GrCommunity organisations fighting to save a historic riverside pub have joined forces in “unprecedented number” to oppose a planning appeal.
The defunct Penny Ferry in Chesterton, which has a long association with rowers along the River Cam, was saved from demolition by councillors in July following a campaign supported by heritage groups and 557 residents.
Planning permission had previously been granted on appeal for construction of five houses on the site. But since then the roads around Water Street have become part of a conservation area, meaning that separate consent was needed to flatten the closed pub which had been called the Penny Ferry but was more recently named the Pike and Eel.
The owners of the former Pike and Eel then lodged an appeal against the refusal of conservation area demolition consent.
Lynette Gilbert, chairman of the Riverside Area Residents Association (RARA), said: “The Penny Ferry is an iconic location steeped in history with the rowing community of Cambridge.
“An unprecendented number of groups have now come together to oppose the owners’ appeal against the refusal of demolition. I can’t remember the last time so many groups got together.
“The pub is of great benefit to the community and in such a good location.”
Among the groups opposing the demolition are the Old Chesterton Residents Association, RARA and the Fen Estate and Nuffield Road Residents Association.
Other organisations include Friends of Stourbridge Common, Save Our Green Spaces, Cambridge Past, Present and Future, the Campaign for Real Ale (Camra), Chesterton Community Association, Cam Conservators and the Cambridgeshire Rowing Association.
In July, members of the north area committee said the pub, which has been closed for a number of years, made an important contribution to the character of the neighbourhood because of its history, its role in the community and its setting across the Cam from Stourbridge Common.
Alistair Cook, of the Camra Cambridge and District branch, said: “Our view is this is fantastic location for a pub and is good for walkers and rowers along the river. I have spoken to many landlords across the city who have backed our view.”
As founder and chief executive of Ruby Restaurant Group, Doug Cavanaugh oversees a chain of 37 Ruby's Diner restaurants in six states, including eateries at five airports. His first Ruby's Diner, which opened in 1982, was a renovated bait shop on Balboa Pier in Newport Beach that had been slated for demolition. The Irvine company celebrated its 30-year anniversary in December.
Cavanaugh, 56, was born and raised in Los Angeles, where he lived until he was 12, before moving to Tustin, where his mother still lives in his childhood home. He has fond memories of Los Angeles. He often biked past the oil fields near Baldwin Hills and watched cars race at the Ascot Park speedway in Gardena. "I grew up in L.A. in the golden age," he says. "When the streetlights came on, it was time to come home."
The summer they moved to Orange County, Cavanaugh's family stayed in a motel near Disneyland while their house was being built. Cavanaugh spent nearly every day at Disneyland that summer, and says the theme park's rigorous attention to detail and focus on providing a unique experience left an impression. "I got my MBA in Disney at the age of 12," he jokes. "I've really tried to bring those principles to Ruby's."
What he didn't glean from "The happiest place on Earth," Cavanaugh says he learned from his father, who ran a real estate and construction business. "My dad was a classic entrepreneur, a hardworking guy," he says. Cavanaugh would drive with his father to construction sites or sit beside him at meetings. His first job, at the age of 8, was sterilizing copper pipes for the construction crews, for which he was paid 50 cents an hour, as he remembers it. "And I was happy to get it."
In high school, he formed a business of his own, scrubbing down boats with a school buddy at Newport Harbor — though, he admits, it was really to meet girls. When he graduated with a marketing degree from USC in 1979, Cavanaugh was looking for his next big venture.
It came to him on Mother's Day of 1980, as he and some of his friends were flipping through The Times as they sat in a hot tub. There in the real estate pages was an advertisement for nine acres of oceanfront property on Nantucket Island, complete with cottages, a restaurant and a pool. They flew out east to investigate, and within months Cavanaugh had opened his first restaurant, the Summer House, with his partners. "It was really intoxicating because it clicked very quickly," Cavanaugh says.
He received a crash course in the restaurant business from a partner, his ex-girlfriend's mother. He developed recipes, culled ingredients and tended bar. Soon, patrons were flying private jets in from New York City just for dinner. "It was instant gratification.... You knew exactly how well you did that day," says Cavanaugh, and he instantly fell in love with the restaurant business.
He saw the building one day jogging on the beach near the Balboa Pier. It stood abandoned with a huge redwood tub in the center that once held bait. "It was in terrible shape; it was about ready to fall down," Cavanaugh says.
The bait shop was constructed in 1940 in the "streamline modern" style, something Cavanaugh says screamed "diner." When he approached the city originally, officials dismissed him as young and inexperienced. In 1982, he sold his stake in the Nantucket restaurant and returned. "I didn't make a dime. But I got my education," Cavanaugh says. "I now viewed myself as this worldly restaurateur of 26."
Cavanaugh and his new partner, junior high buddy Ralph Kosmides, pleaded with the city to let them restore the building, which leaders had planned to tear down. This time, the city relented. Cavanaugh and Kosmides embarked on a "stick-by-stick" restoration of the place, doing much of the work themselves. They pored over literature about '40s diners and scoured antique shops for vintage Coca-Cola signs, cigarette machines and red vinyl booths until the 45-seat diner was just right. Customers often mistakenly think the restaurant has been around since the 1940s.
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