History of the MiraMar Restaurant

The worn and weathered motel and adjacent property at 815 North Coast Highway has seen better days, and its remaining days are numbered. There is no arguing that the property is an eyesore but there’s a history behind each building and this one is worth telling.

The cornerstone of the old Mira Mar Restaurant and Motor Inn complex was a house built in 1887, which was once the home of William Bandini Couts. Even after 135+ years, it is still recognizable because of its architectural details and roofline. This residence was originally located on the east side of the 700 block of North Hill Street (North Coast Highway). It was moved to its location at 815 North Hill Street in about 1920 and doubled as a residence and a roadside cafe called the M&M Barbecue.

Prior to its role as a restaurant, after it was moved, the site served as Baker Nursery owned by James Baker who promoted and sold avocado and naval orange trees in 1927 to 1929.

In about 1930 the building became a restaurant called Ray’s Café that did quite well because of the traffic coming through Oceanside on the Highway 101. Ray’s moved one block north and the former Couts’ residence would become the M & M Bar-B-Q operated by a couple named Mac and Mazie.

“Mack” Roman Evashchuck was born in 1896 in Russia and came to the US in 1916. As a new immigrant, he enlisted in the service in March of 1918 during World War I, assigned to the Medical Attachment of the 137th Aero Squadron. He served a little more than a year and was honorably discharged.

In 1930 Mack was living in Beverly Hills, California and working as a chef. He came to Oceanside in 1932 and along with Mazie S. Eckhart, opened the M&M Barbecue. Their roadside café was an instant success.

Mack’s business partner, Mazie Grace Severt, was born in 1898 in Pike, Oregon. She was married to Clarence Eckhart in 1925 and the couple moved to Los Angeles in 1930. Clarence worked for an ice company while Mazie worked as a waitress. Clarence died in a tragic accident on August 18, 1930 while driving his delivery truck.

It is very likely Mack and Mazie were working together at the same restaurant in Los Angeles when they decided to go into business together in Oceanside.

The M&M Bar-B-Q was the perfect place to stop for hungry motorists coming into Oceanside. It would be one of the first restaurants they would see coming into town. It was also convenient that Harold Fikstad had a service station next door to the south.

In 1936 Mack, as a representative of the Oceanside Chamber of Commerce, began to promote semi-pro baseball, eventually serving as commissioner. In November of that year Mack and Mazie traveled to Reno, Nevada where they were married.

Their happiness would be short lived, however, as Mack became ill and was hospitalized for over a year. He died May 7, 1939 and was buried at the Los Angeles National Cemetery. Mazie did not stay in Oceanside. The restaurant which bore their initials M&M closed temporarily but would reopen and come back better than ever.

Oliver Morris, owner of the Carlsbad Hotel, purchased the property in 1942 and opened M & M Restaurant, elevating the roadside café to a destination spot.  A grand opening was held July 28, 1942.

It would become one of the most popular restaurants in Oceanside (and perhaps North San Diego County) in its time, frequented by residents and tourists along with Hollywood celebrities and politicians, such Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, Barry Goldwater, Pierre Salinger, and California Governor Ronald Reagan.

Oliver Miller Morris was born in 1895 in Ohio. He too served in World War I and in 1917 married Gladys Genevieve Goodwin, whose father was an hotelier. In 1919 “Ollie” Morris owned and managed the Hotel Akron in Ohio. He and Gladys were mentioned countless times in the “society” columns of the local newspaper there. They had three daughters, Georgeann, twins Mary and Barbara, and a son Thomas.

In 1938 Morris sold his hotel in Akron and the following year it was announced that he had purchased the California-Carlsbad Hotel in Carlsbad, California.

With the opening of his new restaurant in Oceanside, Morris aimed to make the M & M Restaurant memorable, referred to as a swanky place and noted in society and travel columns in Los Angeles and Palm Springs.

In 1942 daughter Georgeann Morris married Nacio Herb Brown, a songwriter who wrote popular songs and Broadway hits such as “Singin’ in the Rain” and “Good Morning”, among others. Brown had a home in Oceanside’s exclusive enclave, St. Malo, and the restaurant benefitted with this “Hollywood” connection.

