In 1946, three Long Beach motorcycle cops and their wives opened the Walnut Grove Restaurant at 32065 State Highway 101 (now Camino Capistrano), in San Juan Capistrano. The owners were Fred L. and Lorraine Newhart, John A. and Lucille Janton, and Mr. & Mrs. H. A. Harvey. There was both a restaurant and a gas station, with the wives running the 18-seat diner and the men pumping gas. Later, it seems Newhart family became the sole owners..
Much as the padres had planned almost two centuries earlier, San Juan Capistrano served as a good stopping-off point on the trek between San Diego and Los Angeles. In an area with few restaurants, the Walnut Grove was soon a hit with truckers and other travelers.
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The food was traditional American fare, including steaks, pot roast, turkey, fried chicken, and meatloaf. (Also note the abalone steaks advertised on their awning in the photo above.) They eventually operated their own bakery as well.
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The place was busy -- especially in the summer -- and Hollywood stars were among their "regulars." The room in the back featuring slot machines probably didn't hurt their popularity either, but the police shut down the gambling in 1951.
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Perhaps somewhat ironically, the restaurant was popular with law enforcement officers. It's also worth noting that the future Orange County Sheriff Brad Gates had his first job at the Walnut Grove, bussing tables.
By the mid-1950s, the place was popular enough that a second restaurant, called The Walnut Grove Coast Restaurant, was opened in Dana Point. (The pink, two-story building shown above.) It didn't last. But the original Capistrano restaurant thrived, even after moving, in 1960, to a larger location at 26871 Ortega Highway (shown below).
The place suffered a fire in 1979, (from which it bounced back), and the death of original owner, Fred Newhart, Jr., in 1994. By the 1990s, Ben and Sharon Newhart were operating the place..
Over the years, the Walnut Grove became less of a highway diner and more of a family restaurant. Their customers were now more often locals and regulars rather than truckers and travelers.
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But many things also remained the same. As their website pointed out, "Some of their servers have been there since 1946. And, they can run circles around the young ones."
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Unfortunately, declining business and "extraordinary time demands" forced the closure of the Walnut Grove in 2005.
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Today, even the building is gone, soon to be replaced by something called the Plaza Banderas Hotel Project. This new development, which also takes in the footprints of the old Mission Inn Motel and an Arco Station, will include a 124-room hotel, a restaurant, and 6,509 feet of commercial space. Plans show Mission Spanish Colonial style buildings, designed to not clash with the Mission across the street.
