‘Everyone’s best friend.’ Co-founder of F. McLintocks steakhouse dies at 75
Less than a year after one co-founder passed away, the other half of the San Luis Obispo County power team behind the beloved F. McLintocks Saloon and Dining House restaurants has died.
Tunny Ortali, who co-founded the iconic Central Coast steakhouse chain in the 1970s, died Sept. 22 following a stroke, according to multiple sources.
“It is with great sorrow we announce the passing of F. McLintocks’ ‘other half,’ Tunny Ortali,” F. McLintocks management posted on Facebook on Thursday. “RIP dear man.”
Ortali turned 75 in August.
He was preceded in death by fellow F. McLintocks co-founder Bruce Breault, who died in November 2020.
Following news of Ortali’s death, friends took to social media on Thursday to remember his life.
“Tunny Ortali was a very thoughtful and kind man, and that’s the worst I can say about him,” friend Roger Freberg wrote in a Facebook post. “I never thought I would outlive this wonderful guy. RIP my friend.”
Freberg told The Tribune that Ortali “touched his family in special ways.”
“He was one of the best in our community,” he said.
Duo opened iconic Shell Beach steakhouse in the 1970s
Ortali and Breault opened the first F. McLintocks location in Shell Beach in 1973.
In a previous Tribune story, Ortali said that he first met Breault while making a sales call at a San Luis Obispo restaurant.
Ortali said he didn’t have plans to go into the restaurant business at the time, but after meeting Breault, the two “hit it off.”
Breault had already had his eyes on a potential restaurant property for a while: Matties, a 100-year-old farmhouse situated along Highway 101.
So they bought it and bribed their friends with beer and barbecue to help renovate the building and install the ranch-era decor that would become its signature.
F. McLintocks opened its doors in Shell Beach on Oct. 1, 1973.
The restaurant served 89 dinners that first night, but over the years would serve countless more as Ortali and Breault worked to make F. McLintocks a darling of the local food scene.
In 1975, Ortali and Breault opened an F. McLintocks Saloon location in downtown San Luis Obispo, and the next year they launched a line of retail food products.
The pair opened a new Arroyo Grande restaurant in 1987 and began raking in local and national recognition, from publications including USA Today and Restaurant Hospitality.
In 1989, F. McLintocks was named Pismo Beach’s first ever Business of the Year by the city’s Chamber of Commerce.
“Bruce and Tunny will never be satisfied where we are now,” then-public relations director Vicki Torrence told The Tribune. “They’re always thinking of where we could be, how we can be even better.”
Tom Fulks, who worked at F. McLintocks as a college student from 1977 to 1980, said he felt much of the business’s success was due to Ortali’s incomparable attention to detail.
“He always was a stickler for detail,” Fulks said. “Bruce, he was sort of the main office guy. Tunny was the floor general. And he would seat people. He would make sure the tables were bused properly and there (was) a system that you had to go through. It was his system, and if you didn’t do his system, you didn’t last very long — because it didn’t work.”
“He made sure everything was shipshape,” Fulks added of Ortali.
Most importantly, though, Ortali was someone who took care of things, Fulks said.
“He took care of his people,” Fulks said. “He took care of his business. And he took care of his business’ reputation, which was really important back in the heyday.”
John Bushnell managed the F. McLintocks restaurants from the late 1970s until 1991, when he left to open his own McLintocks-style restaurant in Oregon.
Bushnell said much of what he knows about the restaurant business came from Ortali and Breault.
Ortali “was everyone’s best friend when you met him,” Bushnell said.
“Immediately, you felt like he cared about you,” he said. “He wanted to know more about you. And he just had that ability, which is so valuable and important in the hospitality business, to really instantly bond with people.”
One time, Bushnell remembered, he was working with Ortali in the Shell Beach restaurant when a couple came in.
Ortali greeted the couple, saying, “Oh man, I haven’t seen you in so long,” Bushnell recalled. The couple were surprised and pleased, saying they hadn’t been into the restaurant in about two years, and were surprised Ortali remembered them.
According to Bushnell, Ortali replied, “Oh, absolutely I remember you — I’ve got a great table for you guys.”
When Ortali returned from leading the couple to their table, Bushnell expressed his own surprise that Ortali had remembered them.
“He goes, ‘Oh, I’ve never seen them before in my life,’ ” Bushnell said with a laugh. “He had that ability, you know, to make people feel that way. And he elevated it to an art form.”
Over the years, Ortali and Breault remained closely involved in the business as it grew and added more restaurants.
Eventually the next generation took over the company, while the co-founders continued on as CEOs.
Friends recall restaurant co-founder as ‘wild and crazy guy’
Outside of the business, Ortali wasn’t immune to a little fun and excitement.
In a 1991 Tribune article about a crew of McLintocks employees who enjoyed bungee jumping in their spare time, Ortali shared that he enjoyed doing “wild and crazy things.”
“I wanted to go just for the excitement of it all,” said Ortali, who was described in the article as a “45-year-old, health-oriented millionaire with a wife and kids.”
“I’ve done a lot of wild and crazy things, such as skydiving and riding pro rodeo, but this beats it all as far as the adrenaline rush,” Ortali said as he prepared to bungee jump after jumping twice before.
“Jumping off the bridge is totally mental,” he told The Tribune.
On Thursday, Bushnell called Ortali “larger than life.”
“He was, to use (a term) from back then ... a wild and crazy guy,” Bushnell said.
That wild streak lasted even into Ortali’s later years.
According to Bushnell, the last time he saw Ortali was at Breault’s memorial service. At that time, Bushnell was talking with a mutual friend who shared a story about Ortali.
“They said he had come into their shop, and he was all banged up — this was like just a few years ago,” Bushnell said. “They said, ‘Man, what’s, what’s going on?’ (Ortali) said, ‘Well, I’m, I’m doing this extreme bicycle jumping stuff.’ ”
According to Bushnell, the friend noted that Ortali was 70 years old, and commented that his “body can’t take that stuff anymore.”
But that didn’t seem to matter to Ortali.
“He just kind of shrugged it off,” Bushnell said, “because that was Tunny.”
McLintocks founders left impact on SLO County
Over the years, Fulks said, he would periodically see Ortali around San Luis Obispo County, usually in downtown San Luis Obispo.
They would greet each other. Ortali would say something like, “Hey, Senator!” — using the nickname he gave Fulks when he was working in the restaurant as a college student.
“With Tunny, I’m still 19, you know? He’s still my boss and I’m still intimidated as shit by this guy — for good reason,” Fulks laughed. “He was intimidating. ... When you get to know him, you understand what he’s doing in his heart, and he was just a good, kind man.”
Bushnell said he was shocked when he heard of Ortali’s passing, so soon on the heels of Breault’s death in 2020.
“I just remember being shocked to feel that not only Bruce ... but how could they both be gone?” Bushnell said, his voice breaking with emotion. “Because they were both larger than life, and they impacted so many peoples’ lives — including me. ...
“They had an impact on hundreds of people’s lives.”
This story was originally published September 23, 2021 at 3:35 PM.
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