After more than five decades along Coast Highway in Newport Beach, the Spaghetti Bender announced that it will close its doors for good on Sunday, March 2.
“Our most humble ‘thank you’ to the staff over the years that helped to make the Bender the best,” read an announcement that owner Michael Hoskinson, posted to Facebook on Wednesday, Feb. 19. “There is not enough room here to list all the amazing employees who made the Spaghetti Bender the success it was.”
Naming some of the staff who have worked at the Newport Beach institution for decades, plaudits went out to chef Alphonso Gomez, “who served us faithfully for over 40 years” after founder and owner Joyce Hoskinson discovered him working at the Huntington Beach Sheraton.
Hoskinson also tipped his hat to longtime employee Janie Barger, “who came to work as a waitress then became our longest serving manager and Britta Pulliam, who rode her bike from Huntington Beach at 14 to work as a salad girl, hostess and waitress, then leaving to build her own award-winning restaurant, Britta’s Cafe.” She later returned after closing her restaurant to help run Spaghetti Bender.
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Asked why he decided to shutter his restaurant, Hoskinson explained, “The ultimate reason is that we hit 55 years and we decided to go out on a high note. What else do we have to prove?”
Joyce Hoskinson opened the Spaghetti Bender during the summer of 1969, with her son, Michael, taking over operations after she passed away in 2022.
“She’s really the heart and soul of the whole story, because she started this restaurant when she was a single mother back when such a thing wasn’t common,” said Michael during a phone interview. “My mom was a go-getter, and she did a great thing making that restaurant a success.”
The restaurant fed the community for years, with guests ranging from both ends of the pocketbook spectrum, said Hoskinson. “It really was an honest, little family restaurant where rich people would come in for their daily meal, while for people on the lower end of the economic spectrum it would be their special night out,” he said.
Responses from decades-long patrons poured in following the closure announcement. “You all truly deserve the most restful retirement,” replied Nicole Stone. “Thank you for 55 years of the best salad dressing on the planet.” Alvin Lopez remarked, “No one [is] sadder than I. It’s been my second home away from home.”
“It’s just humbling, you know, the way that people think about you and refer to you,” said Michael Hoskinson, who has been on the receiving end of thoughtful and mournful messages from patrons, past and present, since making the announcement.
The Spaghetti Bender was also a must-visit for nostalgia buffs, who enjoyed not only the food (the red-sauce joint served such Italian-American staples as spaghetti and meatballs, gnocchi with marinara, lasagna, saltimbocca, carbonara, lobster ravioli and more) but also its ’70s-era ambiance of red-and-white gingham tablecloths, an Italian mural on the wall and charming window valances.
“I keep joking that it’s a time machine, because you walk in the door and you could be in 1976 when my mom remodeled,” he said.
Michael Hoskinson, who also works in real estate, said he isn’t sure what’s next for the space. “At the moment, we’ve had the property up for sale for a bit, a little less than a year,” he said. “We own the Eat Chow building behind there as well.”
Fans of the Spaghetti Bender, a rarity in a finicky industry that sees restaurants come and go at a brisk pace, have a little time left to pay the stalwart eatery a visit. But take heed: Make your reservations sooner rather than later.
“This weekend is already completely sold out,” he said.
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