The fire-charred end of the Oceanside Municipal Pier will remain off limits to visitors for at least another two summers, city officials said.
Talks are underway with the lease-holder of the restaurant and food kiosk destroyed by a blaze in April 2024, Associate Engineer Luis Cardenas said in an email Friday.
“We are still assessing our options in regards to rebuilding the restaurant and kiosk,” Cardenas said. “In the meantime, we’ve asked the tenant to move forward with developing the building plans.”
Once plans are ready, obtaining the necessary permits will take six months to a year, and construction could start in the fall of 2026, Cardenas said. The City Council approved a 10-year extension on the lease June 21, 2023, including the option for two five-year extensions.
City officials have said the repairs will cost as much as $17 million, excluding the buildings, and that insurance should cover most of the expense. State and federal elected officials have offered to help where possible, which may include obtaining grant money to help pay for construction.
“If we do move forward with the rebuild of the restaurant and kiosk, the tenant will be responsible for it, including obtaining all necessary permits and approvals,” Cardenas said.
Permits will be needed from agencies including the California Coastal Commission, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, state Department of Fish and Wildlife, federal Fish and Wildlife, State Water Resources Control Board, and the city’s Building Division and Water Utilities Department.
Investigators said a short in old electrical wires beneath the pier’s deck started the blaze.
Fire departments from across North County responded quickly and confined the damage to the buildings, the decking and railings at the T-shaped western end of the nearly 2,000-foot-long pier. While the flames’ spread was stopped within hours, the preservative-soaked timbers continued to smolder for days.
The two-story restaurant and the small, separate, single-story kiosk were leased to RAV, LLC, a San Francisco company owned by attorney Alex Leff, under a contract approved by the City Council. Leff also has other restaurant interests and is involved in a partnership renovating the famed Cliff House restaurant in San Francisco, according to the news website SFGate.
The pier’s Brine Box kiosk opened in July 2023 and until the day of the fire was operated by husband-and-wife restaurateurs Jessica and Davin Waite, known for their Wrench & Rodent, The Plot, and Shootz Fish & Beer restaurants in Oceanside.
Oceanside’s first pier was built in 1888 a few blocks south of the present one. The wooden portion of today’s pier is the sixth version, completed in 1987. The eatery there opened in 1988 as the upscale seafood Fisherman’s Restaurant and Lounge, according to news archives.
The more affordable 1950s-style, burgers-and-shakes Ruby’s Diner arrived in 1996 after the Fisherman’s Restaurant failed because of slow business, states a 2008 San Diego Union-Tribune story.
Ruby’s went to take-out orders only early in 2020 because of the pandemic and about a year later closed permanently. The building remained vacant at the time of the fire, although Brine Box employees had been using the kitchen.
