Ruby's at the End of Balboa Pier: 44 Years of Burgers Over the Waves, and Seven More on the Lease

Published November 8, 2026

A view of Ruby's diner on Balboa Pier with people dining and the beach in the background.

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NEWPORT BEACH | AROUND NEWPORT | NOVEMBER 8, 2026

Every Newport kid has done it: walk the length of the Balboa Pier, past the fishermen and the pelicans, for a shake at the little red-and-white diner hanging over the ocean. That diner is a city tenant, and the city just gave it seven more years.

How it started

The city built the Balboa Pier in 1939, about 920 feet out over the sand and ocean at Main Street, with a small building at the end. Concessions and bait shops came and went. By 1977 the place had fallen apart and closed. In 1982, Douglas Cavanaugh leased it, did a small remodel and opened in December. It was supposed to be seasonal. Instead it turned into a whole restaurant chain, named after his mom, Ruby.

The pier location has been run since 2010 by franchisee John Fisher’s Heritage Restaurant Management. Ruby’s Diner Inc. went bankrupt in 2018, and the brand now belongs to RD Franchise Systems.

The deal

The old lease ran out July 1, 2025. In June 2025 the council added one more seven-year term, so it now runs to July 1, 2032. The tenant asked for the time to plan a major remodel and negotiate a new long-term lease. The council waived its usual policy of putting city property out to bid, finding that a tenant switch would mean too much vacancy and cost.

The rent is the greater of $46,835.40 a year or 6% of sales (6.5% above $1 million). Staff said the city collected more than $150,000 a year in percentage rent the last three years. Burgers over the ocean pay. Then in July 2026, the council awarded a new trash enclosure at the base of the pier, with Ruby’s chipping in up to $50,000.

The catch

The city’s harbor plan has the whole Balboa Pier getting replaced around 2034 to 2037. The diner’s lease ends in 2032. A big diner remodel on a pier scheduled to be torn out a few years later is an expensive way to find out nobody compared calendars.

So, City Hall: are the remodel and the pier replacement being planned together? Locals would like their shake to survive both.

Sources

Ruby’s at the End of Balboa Pier: 44 Years of Burgers Over the Waves, and Seven More on the Lease

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