Gladstones Restaurant

What Gladstones Restaurant does

Gladstones Restaurant is a single-location, historic full-service beachfront restaurant located at 17300 Pacific Coast Highway in Pacific Palisades, California, at the iconic intersection of PCH and Sunset Boulevard. Founded in 1972 and originally owned by former Los Angeles Mayor Richard J. Riordan, the restaurant has operated continuously for over 50 years and is now run by the Gladstones Legacy Group—an employee- and management-led entity formed to preserve the brand, recipes, and standards following the original owner's passing. The establishment serves lunch and dinner featuring fresh seafood, steaks, and classic American cuisine, complemented by a full bar program (cocktails, wine, draft beer), weekend brunch, private beach event rentals, and a public deck for passive recreation. Customers include families, tourists, and Pacific Palisades/Malibu local residents.

The underlying operating stack is intentionally simple: the dine-in service runs on traditional in-restaurant operations with no reservation system currently in place, while to-go ordering is processed through the Toasttab platform, which also hosts the newsletter signup and careers page. Gift cards are sold through GiftLocal as a third-party e-commerce partner. There is no proprietary technology, no mobile app, no API surface, and no integration ecosystem disclosed. The website is built on Squarespace and serves as a static marketing and menu display layer.

The business model is direct-to-consumer and unit-priced, with revenue generated per cover via à la carte menu items ranging from $5 sides to $105 Surf & Turf, plus cocktails ($16), wine ($13–$72), and draft beer ($8–$9). Supplementary revenue streams include prepaid gift cards, private event rentals of the beach space, and to-go pickup orders via Toasttab. Distribution is single-channel and single-location: dine-in is the dominant channel, supplemented by online to-go and gift card e-commerce. Marketing is primarily organic—Instagram (@gladstonesmalibu), email newsletter, and significant earned media coverage tied to the Palisades Fire survival story and 50+ year legacy.

Name

Gladstones Restaurant

Legal name

Gladstones

Website

https://gladstones.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1972

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Gladstones Restaurant is a historic 50-plus-year-old beachfront full-service restaurant in Pacific Palisades, California, serving fresh seafood, American cuisine, cocktails, and weekend brunch to families, tourists, and local residents, operated by employee-led Gladstones Legacy Group.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Beachfront Dining Restaurant

NAICS

Full-Service Restaurants (722511), Restaurants and Other Eating Places (72251)

SIC

Retail-Eating & Drinking Places (5810), Retail-Eating Places (5812)

akta.pro primary industry

Steakhouses & Seafood Restaurants (THAFACAE)

akta.pro secondary industries

Fine Dining Restaurants (THAFACAA), Casual Dining Restaurants (THAFACAB), Venue & Banquet Hall Catering (THAFAIAC)

Keywords

• Beachfront dining
• Fresh seafood restaurant
• American cuisine
• Private event venue
• Malibu restaurant

Headquarters

HQ city

Pacific Palisades

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Supply Chain, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Dine-in Restaurant Service: Full-service beachfront restaurant offering lunch and dinner with menu items including appetizers, soups, salads, mains, sandwiches, sides, desserts, cocktails, wine, and draft beers. Revenue generated from food and beverage sales at the table.
2. To-Go Orders: Online ordering through Toasttab platform for customers to order food for pickup. Expands customer base beyond dine-in capacity.
3. Gift Cards: Sale of gift cards through GiftLocal platform, driving prepaid revenue and customer acquisition.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels3 records

Core offering

Gladstones Restaurant operates a full-service beachfront dining establishment at Pacific Palisades, California, serving lunch, dinner, and weekend brunch featuring fresh seafood, steaks, sandwiches, salads, and classic American cuisine complemented by a full bar program with cocktails, wine, and draft beers. The restaurant supplements dine-in service with to-go ordering through the Toasttab platform, private event rentals, gift card sales, and access to an adjacent public deck.

