Tom Ham was a UCLA graduate and tax accountant when he came to San Diego in the mid-1950s, without a conventional restaurant background. He took on a struggling Polynesian restaurant on Shelter Island that had begun life as a location of Christian's Hut, a small chain inspired by the bar associated with the production of the 1935 Clark Gable film Mutiny on the Bounty.
Ham eventually transformed the property into Bali Hai, leaning fully into the midcentury fascination with Polynesian culture that was sweeping Southern California at the time. The restaurant became known for its elaborate tiki architecture, Polynesian floor shows, potent Mai Tais and Ham himself, who favored colorful Hawaiian shirts and built a reputation as an unconventional restaurateur with an eye for spectacle.
The gamble worked. According to the family's history, Bali Hai was packed within a year and Ham eventually paid off the creditors of the once-bankrupt restaurant, turning the Shelter Island property into one of San Diego's most recognizable dining destinations.
Success also gave Ham the freedom to pursue another passion: California and San Diego history. He became deeply involved in civic affairs and was selected to lead the committee planning San Diego's 200th anniversary celebration, with historical records showing him serving as president of the 200th Anniversary Board as early as 1966 and advocating for Old Town to play a central role in the city's 1969 bicentennial.
It was during this period that Ham began envisioning another waterfront restaurant. Harbor Island itself was relatively new - the manmade peninsula had been created from millions of cubic yards of dredged sand and mud during San Diego Bay improvements - and Ham believed the city's waterfront would continue developing around it.
At the far end of Harbor Island, however, Ham encountered an unusual obstacle: a functioning navigational beacon occupied the property. Rather than treating it as something to hide or build around reluctantly, Ham turned it into the centerpiece of the restaurant.
Success also gave Ham the freedom to pursue another passion: California and San Diego history. He became deeply involved in civic affairs and was selected to lead the committee planning San Diego's 200th anniversary celebration, with historical records showing him serving as president of the 200th Anniversary Board as early as 1966 and advocating for Old Town to play a central role in the city's 1969 bicentennial.
It was during this period that Ham began envisioning another waterfront restaurant. Harbor Island itself was relatively new - the manmade peninsula had been created from millions of cubic yards of dredged sand and mud during San Diego Bay improvements - and Ham believed the city's waterfront would continue developing around it.
At the far end of Harbor Island, however, Ham encountered an unusual obstacle: a functioning navigational beacon occupied the property. Rather than treating it as something to hide or build around reluctantly, Ham turned it into the centerpiece of the restaurant.
He traveled to East Coast lighthouses for inspiration, acquired an antique fog bell and designed his restaurant around what remains U.S. Coast Guard Beacon No. 9. When Tom Ham's Lighthouse opened in 1971, the navigational aid wasn't decorative - it was incorporated directly into the building and continued doing the job it had been placed there to do.
The result was one of San Diego's more unusual pieces of restaurant architecture: part seafood restaurant, part maritime museum and part working navigational landmark, positioned directly across the bay from the growing downtown skyline. Ham filled the restaurant with nautical artifacts, model ships, figureheads, maps and maritime relics that reflected his fascination with local history.
Ham would have little time to enjoy the success of his second landmark restaurant. He died unexpectedly in November 1973, only about two years after the Lighthouse opened, leaving his family with the enormous task of maintaining both it and Bali Hai.
The result was one of San Diego's more unusual pieces of restaurant architecture: part seafood restaurant, part maritime museum and part working navigational landmark, positioned directly across the bay from the growing downtown skyline. Ham filled the restaurant with nautical artifacts, model ships, figureheads, maps and maritime relics that reflected his fascination with local history.
Ham would have little time to enjoy the success of his second landmark restaurant. He died unexpectedly in November 1973, only about two years after the Lighthouse opened, leaving his family with the enormous task of maintaining both it and Bali Hai.
His daughter Susie Ham Baumann ultimately became the steward of her father's legacy alongside her husband, Larry Baumann. Larry has recalled joining the restaurants' management following Ham's death and later marrying Susie, with the couple spending decades running the two waterfront institutions together.
What followed is increasingly rare in an industry notorious for short lifespans and changing ownership. Rather than selling the properties or turning them over to a restaurant conglomerate, the Ham-Baumann family continued operating both businesses as one generation gave way to another.
Today, Susie remains involved as CEO, while the third generation has assumed major leadership responsibilities. Susie and Larry's children Grant, Jessica, Tom and Andy Baumann have all held management roles within the family's restaurant operations, with Grant and Andy closely associated with Tom Ham's Lighthouse and Tom Baumann with Bali Hai.
Now a fourth generation is entering the picture. According to the family, members of Tom Ham's great-grandchildren's generation are already working within the restaurants, including positions in the kitchen and at the host stand, meaning a business started by their great-grandfather more than half a century ago is becoming a four-generation operation.
