There are many reasons why people come back to Red Sails Inn restaurant-bar in Point Loma.
“I’m like a lot of restaurants. We want to stay fresh,” admitted owner Bill Dargitz, who’s been at the helm of Red Sails, at 2614 Shelter Island Drive, the past 22 years. “But the thing about us people like is that we’re kind of old-school. Our menu doesn’t change very often. If you had calamari here 10 years ago, you can come in and it will taste and be prepared exactly the same way.”
The waterfront location and the traditional menu are just the start of Red Sails’ appeal.
“Definitely, our big draw is that patio,” said Dargitz, pointing at the 22-table deck, where people were being served breakfast while gazing out at moored boats the day after Mother’s Day.
“This is such a comfortable place that people come back for the people as much as they do for the product,” said Dargitz.
And then there’s the restaurant staff.
“One of the reasons they’re coming in is because of my staff,” said Dargitz, noting, “My short-time waitress has been here five years. My bar manager has been here 32 years. I have waitresses who’ve been here more than 20 years. People come in and ask for them by name.”
Red Sails has been a fixture in San Diego since the ’20s and ’30s. The restaurant started out at the foot of G Street downtown before moving to its present location. Dargitz started out in Seattle before his restaurateur dad enticed him down to join him in San Diego.
“I was vacuuming floors when I was 4 years old,” said Dargitz, adding he previously bussed tables, washed dishes, waited tables and did some management for his father, who’d partnered with Red Sails’ previous owner, nearly 80 years old and looking to get out of the business.
“I had been doing maintenance work for a hotel for 11 years,” Dargitz said, “but my dad called me and said, ‘I really need some help.’ So my wife and I came down with our 5-year-old. He’s 27 now, married, happy and a CalPoly master’s grad who works at Salk Institute. Everything worked out wonderfully.”
Red Sails is known for specializing in seafood — swordfish, halibut, sea bass, mahi mahi. But that’s just the half of it.
“We do a really good lunch,” pointed out Dargitz, adding that “half the menu is just sandwiches and burgers. The other half is seafood, fish and chips, et cetera. But we do a breakfast now that we serve until 2 p.m.”
Dargitz said a Red Sails breakfast can be either traditional, bacon and eggs, or nontraditional, featuring delicacies like crab legs or veggie Benedict.
The restaurateur said customers can customize their meals.
“If we have a product, I’ll sell it to you, meaning if you come in and order calamari with pasta, we’ll see what we’ve got,” Dargitz said. “Why not? We’re not a real stickler on you can’t substitute.”
And the oceanside restaurant is also known for its Louis salads, which Dargitz noted are impressive. “People say, ‘Oh my God, I can’t eat that much,'” he said.
Red Sails is Dargitz’s pride and joy.
“I love this place,” he confessed. “There’s no 90-degree angles here. There’s no ferns hanging in the corner. And we get a million-dollar view every time we come to work.”
Dargitz said he does a good tourist business in the summer, but he added, “Our bread and butter is the locals. We’re a locals hangout where people go for a beer, a steak or an omelet.”
Looking ahead, Dargitz wants to do more with craft brews. Right now, he has four or five brews on tap. He’d like to expand to eight or 10.
The restaurateur said he doesn’t mind having customers drift in.
“If they just want to come over and have a beer out on the patio, that makes me feel good: They’re here,” he said, noting Red Sails is open every day of the year except Christmas.
