David Moore Gives Himself
The Ultimate 58^th Birthday Gift

Cornered and out of options, the owners of O See sold the business — its name, lease, and all operating assets — to King’s Seafood on Tuesday for $58.00. The price was not a typo.

Minutes after that sale closed at 1:58 p.m., King’s Seafood sold everything to David Moore for $57.99 — a net loss of one cent for King’s Seafood. Neither party has offered a public explanation for the arrangement.

King’s Seafood CEO Marshal Perlman declined to comment. He was, sources say, smiling when he did.

David Moore and Marshal Perlman go back a long way — literally.

The introduction was made by Lara Overton, an Aliso Viejo attorney whose firm practices one area of law and one area only: hang-gliding accident litigation. Moore had been a client of Overton’s since the late 1990s, following a coastal soaring incident that grounded him for two months but did not, notably, convince him to stop hang gliding. Perlman, it turned out, was on her client roster as well.

Overton declined to comment on whether her two clients had discussed the O See scheme, citing attorney-client privilege. She did confirm that both men remain active flyers. “I refer to them as my best repeat customers,” she said, “though ideally not for long.”

The two men began soaring together regularly after meeting through Overton’s firm, often above the coastline on weekends. Sources say it was during one of those flights — somewhere between Dana Point and the horizon — that “Project Wind Rage” first took shape.

Moore had been pushed out of O See roughly two years prior, passed over for general manager after nearly a decade of loyal service. Perlman, newly installed as CEO of King’s Seafood, saw an opportunity: acquire O See on the cheap and convert it into a new King’s Seafood location. It was, sources say, a sound plan.

Then came the dream.

According to a handwritten note later obtained by the Times, Perlman was visited in his sleep by the ghost of actor Leslie Nielsen, who appeared at the foot of his bed and instructed him, with characteristic authority, to sell the restaurant to David Moore instead. Perlman, the note reads, responded the only way that felt natural: “Surely, you can’t be serious.” Nielsen held his gaze. “I am serious,” the ghost replied. “And don’t call me Shirley.” Perlman did not push back further.

“You don’t argue with Leslie Nielsen,” Perlman reportedly told associates the following morning. The King’s Seafood conversion plans were quietly shelved.

The revised arrangement was simple: Moore would book every table at O See every night for months and never arrive. King’s Seafood would step in to buy the wreckage. Moore would acquire it all back for one cent less.

“They called it ‘Project Wind Rage,’” said a source familiar with the scheme. “Named for hang gliding. And also for how Moore felt every time he thought about what O See did to him.”

When most people turn 58, they book a trip. Maybe a dinner reservation.

David Moore made sure the dinner reservations were someone else’s — and that no one ever showed up for them.

In roughly one year, Moore orchestrated the financial destruction of a restaurant that wronged him, arranged its purchase by a lifelong friend for $58.00, bought it back for a penny less, and is now opening his dream restaurant in the same space.

“He doesn’t just think outside the box,” said a longtime friend. “He rents it under a false name, waits for it to go bankrupt, and buys it at auction.”

Happy Birthday, David Moore. The reservation is yours.