Rick Bayless concept headed to UTC

Red O, a Rick Bayless-inspired restaurant that has a location in Newport Beach's Fashion Island center, will replace Donovan's in UTC area.

Red O, an upscale restaurant brand that showcases celebrity chef Rick Bayless authentic Mexican cuisine, is coming to San Diego where it will take the place of Donovans Prime Steakhouse.

The Irvine Co., landlord for the 825,000-square-foot Plaza office complex in the UTC area where the restaurant will be located, announced Monday its plans for the space that Donovans will vacate Jan. 3 before relocating to its new home on Prospect Street in La Jolla.

Red O and the Irvine Co., which will raze the standalone Donovans restaurant structure, expect to invest $7 million in creating the new 8,300-square-foot restaurant that will also include a 2,000-square-foot patio. The Irvine Co. will start construction in early 2015, with an opening expected in mid-2016 across from Westfield UTC.

The move marks the first San Diego location for Red O, which already operates in Los Angeles and Fashion Island in Newport Beach and will be opening in Santa Monica as well. Bayless cuisine, which is inspired by the food typically found in various regions of Mexico, most notably the Yucatan, Oaxaca and Baja California, is the centerpiece of Red Os menu.

Bayless, while not technically a co-owner or partner in the Red O restaurants, has complete control over the menu, and his team trains all the chefs at his well-known Chicago restaurants, Topolobampo and Frontera Grill. Everything on the menu must be approved and tasted by Bayless personally, said Red O Chief Operating Officer Jason Miranda.

Were taking a steak and seafood restaurant and adding a Mexican twist so people would be wrong to categorize us as a typical Mexican restaurant, Miranda explained. Therefore its upscale dining with a ticket average of $70 plus per person, the same price point as Donovans.

Obviously it caters to upscale neighborhoods, and La Jolla being an upscale neighborhood, it can support these type of cuisines because of the affluence in the area. We thought it could be a good fit.

The move to San Diego is part of an expansion plan to bring the Red O concept to other locations across the country, with one to two openings planned a year, Miranda said.

Red O in Newport Beach is one of the top performing restaurants among Fashion Islands nearly 50 dining venues, said Irvine Co. spokesman Michael Lyster. Bayless is a James Beard award winner and host of the PBS series Mexico: One Plate at a Time.

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Rick Bayless concept headed to UTC