The new Lure Fish House in downtown Ventura, child of the original in Camarillo and sibling to the Westlake Village location, is a burst of fresh air on the culinary front. Open just a few weeks on California Street, filling the first floor of a freshly minted building, the restaurant is a welcome addition to the area where Ventura was born. From its small patio can be seen the still stately City Hall, once the county courthouse, at the hill end of the street, and an entry to the beach on the other. Parking is conveniently available in the city structure on Santa Clara Street, with easy access to Lure and other California Street businesses via a designated walkway.

We greeted the first Lure in Camarillo and were eager to check out the smaller site in Ventura. Happily I can report that previous favorites remain on the lunch and dinner menus and fresh local produce still enlivens the fare, buoyed by Lure’s attention to seafood sustainability. The atmosphere is lighter and brighter, with windows on the street side, high ceilings, and the artful use of metal and glass.

They say the best things come to those who wait. Or, at least that’s what my mother said to me to keep me quiet when I was a kid. The old saying may ring true for Restaurateur, David Cortina, owner of Lure Fish House and Oyster Bar in Ventura, CA. Cortina signed a lease at the ground-floor space at 60 S. California St. last January with an opening on November 19, 2012, but this isn’t Cortina’s first opening.

He opened his first Lure Fish House and Oyster Bar fifteen miles away in Camarillo, CA in the Camarillo Town Center in November, 2010. Before he had completed construction in the new Ventura location, another developer proposed a third location thirty miles away in Westlake Village, CA. Ground broke at the Westlake Village location in August, last year.

We visited Lure in Ventura for lunch a few days before Christmas, and decided then that we’d make it our first restaurant review to kick off 2013. The 4,900 square foot art deco / Spanish building is every part Cortina’s vision as his phenomenal menu. Unlike his first Lure Fish House, Cortina had the opportunity to build the space out literally from dirt floors, and it’s an artistic masterpiece.

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Source: Stitches ‘n Dishes