| Gladstones Malibu | |
|---|---|
 Aerial photo of Gladstones | |
 | |
| Restaurant information | |
| Established | 1972 |
| Street address | 17300 CA-1 |
| City | Pacific Palisades |
| State | California |
| Postal/ZIP Code | 90272 |
| Country | United States |
| Coordinates | 34°2′18″N118°33′24″W / 34.03833°N 118.55667°W |
| Website | gladstones |
Gladstones Malibu is an American seafood restaurant located on the Pacific Coast Highway in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles.
The original Gladstones was opened by Robert J. Morris on the site of the former Ted's Grill in Santa Monica Canyon in 1972 [1] and then moved to its home on the beach at 17300 Pacific Coast Highway in 1981. Morris sold the restaurant in 1984 to W.R. Grace Co. [2] but repurchased it in 1990. [3] Richard Riordan, the former Mayor of Los Angeles, owned Gladstones since the mid-1990s. In 2008, Gladstones was the 37th highest grossing independent restaurant in the country. [4] In 2009, the private company SBE assumed day-to-day operations as part of a management contract with Riordan which expired in 2014. Gladstone's re-assumed management of day-to-day operations thereafter. [5]
The beachfront restaurant has undergone several name changes. When Robert J. Morris opened the restaurant at the site of Ted's Grill, he named it Gladstone's 4 Fish. The restaurant is frequently cited as Gladstone's or simply Gladstones.
The restaurant sold 35 tons of crab, 65,000 lobsters and 19 gallons of clam chowder each year as of 2002 [update] . [6]
On August 8, 2016 Los Angeles County officials were said to press California state officials to allow a 40-year lease of the site of the restaurant to attract a new restaurant to take the place of Gladstones at Malibu. [7] The restaurant, which had previously been the highest-grossing in California, had been claimed to be "seriously deteriorated and outdated" by then-Los Angeles County Supervisor Sheila Kuehl, who among others sought for the restaurant to be replaced with an alternative business. The restaurant continued to remain among the 100 highest-grossing eateries in the United States through the end of 2017. [8] In 2018, Los Angeles County awarded the 40-year lease to new owners PCH Beach Associates LLC, while Riordan remained as the restaurant's concessionaire operator. The new owners announced plans to demolish the existing restaurant and replace it with a new venue designed by Frank Gehry and operated by Wolfgang Puck. [9]
In 2020, amid the widespread shutdown of in-person dining during the COVID-19 pandemic, Supervisor Kuehl sponsored the "Gladstones Rent Relief" motion, which reduced the venue's rent while Los Angeles County kept restaurants from operating below 100 percent capacity. [8] The restaurant remained closed from March through June 2020 as a result of the pandemic, while the plans for the Gehry/Puck restaurant were placed on hold. [9]
In April 2023, longtime owner Richard Riordan died at the age of 92. Shortly thereafter, the concessionaire lease which Riordan's family held on the property expired, and the family did not seek to renew it. The plans for the Gehry/Puck redesign were revived by the property's owners, and Gladstones was announced to be closing in October. [8] However, the County Board of Supervisors found that the property's permits were not in place, and that the venue could remain vacant for two years or longer. To fill the gap, a group of Gladstones employees formed a new operating concessionaire, the Gladstones Legacy Group, and took over operations in October. [9] The employee-owned group received the authority to operate the restaurant until September 15, 2025, after which the Gehry/Puck redevelopment was scheduled to move forward. [10]
During the 2025 Palisades Fire, the restaurant was threatened by the nearby blaze. The restaurant's parking lot served as a media staging area, [11] and as such the business received additional media and live coverage attention. Although initial reports indicated the structure may have been lost, the restaurant survived, with damage being limited to an outside storage area. [12]
Malibu is a beach city in the Santa Monica Mountains region of Los Angeles County, California, about 30 miles (48 km) west of Downtown Los Angeles. It is known for its Mediterranean climate, its strip of beaches stretching 21 miles along the Pacific Ocean coast, and for its longtime status as the home of numerous affluent Hollywood celebrities and executives. Although a high proportion of its residents are entertainment industry figures with multi-million dollar mansions, Malibu also features several middle- and upper-middle-class neighborhoods. The Pacific Coast Highway traverses the city, following along the South Coast of California. As of the 2020 census, the city's population was 10,654. The ongoing 2025 Palisades Fire devastated Malibu, with almost all of the beachfront homes near its center destroyed.
Brentwood is a suburban neighborhood in the Westside region of Los Angeles, California.
Pacific Palisades is a neighborhood in the Westside region of Los Angeles, California, situated about 20 miles (32 km) west of downtown Los Angeles. Starting on January 7, 2025, the majority of Pacific Palisades was severely affected and destroyed by the Palisades Fire, a part of the wider, and ongoing, Southern California wildfires.
