The transformation of the historic Cottage restaurant in Laguna Beach into the newest Urth Caffé started with a traffic jam.

On a summer day a few years back, Shallom and Jilla Berkman, owners of Urth Caffés in Southern California, were stuck on Coast Highway for more than an hour.

Luckily, they had something to look at. They were sitting in front of The Cottage.

For about 50 years, the restaurant operated out of a Craftsman residence built in 1917. It was once home to Joe Skidmore, an early Laguna Beach real estate developer.

It functioned as a restaurant through the decades with multiple owners, first as the Laguna Vista Cafe starting in 1938, then as The Cottage starting in the 1960s.

Shallom and Jilla had been looking for a Laguna Beach location for another Urth Caffé for at least two years. They choose spots for their restaurants carefully, Shallom explained.

“We only do one Urth Caffé at a time. We look for very, very special spots,” he said. “If we can’t find them, we don’t do it.”

“That’s the only place that’s right for Urth Caffé,” Jilla told Shallom after they saw the building on Coast Highway. He rebuffed the idea, pointing out the obvious, that The Cottage was still operating as a restaurant at the time. But Jilla was insistent.

“We gave them a call … And they jumped at the chance to give it to someone who wanted to bring it back to life.”

NODS TO THE PAST

But it took some effort: The place was extremely run down. In stripping the walls, they found mold and grime. Additions had been done hastily and with very little care, Shallom said.

But as they pulled back the layers, they found hidden gems, like front and side patios that had been covered up. The biggest surprise was a set of stairs leading up to the front porch. They were visible in old photos, but had since been buried in the landscape. They dug them out and left them as is.

“We could see it had potiential,” Shallom said of the structure. “But when we found the original pictures, we thought, ‘Wow, this is a treasure.’”

They worked with a city-appointed historian and hired a local architect, Todd Skenderian, known for his work on heritage properties in Laguna Beach. “A lot of people haven’t seen The Cottage in its original architectural glory until now,” Shallom said.

As for the menu, it’s a mix of old and new. The Cottage was known for its homey buttermilk pancakes, meatloaf and hamburgers. Urth Caffés, on the other hand, are focused on healthy, organic dishes and have a following with celebrities such as Cameron Diaz and Katie Holmes. Urth’s Laguna Beach menu incorporates some of those old classics with a healthy twist and adds its popular coffee drinks and signature dishes.

Even the landmark’s name remains: Over the entry, the sign reads Urth Caffé at The Cottage.

THREE STYLES

At first glance, it’s easy to characterize the house as Craftsman in style. The broad front porch and wood shingle covering are evidence. Over the door and complementing the large patios are black-framed lanterns in cutout shapes of stylized roses, reminiscent of the 1920s or 1930s.

The Craftsman details continue in the building’s bright and cheery interior, starting with pops of stained glass throughout. The stained glass shows up behind the front counter and in the large banquette, the eye-catching centerpiece of the central room. That piece is original, Shallom said. It’s been restored and preserved, including its stained-glass doors with stylized red and green tulips.

Shallom noted that Craftsman is the dominant theme but that the building actually shows the influence of three styles.

Look carefully at the front porch again, and you’ll see hints of Japanese and Swiss architecture. The broad, overhanging roof and crossbeams peaking out from the edge resemble a Swiss chalet. Pointed peaks in the roof look like they came from a Japanese pagoda.

The Berkmans played that up with a zen-like water feature outside; a simple bamboo frame drops water into a 300-year-old stone basin, which the Berkmans had shipped from Japan.

They incorporated other new touches. One of the first things visitors coming up Coast Highway will see is the fountain perched on the corner of the patio. It’s an interpretation of our globe, with a tiled mosaic of blue, green and orange with images of swimming whales and land, water, sky and the sun. It’s the work of Japanese artist Kohei Owatari, a San Diego County designer of zen gardens.

“His inspiration was the art of Laguna Beach and Urth Caffé,” Shallom said. Bringing some modern art to the overall design was important, he said, especially given the city’s arts traditions. “Laguna Beach is such a major cultural center of Orange County, we wanted to show that the north part of Laguna Beach is an extension of that.”

Jilla spearheads the design of Urth restaurants, Shallom said. For each location, she chooses a different stone to work into the decor. At Urth Laguna Beach, slabs of raw turquoise, mined in Italy, are incorporated into countertops, the vintage banquette and the walnut dining tables. Visitors often snap photos of the light blue stone variegated with grey, black and white.

Despite the new additions, however, the idea of starting from the ground up on The Cottage was unthinkable.

“I could never create anything as nice as the original home,” Shallom said. “Because of its unique beauty, it’s like a piece of art. There will never be that kind of design ever again.”

Contact the writer: aboessenkool@ocregister.com