Rick developed the concept for Bluewater Grill in 1996 and with his partner, Jim Ulcickas, and opened the first restaurant in Newport Beach’s Cannery Village in September that year. The Bluewater Grills in Redondo Beach and Tustin followed in 2001 and 2008, respectively. Rick supervised the acquisition of The Fish Market in Phoenix with his father-in-law, A.C. Duckett, Jr., Fish Market co-founder, and redesigned the iconic restaurant into Bluewater Grill’s first location outside California in 2009. Rick is responsible for the development and execution of the Bluewater Grill seafood Restaurant concept. He oversees all phases of design and construction of each new location and restaurant operations. 

A native of Sydney, Australia, Rick is a law graduate from the Barristers Admission Board, part of Sydney University. Upon graduation, he was admitted to the New South Wales Bar before practicing as a barrister 9trial attorney) for seven years. A chance meeting with his future wife in Aspen, Colo., led to a move to California in 1988. 

In 1992, Rick entered the restaurant business when he opened Los Cabos, a Mexican mesquite grill that specialized in healthy mesquite-charbroiled Mexican food in the Del Mar area of San Diego. Despite success with the restaurant, he sold Los Cabos in September 1998 to devote his full attention on the development and expansion of Bluewater Grill.

Co-founder & Proprietor

Jim Ulcickas

Jimmy founded Bluewater Grill with his partner Rick Staunton in 1996, and is responsible for all aspects of marketing and operations, especially the growth of the brand from the original Newport Beach, Calif., dockside location to a growing family of premiere seafood restaurants in California and Arizona. 

He was born and raised in New England and “grew up” in the restaurant business since his step-father, Curtis L. Blake, founded Friendly’s Restaurants in 1935 and grew the chain to over 600 locations. At the age of 14, Jim joined his sister and opened a manufacturing and retail business selling an ice cream cookie sandwich dipped in chocolate called a Harbor Bar.  This product became a "summer sensation" along the Down East Maine coast and was later expanded to a year round business in 13 states and Canada.

After graduation from Dartmouth College with a major in economics, he joined W.R. Grace & Co. in New York, N.Y., where he worked in the restaurant division and in the office of the CEO & Chairman, J. Peter Grace. During his six-year tenure with the company, he worked in operations for various Grace divisions, including Coco’s, Carrows, Baxter’s, Reuben’s, El Torito and Gladstone’s 4 Fish. 

In 1989, Jim joined American Restaurant Group, Inc., in Newport Beach, as controller of Spoons, a $35 million division encompassing 20 restaurants and 1,400 employees. In this capacity, he was responsible for the financial management of day-to-day operations, strategic planning, budgeting and the development and maintenance of internal control systems. Jim used his unitlevel, district and multi-unit operational experience to help grow the Spoons chain by 50 percent and the national Sports Grill concept to six stores during his tenure.