Chez Melange was an American seafood restaurant and gastropub located at 1611 South Catalina Avenue in Redondo Beach, California, which closed on February 29, 2020. It was opened in 1982 and owned and run by Michael Franks and co-owner and head chef Robert Bell.[1][2][3][4][5]
Chez Melange was originally located on Pacific Coast Highway and after the lease was up it moved to its new location in January 2009 on Catalina Avenue.[6]
Robert Bell said when first meeting Michael Franks, "I remembered thinking, I don't want to work with this guy. I'm from Brooklyn, he's from London. He came from what I thought was an upscale upbringing, I was just off the line of being poor. He went through restaurant school, I barely made it through junior college. But we were both very driven, very passionate about what we were doing, and that's the only reason we got along."[7]
Chez Melange closed permanently on February 29, 2020.[8]
In 2021 the Chez Melange location was reopened under different ownership as a new restaurant called Table Manners[9][10] and was later renamed Perfect Storm.[11] Perfect Storm permanently closed in the early 2020s.[12]
It was announced in 2025 that a new fine dining restaurant, Montauk, would be opening at the former Chez Melange location.[13]
African American entrepreneur Lavae McClinnahan had the original high-end restaurant concept of Montauk that was influenced by the hamlet of Montauk in the Hamptons.[14]
In 2025, it was reported that in Redondo Beach, though a largely liberal area, some locals were not happy about an African American-owned upscale dining location, with some going so far as to contact the police in hopes of shutting Montauk down before it opened.[14]
Unfazed, McClinnahan said that he envisioned Montauk as African American entrepreneurs reclaiming beachfronts which were once epicenters of African American culture.[14]
BET quoted McClinnahan as saying, "Here in South Bay, there's no African Americans." Adding, "The community is asking for more. Everything has been kind of dumbed down, and people want better options."[14]
