I have heard from a reliable source that Ty Warner’s Biltmore deal with Four Seasons is officially over as of today though apparently the resort is still listed at fourseasons.com. Four Seasons has been managing the Channel Drive property (where my parents spent their wedding night) since 1987. I am told that this doesn’t mean that the resort will open anytime soon, or that the Biltmore has signed with another management company, but it does mark the end of an era.

Speaking of local resorts, back in the day my family was a member of Miramar Hotel Beach & Tennis Club (just down the street), a time when the membership cost was about $150/mo. During that era several of my friends were members of the Coral Casino Beach and Cabana Club next to the Biltmore Hotel. As I recall, membership to this facility was significantly more expensive than the Miramar, and included a heft entry fee if you were even invited, but that was a drop in the bucket compared to the cost of joining today’s vastly improved club. Via friends’ memberships, as a kid I visited the Coral Casino often and remember that a restaurant was in a nook on the north side of the property, about as far away from the ocean as you could get.

Fast forward to 2008 and as part of an extensive remodel of the Coral Casino by owner Ty Warner, an all-new restaurant debuted named “Tydes.” Unlike it’s predecessor, Tydes was spectacular, right on the edge of the ocean with an expansive view from the second floor. I was given a private tour of the then-new restaurant just before the grand opening and was blown away to say the least (see photos below). Unfortunately the story I wrote about Tydes 15 years ago had a sad ending. The last sentence in The Restaurant Guy that week included the dreaded words: “Tydes is open to resort guests, members and guests of members only, and is not open to the general public.”

Fortunately that is about to change. I was at the South Coast Chamber meeting last week at the Hilton and was told that a big story had flown under my radar: Tydes restaurant will be opening to the general public, in addition to private club members and their guests. Apparently visitors staying at the Biltmore will no longer have access to the Coral Casino except for the restaurant. The Coral Casino and Biltmore hotel have been closed since March 2020 and it is unknown when they will reopen.

Photos by The Restaurant Guy in 2008