The family's influence has also extended beyond its own dining rooms. Susie and Andy Baumann have held leadership positions with the San Diego chapter of the California Restaurant Association, and Susie has been recognized among the chapter's past Restaurateurs of the Year. The family has remained active in industry organizations advocating for independent restaurant operators and the broader local hospitality community.
Keeping the Lighthouse alive has not meant keeping it frozen in 1971. One of the most consequential decisions came more than four decades after its opening, when the family temporarily closed the restaurant for a sweeping renovation designed to make the aging institution relevant to another generation of diners.
The roughly five-month, $3.5 million overhaul was completed in 2013 and became one of the final projects of acclaimed San Diego architect Graham Downes, who had also worked on the family's Bali Hai. The project dramatically opened the restaurant toward the bay, adding an expanded second-floor outdoor dining deck with nearly invisible glass barriers, repositioning the upstairs bar toward the water and introducing a keg room and extensive craft beer program.
The family's influence has also extended beyond its own dining rooms. Susie and Andy Baumann have held leadership positions with the San Diego chapter of the California Restaurant Association, and Susie has been recognized among the chapter's past Restaurateurs of the Year. The family has remained active in industry organizations advocating for independent restaurant operators and the broader local hospitality community.
Keeping the Lighthouse alive has not meant keeping it frozen in 1971. One of the most consequential decisions came more than four decades after its opening, when the family temporarily closed the restaurant for a sweeping renovation designed to make the aging institution relevant to another generation of diners.
The roughly five-month, $3.5 million overhaul was completed in 2013 and became one of the final projects of acclaimed San Diego architect Graham Downes, who had also worked on the family's Bali Hai. The project dramatically opened the restaurant toward the bay, adding an expanded second-floor outdoor dining deck with nearly invisible glass barriers, repositioning the upstairs bar toward the water and introducing a keg room and extensive craft beer program.
At the same time, the Baumanns were careful not to renovate away the history that made the place distinctive. Tom Ham's antique model ships, maps and maritime artifacts were incorporated into the redesign, while the historic fog bell was polished and prominently displayed.
The kitchen changed as well. The restaurant shifted more heavily toward seafood, adding a substantial raw bar while modernizing dishes including paella and bouillabaisse that traced back to the restaurant's earlier menus. The changes helped reposition Tom Ham's for a new era without attempting to erase the decades that preceded it. More than a decade later, the renovated restaurant remains largely recognizable as the version that emerged from that overhaul, still overlooking downtown from the western tip of Harbor Island.
Some of the most enduring pieces of the restaurant's past have also found their way back. Tom Ham's current cocktail menu again features the Horn of Plenty, served in a distinctive souvenir mug inspired by the ceramic horn-shaped vessels associated with the restaurant's earlier years.
That history will become part of the 55th anniversary celebration when Tom Ham's Lighthouse opens its doors for a large public party on Wednesday, October 7, from 6-10pm. The $80 event will feature fresh seafood and oyster stations, chef action stations, dishes pulled from the restaurant's past alongside current favorites, live music and entertainment, a complimentary first drink and a champagne toast.
The first 200 guests are also expected to receive a commemorative Horn of Plenty mug, resurrecting another small piece of Tom Ham's history for a new generation. The restaurant has been marking its anniversary throughout 2026 with pairing dinners, monthly throwback menu features and other events, but the October gathering will serve as the centerpiece of the celebration.
Perhaps the more remarkable anniversary, though, belongs to the family itself. Restaurants routinely disappear as neighborhoods change, leases expire, costs rise and subsequent generations choose different careers, yet the Ham-Baumann family is now operating two San Diego waterfront restaurants whose combined history reaches back more than 70 years.
The San Diego that Tom Ham encountered in 1955 bears little resemblance to the city outside the Lighthouse's windows today. Downtown's skyline has risen across the bay, Harbor Island has matured around the restaurant, Shelter Island has become an established part of the city's identity and generations of San Diegans have held weddings, birthdays, anniversaries and Sunday brunches inside the family's restaurants.
The odd navigational beacon Ham once had to accommodate is still there, too. Fifty-five years after he decided to build a restaurant around it rather than get it out of his way, Beacon No. 9 continues operating inside the building - an unusually literal representation of a San Diego restaurant that has managed to keep functioning while nearly everything around it has changed.
Tom Ham's Lighthouse is located at 2150 Harbor Island Drive on San Diego's Harbor Island. The 55th Anniversary Party takes place Wednesday, October 7, from 6-10pm, and tickets are $80; for tickets and additional information, visit Tom Ham's Lighthouse 55th Anniversary Party.
Originally published on September 26, 2026.
