New wharf restaurant Miramar seeks approval, lease commitment from city council

On Tuesday, Mark Gilbert, the owner of two restaurants on the Santa Cruz Municipal Wharf, will seek approval from the City of Santa Cruz on plans for a third. 

Gilbert is slated to present plans for Miramar, a proposed two-story restaurant at 45 Municipal Wharf, at Tuesday’s meeting of the Santa Cruz City Council. That location was the former home of Miramar Fish Grotto, which was demolished in early 2020. For the past two years, the empty, open-air space has been the site of a beer garden pop-up by Santa Cruz-based Humble Sea Brewing Co. between April and October. 

The proposed two-story design for Miramar includes a 5,000-square-foot first floor, a 2,000-square-foot second floor and outdoor dining on the first and second floors. 

Gilbert also owns seafood restaurant Firefish Grill and family-friendly diner Woodies Café on the wharf, and is the former owner of Dolphin Restaurant, which stood for 60 years at the end of the wharf before it was demolished last fall.

The design and concept for Miramar are not finalized, but Gilbert is aiming to create a mid-range restaurant with a price point somewhere between the high-end Firefish and fast-casual Woodies. A pizza oven, an oyster bar, a chowder bar, an exhibition kitchen and an upstairs bar are all included in the preliminary design. 

One thing is certain: The menu won’t focus on seafood, like Firefish and other restaurants on the wharf, but the direction it will take is undecided. On Monday, Gilbert said he was considering an Italian restaurant. 

The city owns the wharf and all of the buildings on it. If approved, Gilbert would privately finance the creation of the new restaurant, from design to construction and beyond, in exchange for a lease with generous terms. In this case, he is seeking a 50-year lease at 3% of sales. 

The city is recommending a 35-year lease with the option for three extensions of five years each – which would bring it up to 50 years – with rent based on a percentage of 3% of gross sales, or a minimum base rent of $64,500 per year. If the restaurant nets $10 million annually, as Gilbert expects, rent to the city would be $300,000 a year. 

“I’m sure that [the plans] will be approved. I’ve already shown it to half the council, and everyone loves it,” Gilbert said. “I’ve always had 100% yes votes on all my plans. The only thing that’s different this time is that I’m asking for a lease.”

Gilbert has worked on the wharf for his entire adult life, starting as a line cook and dishwasher at his father’s restaurant, Malio’s, in 1980. In 2010, he purchased the former Malio’s, then Gilbert’s, and later reopened it as Firefish.

This is the third time he has presented plans to the city for Miramar. The project was first approved by the city council in 2013, but was halted due to a yearslong lawsuit brought by advocacy group Don’t Morph the Wharf against the Wharf Master Plan. The plan outlines intentions for how the wharf should be used and construction projects that would meet those goals, and was created in 2014 in the aftermath of the 2011 tsunami. Don’t Morph the Wharf opposed the addition of a walkway on the western side of the wharf and a 40-foot “landmark” building at the edge of the 110-year-old pier. The city later removed these additions and the case was settled last year. 

That same year, after the lawsuit was settled, Gilbert presented the city council with a revised two-story vision for Miramar, and the project was approved to move forward with a lease. But when the plans for the building were drawn up, construction estimates were $14 million. 

That figure was a surprise to Gilbert. “It got a little expensive,” he said. “Back when we drew up plans for a single-story restaurant, it was $400 a square foot. Now, it’s $1,000 a square foot.” 

If the project is approved, he thinks construction could begin in early 2026. 

Gilbert says he is eager to move forward with the restaurant he’s tried to bring to life for more than 12 years, and thinks a fresh face on the wharf will benefit all of the businesses there. He believes the lawsuit has made the city and other businesses cautious about pursuing new ideas, but that new infrastructure is the key to attracting customers to the wharf.

Commitment by the city on a lease will finally move the Miramar project forward. “If you have it in writing, it’s going to get done,” said Gilbert.

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