Every night of service at newly opened Ponyboy restaurant, general manager Ian Ward hears diners share how the menu conjures up fond memories of the dishes their grandmother used to make.

That’s the highest compliment Ward can imagine for the poolside Point Loma hotel restaurant, which is a midcentury-inspired eatery and bar that serves classic homestyle dishes, desserts and cocktails of the 1950s and ’60s, reimagined with a modern and sustainable perspective.

There’s the top-selling Chicken Kiev, made with free-range chicken from an East County poultry farm and served with creamy Robuchon potatoes; a ceviche with a chilled mini-mold of Clamato aspic and fresh-caught seafood from fishmonger Tommy Gomes’ nearby Tunaville Market; and an ambrosia salad with market-fresh fruit and marshmallows prepared two ways. Then there’s the popular tuna casserole, made with fresh pasta, maitake mushrooms and Parmesan soubise, topped with seared local tuna coated in an onion-potato crust inspired by the potato chips grandma always baked on top.

“The grandmother attachment has been the most beautiful part of this experience,” Ward said. “Someone is on a personal journey at every table.”

Ponyboy, named after the lead character in S.E. Hinton’s 1967 novel “The Outsiders,” opened last month at the Pearl Hotel on Rosecrans Street, between Fenelon and Garrison streets.

The vintage menu is an homage to the history of the 23-room boutique hotel, which opened in 1959 and was acquired and renovated in 2019 by the Casetta Group. Ward said Ponyboy leans away from the “poodle skirt, doo-wop” vibe of the ’50s and leans into the “leather-wearing, comb in the back pocket” ’60s rebelliousness of Ponyboy and his fellow Greasers in “The Outsiders” (which has resurged in popularity thanks to the Tony-winning Broadway musical “The Outsiders,” which made its world premiere last year at La Jolla Playhouse).

Ponyboy is the first project of Service Animals, a new San Diego hospitality group headed up by creative director Ward, who spent the past eight years as the bar director for San Diego’s Addison, Southern California’s only Michelin three star restaurant. Three other Service Animals staffers also hail from Addison: culinary director Daniel “Danny” Romero, wine expert Kyle South and hospitality expert Patrick Virata.

Ward said Service Animals’ name is a tribute to their collective experience of working at the “intense finishing school” of Addison, which has trained them to bring a high standard of excellence and elegance to everything they do, while still being fun and playful.

The Service Animals team also includes CEO Wylie Swanson and Dante Romero, director of menu development. Dante Romero is the executive chef of  the Lion’s Share restaurant in downtown San Diego and the co-founder of Two Ducks, a weekly fine-dining pop-up that he runs with his brother (and fellow Service Animal) Danny.

Besides working together at Addison, Ward and Danny Romero are the co-founders of Tortoise, a now-dormant pop-up supper club called Tortoise that they launched in 2018. Romero said he loves working with Ward because their skillsets complement one another.

“Ian’s brain is so big and he has so many ideas. I feel the reason we’ve been together so long is I’m a master at filtering Ian’s ideas,” Romero said.

Creating Ponyboy’s menu started with Ward’s vast collection of vintage cookbooks, including several by his favorite midcentury food writer M.F.K. Fisher.  Romero combed through hundreds of recipes to determine which dishes would be menu essentials, and how they could be re-created to suit the modern diner’s palate.

“A lot of those old dishes are too rich. We needed to lighten them up, find a way to make them visually playful and make them delicious,” Romero said. A few examples are his  deviled eggs, which are cured in beets and hibiscus and filled with pistachio praline mousse; his ratatouille served kabob-style with al pastor marinade; and his Juicy Lucy burger with an artisan cheese-stuffed Wagyu beef patty.

A Ponyboy’s signature dish is the cheese Fondue for Two, served in vintage fondue pots from Ward’s personal collection of midcentury collectibles (keep an eye out for his vintage TV Guides in the restrooms, Lucite handle silverware and metal Jacks game pieces used as spoon rests). The fondue was inspired by the menu for another of Ward’s pop-up concepts: Irish Goodbye. “Fondue is hot again,” Ward said, adding that Irish Goodbye’s fish and chips is also on the Ponyboy menu.

There are also vintage-inspired cocktails, like a banana daiquiri, mint julep and non-alcoholic sweet summer corn lemonade, and desserts by pastry chef Yara Lamas like house-made rocky road ice cream, grasshopper pie and pineapple upside-down cake. Josh Reynolds is Ponyboy’s executive chef.

Ward and Romero say Ponyboy, like all future Service Animal concepts, will work closely with San Diego vendors, including Trish Watlington’s Two Fork Farms in La Mesa and Companion Bread Co. in San Diego. They will also rotate the menu seasonally.

Some of the retro dishes that are now in the works for future seasons are a hamburger helper-style dish made with Wagyu beef; an alphabet soup-style pozole made with hand-stamped letter pasta; a classical Waldorf salad; stuffed bell peppers; steak Diane; and tableside flambé desserts like baked Alaska and cherries jubilee. Romero said he has ideas for other chicken dishes, but the chicken Kiev has been such a runaway success that it will be staying put for a while.

Ponyboy offers nightly “TV Dinner” specials like prime rib, fried chicken and chili, and a daily Golden Hour (a happy hour inspired by the “Stay Gold” mantra from “The Outsiders”) with $1 bar bites from 4-5 p.m. There’s also Wednesday night “Dive In Movie Nights,” with vintage films shown on an outdoor screen above the pool with themed cocktail pairings. “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” (1961) will be presented on Sept. 11; “Godzilla” (1954) on Sept. 18 and “The Creature from the Black Lagoon” (1954) on Sept. 25. Monster movie Wednesdays are planned in October.

Earlier this week, Ward had an appointment with a Ponyboy diner, who wanted to share his Iowa grandmother’s recipe book for future dish ideas. And Romero joked that he’s never had so many diners offer specific suggestions for ways to improve the menu. Both men said they welcome the ideas because they’re borne from love and nostalgia.

“All of us can remember eating fruit salad out of a can or making dishes with orange juice concentrate from the freezer,” Ward said. “These are connective communal memories and we’re all sharing in the experience.”

Ponyboy

Hours: Dinner from 5 to 10 p.m. and bar service from 4 to 11 p.m. Wednesdays-Sundays

Where: The Pearl Hotel, 1410 Rosecrans St., San Diego

Reservations: theponyboy.com