Product overview

Gladstones Restaurant is a historic Malibu beachside dining establishment offering a unified restaurant service experience. The core offering includes lunch and dinner dining featuring fresh seafood, steaks, and classic American cuisine, complemented by a full bar program with cocktails, wine, and craft beers. Supporting services include takeout ordering via ToastTab platform, weekend brunch service, private event rentals, and public deck access. The restaurant operates as a single-location establishment at Pacific Coast Highway and Sunset Boulevard.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Dine-In Lunch and Dinner Service Full-service beachfront lunch and dinner dining at the Pacific Palisades location featuring appetizers, soups, salads, seafood and steak mains, sandwiches, sides, and desserts with indoor and outdoor seating and ocean views. Open daily from 11am with no reservations currently accepted.
• Weekend Brunch Service Weekend brunch service offered on Saturdays and Sundays from 10am to 1pm featuring the restaurant's signature dishes including the World Famous Clam Chowder, targeting families and celebratory occasions.
• To-Go Ordering Takeout ordering service allowing customers to order the restaurant's food and beverages for pickup, powered by the Toasttab online platform, extending reach beyond dine-in capacity.
• Private Beach Rental Space Private event space at the beachfront location available for rental for special occasions, corporate events, celebrations, and gatherings.
• Gift Cards Gift cards available for purchase through the GiftLocal platform, allowing customers to give dining experiences at the restaurant as gifts; drives prepaid revenue and customer acquisition.

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

Three partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• ToasttabcoreTechnology or IntegrationOnline ordering and point-of-sale platform partner. Gladstones uses Toasttab for to-go order processing and also leverages Toasttab's marketing signup platform for newsletter collection. The platform handles operational ordering workflows.
• GiftLocalminorChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorThird-party gift card platform. GiftLocal hosts Gladstones gift cards for sale through their e-commerce platform, enabling customers to purchase and send digital or physical gift cards.
• Gladstones Legacy GroupcoreOthersFounded by the staff and management team at the original Gladstones Restaurant to maintain its name, standards, and legacy. This entity represents the ownership/operating group that revived and continues the restaurant following the original owner's passing.

Scale indicators2 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Catch LA: Catch LA is a celebrity-frequented seafood-driven fine dining restaurant in Los Angeles with a comparable high-end seafood menu, cocktail program, and Instagram-worthy positioning that competes for the same tourist and special-occasion spend Gladstones targets.
• Mastro's Steakhouse: Mastro's is an upscale steakhouse and seafood chain with strong SoCal beach-adjacent presence, overlapping Gladstones' premium seafood and steak menu items ($35-$105 mains) and similar cocktail/wine programs aimed at affluent diners.
• The Sunset Restaurant: The Sunset Restaurant is a nearby Pacific Palisades restaurant sharing the same Sunset Blvd corridor and overlapping local-resident customer base, offering a comparable full-service American menu at similar price tiers.
• Paradise Cove Beach Cafe: Paradise Cove is a historic Malibu beachside restaurant with comparable casual-beachfront positioning, family-friendly atmosphere, and tourist appeal, directly competing for the family-and-visitor segment Gladstones serves.
• Geoffrey's Malibu: Geoffrey's is another iconic beachfront Malibu restaurant at a nearby PCH location, offering upscale American and seafood dining with similar sunset-and-ocean positioning, comparable price points, and overlapping tourist and special-occasion customer segments.
• Malibu Farm: Malibu Farm operates at the Malibu Pier with a farm-to-table seafood and American menu, serving overlapping beachfront tourist and local diners at a slightly more casual price point than Gladstones but in the same Malibu dining category.
• Duke's Malibu: Duke's Malibu is the closest direct peer — a beachfront full-service seafood restaurant on Pacific Coast Highway that reopened alongside Gladstones after the Palisades Fire, serving a similar tourist and local Malibu clientele with seafood-focused menus and ocean views.
• Nobu Malibu: Nobu Malibu is a high-end Japanese-seafood restaurant on the Malibu coast, competing directly for the same affluent tourist, celebrity, and special-occasion diner seeking a premium beachfront experience at comparable price points to Gladstones' surf & turf tier.

Regional players

• Ocean Park Beach House: Ocean Park Beach House is a Santa Monica-area beachfront restaurant that competes for the broader Los Angeles coastal dining tourist spend, with similar seafood and casual-fine positioning but operating in a different sub-market from Gladstones' Malibu core.

Emerging players

• Lazy Dog Restaurant: Lazy Dog is a growing California-based casual full-service chain with comparable American menu breadth, beachfront-adjacent locations, and family-friendly positioning; not a direct beachfront competitor but competes for casual family dining occasions.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Instagraminstagram.com/gladstonesmalibu
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/gladstones-restaurant

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Gladstones Restaurant