Editorial: Arches closure a loss for the area

This week’s news about the shuttering of a Newport Beach institution, the Arches restaurant, was unfortunate. The steak and seafood house, which opened in Newport Beach in 1922, moved to a new location at 508 29th St. on the Balboa Peninsula a scant 31 months ago.

The Arches over the decades had counted Hollywood legends among its patrons, serving the likes of John Wayne, Humphrey Bogart and Gary Cooper.

That nearly 90-year run has been broken.

This came a year after the restaurant’s owner had to shutter a similarly named establishment, Arches on the Water, at 2816 Lafayette St., because of a lack of business.

Dan Marcheano, the Arches’ longtime owner and operator, says he had to shut down his famous restaurant because of problems with obtaining a permit from the city to operate a full service bar at the 29th Street location.

He claims that when he signed the lease in 2007, he was unaware that the property was equipped with a built-in bar that wasn’t up to city code.

However, David Lepo, the city’s planning director, contradicts Marcheano’s claim, saying that the restaurateur could have kept the Arches going on 29th Street because Marcheano had the city’s permission to operate the bar there — which, Marcheano insists, is not the case. What’s even more puzzling is that Lepo provided us with a copy of the permit for 508 29th St., which was approved two years ago today.

Either way, the closure is too bad because Marcheano is a Newport Beach institution in himself. The old Marine has hosted busloads of Camp Pendleton Marines at his restaurant, and he’s shown himself to be among Newport-Mesa’s most generous residents.

He’s given back to the community in many ways, including chairing Newport Beach’s 1/1 Adoption Committee, which reaches out the city’s adopted military unit, the 1st Battalion, 1st Marines.

Marcheano now says that he plans to re-open the Arches at another location in Newport Beach and that he’s busy negotiating a lease.

We hope that the restaurant comes back. But we’ll wait till the ink dries on that document, and Marcheano obtains the permits he’ll need to bring back the Arches at another site, before we pronounce its return as fact.