Richard Joseph Riordan was an American businessman, investor, military commander, philanthropist, and politician. A decorated Korean War veteran and a member of the Republican Party, Riordan served as the 39th mayor of Los Angeles from 1993 to 2001; as of 2024, he remains the last Republican to hold that office. He ran for governor in the 2002 California gubernatorial election, losing the Republican primary. After politics, he resumed his business career, specializing in private equity.
Wolfgang Johannes Puck is an Austrian chef and restaurateur.
Santa Monica Bay is a bight of the Pacific Ocean in Southern California, United States. Its boundaries are slightly ambiguous, but it is generally considered to be the part of the Pacific within an imaginary line drawn between Point Dume, in Malibu, and the Palos Verdes Peninsula. Its eastern shore forms the western boundary of the Los Angeles Westside and South Bay regions. Although it was fed by the Los Angeles River until the river's catastrophic change of course in 1825, the only stream of any size now flowing into it is Ballona Creek. Smaller waterways draining into the bay include Malibu Creek, Topanga Creek, and Santa Monica Creek.
Topanga is an unincorporated community in western Los Angeles County, California, United States. Located in the Santa Monica Mountains, the community exists in Topanga Canyon and the surrounding hills. The narrow southern portion of Topanga at the coast is between the city of Malibu and the Los Angeles neighborhood of Pacific Palisades. For statistical purposes, the United States Census Bureau has defined Topanga as a census-designated place (CDP). As of the 2020 census the population of the Topanga CDP was 8,560. The ZIP code is 90290 and the area code is primarily 310, with 818 only at the north end of the canyon. It is in the 3rd County Supervisorial district.
Jennifer Diane Grant is an American actress. The daughter of actors Cary Grant and Dyan Cannon, she is best known for roles in the television series Beverly Hills, 90210 and Movie Stars.
The Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area is a United States national recreation area containing many individual parks and open space preserves, located primarily in the Santa Monica Mountains of Southern California. The SMMNRA is in the greater Los Angeles region, with two thirds of the parklands in northwest Los Angeles County, and the remaining third, including a Simi Hills extension, in southeastern Ventura County.
The Western Los Angeles County Council (WLACC) (#051) is one of five Boy Scouts of America councils in Los Angeles County, California. Headquartered in Van Nuys, the council services over 30,000 youth spanning six districts including the San Fernando Valley, Santa Clarita Valley, Antelope Valley, Malibu, and much of West Los Angeles.
The western border of Santa Monica, California, is the 3-mile (4.8 km) stretch of Santa Monica Bay. On its other sides, the city is bordered by various districts of Los Angeles: the northwestern border is Pacific Palisades, the eastern border is Brentwood north of Wilshire Boulevard and West Los Angeles south of Wilshire, the northeastern border is generally San Vicente Boulevard up to the Riviera Country Club, the southwestern border is Venice Beach and the southern border is with West Los Angeles and Mar Vista.
Rustic Canyon is a residential neighborhood and canyon in eastern Pacific Palisades, on the west side of Los Angeles, California. It is along Rustic Creek, in the Santa Monica Mountains.
Stephen Francis Jones is an American architect best known for his high-end restaurant designs and for being the owner of SFJones Architects, Inc.
Cornell is an unincorporated community in the Santa Monica Mountains, within western Los Angeles County, California. It is located 5 miles (8.0 km) west of Agoura Hills and around 2.5 miles (4.0 km) north of Malibu. Cornell's heyday was the 1910s to the 1950s, and the settlement is now essentially a ghost town but a handful of buildings and one functioning restaurant persisted circa 2007.
Barbara Ellen Lazaroff is an American interior designer and restaurateur, and the co-founder of the Wolfgang Puck brand. She has been involved with several women's business and leadership organizations.
Angels at Risk is a 501(c)(3) non-profit charitable organization in Los Angeles, California, United States, founded by Susie Spain, Ted Danson, Mary Steenburgen, Jesse Sisgold and Tom Nolan that focuses on the issue of drug and alcohol use and abuse in kids, teens, and families through their prevention education programs, services, trainings, and curriculum.
Mort's Palisades Deli, more commonly referred to as Mort's Deli, was a Jewish delicatessen located at 1035 Swarthmore Ave on the corner of Sunset Boulevard in Pacific Palisades, California.
Palisades Village is a local shopping village located in Pacific Palisades, California, in the downtown area of the neighborhood known as the "Village", from which the shopping center derives its name.
The Palisades Fire is a wildfire burning in the Santa Monica Mountains of Los Angeles County in Southern California which has killed at least 8 people. As of January 12, 2025, at 11:13 a.m. PST, the fire had spread to 23,713 acres, destroying the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles and nearby Malibu. It is the first and largest of a series of wildfires in and around the city of Los Angeles being driven by an extreme Santa Ana wind event. On January 8, Wildfire Alliance statistics indicated that the fire is the most destructive fire in Los Angeles history, surpassing the Sayre Fire in Sylmar in 2008 which destroyed 604 structures. The cause of the fire is still under investigation.
Corpus Christi Catholic Church was a Catholic church in Pacific Palisades, California. It was destroyed in January 2025 during the Palisades Fire.
