Cocktail

The changing of the guard at The Balboa Bay Club and Resort officially took place last week. The new owners of the legendary coastal hotel and club introduced themselves to the community, welcoming some 700 guests to a cocktail reception in the Grand Ballroom. Producers of the event set up a raised stage and seated the executive team, led by the controlling interest of Richard H. Pickup joined by son Todd Pickup , son-in-law Kevin Martin , business partner Tim Busch and hotel executive Steve Arnold . Following a brief introduction by John Wortmann , chairman of the club's board of governors, the gentlemen fielded questions taken from the audience in advance concerning the future of the institution that will celebrate its 65th anniversary in 2013 as Newport Beach's "Host of the Coast.

A new restaurant in Costa Mesa with decor that's a modernized take on 1920s New York is having its grand opening Friday evening. The folks behind Arc Restaurant at the South Coast Collection, 3321 Hyland Ave., are calling their nearly 1,800-square-foot restaurant a new American roast house and classic cocktail bar. "We're looking more into doing right what we were doing in the '20s, kind of a happy period when we weren't overthinking things...

The Desi Geestman Foundation, Helping the children with Cancer at City of Hope, presents its third annual "Evening with the Stars" at 7 p.m. Sunday at Club Ivar, 6356 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood. Daytime soap-opera fans are in for a treat as the cocktail party offers a chance to mingle and get autographs from their favorite daytime drama stars and bid on silent auction items. Last year's red carpet event included celebrities from "General Hospital," "Days of Our Lives" and "The Young and the Restless" and many are attending again and bringing more of their cast mates.

  On Sept. 25, the Crystal Cove Alliance plans to take donors back to 1920s and '30s Prohibition era in California for the upcoming eighth annual Crystal Cove Alliance beach gala. Last week in Newport Coast, 75 donors gathered for a pre-event underwriter's cocktail party catered by The Beachcomber Café at Crystal Cove. Fundraising gala chair Teddie Ray and co-chair Linda Kennedy served a gourmet dinner buffet and cocktails, while music had patrons dancing in the sand.

The Clubhouse at South Coast Plaza will present Monte Carlo Night on Saturday to raise money for the Junior League of Orange County. Tickets for the "cocktail attire" event, which will take place from 7:30 p.m. to midnight, cost $70. Participants who bring a children's book to donate to Laura's House, a Junior League home for abused women and their children in San Clemente, will receive $50 in gambling script....

1. Hide behind a mask. The 10th annual Toast of the Coast -- Diamond Masquerade Ball will be held from 8 p.m. to 1 a.m. Saturday at the Hyatt Newporter, 1107 Jamboree Road, Newport Beach. The evening will include dancing, a silent auction and casino tables. All proceeds will benefit the Orange County Federation for Oncology Children and Families. $55-$70. (800) 405-2766, Ext. 83. 2. Have a cocktail. The Southern California Social Guide will present its Orange County Cocktail Party from 8 p.m. to 1 a.m. Saturday at the Newport Beach Radisson Hotel, 4545 MacArthur Blvd.

The Orange County Performing Artscenter has announced that Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons will headline its 2007 Candlelight Concert Dec. 7 in Segerstrom Hall. The evening will begin with a pre-concert cocktail reception featuring Ketel One?s signature ice bar in the Plaza Level Lobby. A four-course dinner will follow on the 8,500-square-foot stage in Segerstrom Hall, which will be transformed into a New York terrace for the event. Hosted by the board of directors, the Candlelight Concert and Candlelight Encore on Dec. 8 are the center?

JOSEPH N. BELL One of the more significant contributions of my generation to the Midwestern culture, in which I was raised, was the domestic cocktail hour. It took root in Indiana and Illinois, where I lived after World War II, then was exported wherever we moved, causing some resistance in other American cultures less advanced -- like that of my wife, who was raised in Southern California and had no grasp of the blessings of the cocktail hour in the early years of our marriage.

In the movie “The Philadelphia Story,” Jimmy Stewart, en route to an Oscar, remarked how much he enjoyed watching “the privileged class enjoying its privileges.” “Class” isn’t something we on this side of the Atlantic are much concerned with, but playwright A.R. Gurney seems to be. He alluded to it quite liberally in “The Dining Room” and seems obsessed with it in “The Cocktail Hour,” the latest production at the Newport Theater Arts Center.

A jury found an Irvine woman guilty Wednesday morning in connection with a 2006 accident that killed a Costa Mesa teacher. Janene Johns, 53, was found guilty of vehicular manslaughter after hitting Candace Tift Aug. 23, 2006 with her Lexus as Tift was riding her bike. Prosecutors said Johns was on a cocktail of prescription drugs Xanax, Ambien sleeping pills and cough medicine when the accident happened. Johns' defense tried to argue that she was so grief-stricken by the death of her husband weeks before the accident that she was in an unconscious state when the accident happened, meaning she was not liable.