South Coast’s Riviera Restaurant to Close

COSTA MESA —  Riviera Restaurant, one of the last original tenants at South Coast Plaza, will close Saturday after nearly 31 years. Co-owner Jackie Bouscary said she and her partners are retiring.

“Like everything else, there comes a time to call it quits,” Bouscary said. “This was one of the first restaurants of this caliber to go into mall. We’re proud of what we’ve done here.”

Officials at the largest shopping center in the West are in negotiations with a company owned by actors Kevin Costner and Robert Wagner and professional golfers Fred Couples and Jack Nicklaus to open a golf-themed eatery known as the Clubhouse. However, a deal has not been finalized, said mall spokeswoman Rita Redaelli.

The quartet owns and operates one restaurant, which includes a store, by that name in Chicago.

The Riviera, which served continental cuisine, sold its lease back to the mall’s owners, C.J. Segerstrom & Sons, Bouscary said. The restaurant had about two years remaining on its lease. It employed 28 people, many of whom had worked there for more than 20 years.

Riviera manager Perry Jehangiri is trying to keep the restaurant’s staff together and may buy the Riviera name and reopen in a new location, Bouscary said.