SAN DIEGO – A new bar and restaurant has opened in The Pearl Hotel in Point Loma with the unlikely name of Ponyboy.
The name might sound more suitable for a cowboy bar, but it comes from the main character and narrator of S.E. Hinton’s 1967 novel, “The Outsiders,” and is also a tongue-in-cheek reference to Ponyboy’s general manager, Ian Ward, who said that he considers himself a bit of an outsider and was a regular at the bar for years before it was renovated.
“I just always loved this property,” Ward said.
General Manager
Ponyboy
Opened by Service Animals in partnership with Casetta Group, the restaurant serves new versions of classic dishes from the 1950s and 1960s, which fits in with its setting – The Pearl Hotel – designed by San Diego architect Robert Platt in 1959 and renovated by the Casetta Group in 2020.
Ward, who is the creative director of Service Animals as well as the general manager of Ponyboy, said that he wanted the design of Ponyboy to play off the look that Platt gave the hotel when he designed it.
Ward collects cookbooks and culinary magazines from the 1950s and 1960s, which he said served as the inspiration for Ponyboy’s menu.
“I just went on a little bit of a crazy spree of buying old gourmet magazines and going through old recipes,” Ward said. “It was kind of fun diving into 1950s and 1960s cookbooks and finding hidden gems.”
The renovation of the restaurant and bar mostly entailed updating colors, bringing in new furnishings and adding “some more fun textures,” said Brandi Russell, Casetta vice president of sales and marketing.
Capturing a ‘Moody Era’
“We redid our lounge at the entry, so now you walk in and you have this beautiful velvet sofa, which really is a nod to that era of the ‘Mad Men’ time,” Russell said, referring to the television series about an advertising agency in the late 1950s and 1960s. “You see this super, sexy bar that has dark ceilings and mid-century lighting now.”
The bar is cladded in seafoam green, with vintage wicker-like chairs and teak rectangular tables and burgundy outdoor patio chairs.
The predominant color is Silver Lake Blue, a lighter shade of blue.
“We probably tried 10 different colors, and this is just what felt moody,” Russell said. “Ponyboy obviously is of a moody era, and we wanted to bring that into this beautiful bar and that color worked best.”
Like the Pearl Hotel itself, the food menu and cocktails at Ponyboy harken back to the 1950s and the 1960s, but “it has a modern take,” said Danny Romero, culinary director of Service Animals.
Culinary Director
Service Animals
Combined with the décor, the Ponyboy’s menu is meant to give patrons a sense that they’re stepping back in time, but with a twist so that it doesn’t feel dated, Romero said.
The offerings include fondues with artisanal cheeses and fresh local farm fruits, a modified tuna casserole with potato-crusted bluefin tuna in a nod to San Diego’s historic tuna fishing industry, Chicken Kiev with burnt honey mustard and Robuchon potatoes, an updated version of oyster Rockefeller, beef stroganoff, cherries jubilee, and homemade rocky road ice cream.
“A lot of these things are still here. They’re just not always concentrated into one menu and approached thematically. That’s kind of the allure of what we’re doing,” Romero said. ν
Service Animals
FOUNDED: February 2024
HEADQUARTERS: San Diego
CEO: Wylie Swanson
BUSINESS: restaurant group
EMPLOYEES: Service Animals is made up of six managing partners
WEBSITE: Serviceanimalsgroup.com
CONTACT: info@serviceanimalsgroup.com; 619.273.3375