Morris sold the Carlsbad Hotel in the 1940s and he and Gladys Morris purchased a large ranch on Gopher Canyon Road. Sadly, Gladys Morris died in 1946.

Oliver Morris became president of the Ocean-Desert Highway Association in 1949, promoting travel between Oceanside and Palm Springs. He was also elected as president of the Oceanside Chamber of Commerce. He continued to operate his Oceanside restaurant renamed the MiraMar Restaurant in 1949, which was advertised as “one of Southern California showplaces.” Angel Crosthwaite was the head of the MiraMar’s “special entertainment staff” in the Ship Room. Assisting him were Doris Ferris and Thelma Sheets.

One of the most notable features of the MiraMar was the Rocking Ship that marked its entrance. It was built by B. E. Jones in the late 1940s. In 1952 a wine and food shop was added to the north side of the restaurant.

In the late 1950’s Morris became co-owner of the Bel Air Hotel in Los Angeles. It was frequented by Hollywood stars including Marilyn Monroe, Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn.

Morris remarried in 1962 to Patti Higgins, public relations director for the Beverly Hilton Hotel where she handled hotel relations with many notables, including Presidents Truman, Eisenhower and Kennedy. The couple honeymooned in Europe, their nuptials featured in society and gossip columns.

In 1955 the MiraMar Restaurant was sold to Frank Marcom and D. R. “Mike” Daugherty. The pair had managed the restaurant for nearly five years. A corporation, the MiraMar Restaurant, Inc., was formed with Morris as president, Daugherty as vice-president and Marcom as secretary-treasurer.

Mike Daugherty worked for Morris from 1934 to 1939 in the hotel business while living in Ohio. He came to California when Morris purchased the Carlsbad Hotel and then returned to Ohio until 1951 when he again relocated to California, along with his three children, Kathleen, Michael and Sue.

In January of 1958 Daugherty announced plans for a 25-unit motel and pool next door to the MiraMar Restaurant. The newspaper reported that “Oliver M. Morris, president of the firm, intends to build the first 25 units this year on land immediately” and that “future plans call for the addition of another 25 units.”

The architectural firm of Paderewski, Mitchell and Dean of San Diego, designers of the Mission Valley Country Club, Town and Country, the remodelers of the El Cortez Hotel and other commercial structures were hired to design the new motel.

Construction began in October of 1958. At that time the project was planned for a two-story, 32-unit building with garage space below. The motel features would include “soundproof walls and floors, tile baths, electric heat, switchboard telephone service, television and a heated swimming pool.” The builder was E. E. Betraun of Vista, who also built the Oceanside Beach Community Center and the local County Health Center at Mission and Barnes. Eventually a glass elevator was added to the structure bringing guests from the motel to the restaurant entrance.

In 1967 the MiraMar Restaurant underwent remodeling, adding a new dining room, named the First Cabin, and a new coffee shop. The dining room offered banquet services for parties up to 120 and was decorated in “dark walnut paneling and heavy beamed ceilings.” A nautical motif continued with “sailing ships, barometers and ship telegraph” and an open flame Franklin fireplace.  

Oliver Miller Morris died in 1983 at the age of 88. He was buried in Ohio. Patti Morris continued to make her home on the Morris Ranch on Gopher Canyon Road until her death in 2009.

The MiraMar restaurant was sold to Warner Lusardi in 1976. He partnered with Bobby Astleford and Bert Lawrence. Bert Lawrence, whose family owned Lawrence Canyon, was infamous for riding his horse into the restaurant.

But by the 1980s, the restaurant was showing its age and tastes were changing. The MiraMar fell out of favor and was in decline. In 1985 the restaurant reopened as Jerard’s, a restaurant and nightclub advertising itself as “an old landmark with a new dimension” but its success was short-lived. In 1991 the building housed a realty office and eventually sat vacant, stripped of its nautical and antique décor.  

The MiraMar Inn’s clientele changed dramatically from the tourists of the 1950s and 1960s. In the 1980s its reputation was less than stellar and frequented by numerous problems and criminal activity. It was a sad fall from grace for a “cornerstone” property that was once so beloved and made popular by “Mack and Mazie” and then made glamorous by Ollie Morris.