Crab Cooker’s sign of the times will head into the future

You will still be able to “look up here.”

The Crab Cooker restaurant, a family-owned Newport Beach institution, received unanimous approval from the city Planning Commission Thursday to retain the iconic, fish-shaped sign that has beckoned customers to its dining room at Newport Boulevard and 22nd Street for decades.

“Don’t look up here,” the neon red halibut irreverently declares.

But for generations, diners have done just that as they crossed under the sign to eat Dungeness crab cakes and other fruits of the sea off paper plates in the landmark eatery — except during the last year and a half. The restaurant has been under reconstruction during that time after foundation damage related to construction of the condominiums next door.

Tearing down and rebuilding on the same spot made more economic sense to the Crab Cooker’s owners than renovations, so in September 2018 the building came down after serving as the restaurant’s home for 67 years.

Now, with construction nearing its end, it’s time for some detail work, like seeking an exception for the whimsical sign that would otherwise be out of code. The restaurant has other, more conventional identifiers facing 22nd and Newport Boulevard, and the fish would have exceeded the generally allowed total amount of signage.

A fish out of scale, as it were.

But the city had a way to grandfather in the fish — declare it a “heritage sign” for its historical and visual significance.

The commission readily agreed.

“I thought this application was a little fishy,” commission chair Peter Koetting said, “but I won’t be crabby about it.”

The commission also permitted the restaurant to retain its green, old-world-style street clock and matching exterior benches overhanging the sidewalk.

The replacement building, on track for opening this summer, will be roughly the same size as its predecessor and have a similar layout, with an airy, semi-enclosed patio, larger restrooms and a second floor for storage. In addition to the fish sign, the exterior will retain its familiar fire engine-hued walls and green-and-white-striped awnings.

And the menu will be the same. A dozen employees have stayed with the company working at the Crab Cooker’s sister restaurant in Tustin, smoking fish and making chowder to the north, said owner Jim Wasko.

“We very much look forward to bringing it back to Newport Beach, our home,” he said.

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