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3 new Huntington Beach dining spots opening soon

April 2, 2026

As summer approaches, so will throngs of tourists and Orange County denizens alike heading to the beach. Huntington Beach, synonymous with surf and sand, will soon have a few new eateries and spaces to help feed and host the influx of SPF-enrobed sunseekers. Here are three spots to put on your radar.

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Champagnes Kitchen

Thirty-seven years after debuting in Newport Beach, Champagnes Kitchen is expanding with a second location in Huntington Beach. The restaurant will take over a former IHOP space at Main Street and Olive Avenue, which shuttered in 2025 after 26 years. The new outpost will serve breakfast, lunch and dinner.

A bar program will anchor the Huntington Beach location, with beer, wine and cocktails, alongside a full espresso menu featuring beans by Costa Mesa’s Moongoat Coffee.

Guests can expect fast-casual counter service during breakfast and lunch, with full-service dinner starting at 4 p.m. Hours are slated for 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. seven days a week.

The longstanding restaurant changed hands in 2021 when husband-wife team Matt and Winnona Tobey took over, bringing decades of combined culinary experience. Winnona, a pastry chef and Culinary Institute of America graduate, will oversee the kitchen, while Matt, whose background includes Wild Goose, Urth Caffe and Starwood Hotels, will handle operations.

“We’ve spent the past four years evolving the brand while honoring its legacy,” said Matt in a written release. “With Huntington Beach, we finally get to reimagine Champagnes as our own.”

He says the new space will also offer large portions and high-quality ingredients at approachable prices with “something for everyone.”

The new Champagnes Kitchen is expected to open in May.

California Cabana

Alicia Cox, Huntington Beach’s orchestrator of joy, is rethinking what a coastal venue can be with California Cabana, a beach-adjacent events space at Brookhurst Street and Pacific Coast Highway. The project replaces her earlier concept, Fook and Spoon, with a flexible space designed to host everything from weddings and concerts to corporate gatherings and celebrations of life.

With strict limitations on what the public can do at the beach during peak season, “I decided that I’m going to turn that particular location into an event venue,” said Cox. “Then we can do events during the summer because it’s already permitted.” The model will open the door for summertime weddings and large gathers that are otherwise challenging to pull off along the sands.

Still in its finishing stages, California Cabana is designed with a clean, Mediterranean-leaning vibe, intentionally minimal so as to allow hosts and even producers to shape it as they see fit. “I just wanted it to be clean and really beautiful so that event producers could go in and transform it into whatever they like,” she said. The venue is sizable with room for hundreds of seated guests or even larger standing crowds, plus a stage for concerts and more. “It’s basically going to be my venue for other people’s events.”

Food will be a central part of the experience as well. Cox, a chef and operator behind concepts like SeaLegs, The Huntington Beach House, Sahara Sandbar & Pizza, PCH Tacos and SeaSalt Honky Tonk at the Beach, plans to offer full in-house catering through her team for everything from intimate gatherings to large productions. “We have all sorts of catering packages available,” she said.

Cabana is expected to begin taking reservations this June.

The Lighthouse

As previously reported, iconic jazz venue The Lighthouse, a Hermosa Beach mainstay for more than 75 years, is set to open an Orange County outpost at Pacific City, just across Coast Highway from the sand.

Alongside a steady roster of jazz, reggae, rock and cover bands, the menu will feature comfort-food fare with sourdough grilled cheese with tomato soup, codfish tacos with salsa verde, lobster mac and cheese, warm lobster rolls, a buttermilk chicken sandwich and more. A whiskey-focused bar program with take care of the drink side, with a full slate of cocktails and a Sunday jazz brunch.

The space will feature both indoor and patio seating, as well as ocean views.

First opening in 1949, The Lighthouse gained a solid reputation over the years as one of the West Coast’s most important jazz venues, hosting legends like Miles Davis, Chet Baker and Dizzy Gillespie. It was even made a cameo in Damien Chazelle’s movie musical “La La Land.” The Huntington Beach location aims to carry that legacy forward.

The Lighthouse is slated to open in early summer.

3 new Huntington Beach dining spots opening soon Orange County Register

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3 new Huntington Beach dining spots opening soon

Champagnes Kitchen

California Cabana

The Lighthouse

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