If you're a fan of BeachFire - a popular downtown San Clemente restaurant - get ready for the sequel.  Only it won't really be a BeachFire II that owner Dave Donaldson is planning to create in a new 12,000-square-foot Municipal Golf Course Clubhouse that the city's beaches, parks and recreation department expects to begin building in June.  It'll have its own personality, its own pricing, its own mission, tailored to the golfing community and to the rest of San Clemente, Donaldson said.  The new yet unnamed eating establishment will replace Bogey's, a restaurant that Donaldson said he - as a golfer - enjoys and respects.  But when the City Council accepted competitive proposals for a new food and beverage concession to fit inside a new $4.1 million clubhouse, City Council members liked Donaldson's proposal best.

 

"The concept is that it will be a community center.  We hope that this will be one of the institutions of San Clemente."  Donaldson said the restaurant and bar will be able to handle parties of up to 200 people - sports team banquets, business meetings, weddings and the like - and can offer a level of services for golf tournaments like never before.  Patrons will be able to sit at a sunken bar overlooking the golf course driving range and the first and 10th tees, Donaldson said.  "And we have an outdoor dining deck with a wood-burning fire pit.  That's to sit around and keep warm as the sun sets.  Its going to be a lot of fun."

 

Donaldson, who plays golf, lives in the south part of town and owns a golf cart.  He said he is a big fan of the course.  "I know how to balance the needs of the golf course with the needs of the city," he said.  "The theme is really going to be about honoring the San Clemente lifestyle," said Donaldson.  "We very much want to pay homage to the great history of the course and at the same time create a space that is really comfortable and exciting to the citizens.  We are situating the restaurant to be a restaurant on its own, so at night we hope we can have enough business to do a strong nighttime dinner business."

 

Growing up in Yorba Linda and Santa Barbara, Donaldson remembers surfing as a youth at San Clemente's beaches.  He went into the restaurant business managing a Chart House in Marina del Rey and moving to San Clemente in 1995 while becoming manager of the Chart House in Dana Point.  He and wife Allison saw potential for their own downtown San Clmenete restaurant.  "We risked evry penny we had and more, and it's worked," Donaldson said. 

 

As he said, don't expect a BeachFire clone.  We'll have the benefits of being related to BeachFire.  We'll get a better pruchasing price.  We'll be able to provide higher quality at a good value. 

 

View the front and second page photos from the article in the BeachFire website photo gallery.