Riverboat memories

Bill Dunlap recalls nights when the Reuben E. Lee riverboat restaurant — where he was employed as a maitre d' for two summers in the early 1970s — got so busy that busboys, facing overloaded dishwashers, simply tossed dinnerware overboard.

The paddle-wheeler replica does not have the 150-year history its exterior suggests and it has never sailed the Mississippi River, but after 43 years in the Newport Harbor, it is considered a local landmark by natives and vacationers alike.

"It was a really fun place to work because it was always beaming with activity," said Dunlap, 58, of Newport Beach. "Five or six days out of the week, there was a two-hour wait for the restaurant and a wait just to get into the bar."

The landmark became a lot less recognizable Friday, when a 190-ton hydraulic crane removed the decorative smokestacks and paddlewheel. It's part of a dismantling process that began June 25 and should be done by the end of July.

The Newport Harbor Nautical Museum, the boat's most recent occupant, lost its lease for the adjacent parking lot in 2006, and officials finally opted to scrap the boat after they couldn't close a deal to sell it.

Designed and built in 1963 by Blurock and Associates, the riverboat opened as the Reuben E. Lee restaurant the following year. Ken Maas, who watched the demolition Friday, said he remembers his uncle helping build the boat.

A hull was made in Wilmington and towed in to Newport harbor, where the remainder was built to specifications

"It was a real challenge to build a boat because you can't put a level on anything," Maas said.

The restaurant was the brainchild of John McIntosh, who owned a steakhouse nearby with his wife and whose Corona del Mar restaurant, The Snack Shop, went on to become Coco's Bakery Restaurant.

Playing off Robert E. Lee, a common paddle-wheeler name, the couple settled on the Reuben E. Lee, Reuben being McIntosh's middle name.

The upstairs dining hall served primarily fresh fish and other seafood while customers feasted on prime rib and steak in the Sternwheeler restaurant downstairs, and cocktails were served in a lounge on the bow.

After docking his sailboat just a few spaces down from the Reuben E. Lee, Newport Beach council member Don Webb often stopped in for a beer and some amusement. Comic duo Skiles and Henderson got their start performing regularly on the boat.