since 2009 managing partner and co-owner with slot-machine magnate Charles Mathewson of the nearby Ritz Restaurant. Jacobi’s landlord (and former employer) Irvine Company has told him he must move out. So in 12 months, when the lease expires, Jacobi will have found the iconic Ritz a new home or, he says, he’ll be headed back to the hotel industry. He’s hoping for the former. He says he’s talked to South Coast Plaza’s Henry Segerstrom, the Balboa Bay Club and checked other locations. Meanwhile, he’s turning adversity into a nostalgic last call: “Our new theme is ‘Occupy the Ritz, 2012,’ a 35th year celebration.” Friends are responding. Jacobi will be honored May 19 (at the Balboa Bay Club) as the Muscular Dystrophy Association’s 2012 Gift of Hope Man of the Year; the “Put on the Ritz” theme signals the night will be about the restaurant, too. Jacobi says business is picking up—the last three months were the best in seven years. He says that until the termination notice he’d been planning a major renovation and a return of the Ritz to the early glory days of late founder Hans Prager. “There’s got to be a silver lining in there somewhere, and who knows? Maybe Irvine Company will have a change of heart,” says Jacobi, with a chuckle …
Irvine Company spokesperson Erin Freeman says a high-end sports club and quick-casual restaurant are being considered for the Ritz site. What does it mean for the nearby 24-Hour Fitness? Undetermined …
OC GOP Chairman Scott Baugh was hosting provocative Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, just named Governor of the Year by Governors Journal, late last week at his Newport Beach office …
Donna Bunce hosted her 20th anniversary California Hoosier Holiday Party …
The wedding was in Lake Como, Italy, the local reception at Big Canyon for Manhattanites Christopher and Melisa Melling. He’s a real estate investor, she’s a hedge fund exec and daughter of Mark Moehlman (Wealth Management Network, Newport Center) and dentist Cherilyn Sheets-Moehlman …
David Wilson got a lot of unsolicited publicity, including coverage on NBC, ABC and CNN, for paying off $16,000 of people’s layaway accounts at the Kmart in Costa Mesa. (Sears/Kmart PR folks alerted the media to his holidays-inspired act of goodwill.) But what the national and local reporters didn’t know is that 2011 was a trying year for the Iowa farm boy-turned-wealthy OC car dealer (Toyota of Orange, Newport Lexus, others.) Wilson spent most of the year suffering from a staph infection. He just finished physical therapy and was returning to his office this week for the first time since May. “The story wasn’t about me so I never told them about my leg problems,” he explains. Here’s wishing him—and you—a happy and healthy new year.
