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Restaurant owner Alicia Cox offers food and drink to OC beach-goers

April 28, 2023

On a warm April morning, Alicia Cox is busy talking to vendors. Cox’s beachside venues span from Bolsa Chica to Huntington State Beach and host special events with notable musical acts like Snoop Dogg.

“KROQ does a secret show out here each year,” says Cox, founder of Prjkt Restaurant Group. Last year, The Offspring performed. Once Netflix bought out SeaLegs and everything around it for a super fans event. The launch of “Outer Banks 3” kicked off with a music festival called Poguelandia: An Outer Banks Experience featuring Khalid and Lil Baby. It attracted nearly 7,000 people and generated numerous digital impressions.

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Cox is a Huntington Beach resident so she knows the area well. She partnered with California State Parks and now oversees its beachside concessions. SeaLegs at the Beach in Bolsa Chica, Huntington Beach House by Beach Boulevard, Sahara’s Sandbar & Pizza by state beach’s “main lifeguard tower” at Magnolia Street and California Fork and Spoon, which will open next year near Brookhurst Street.

Sahara Whitney, 11, is all smiles after cutting the ribbon on a restaurant named for her, with her mother, Alicia Cox, right, and Madelynn Hirneise, CEO of Family Forward, left, and Kevin Pearsall, Superintendent, State Parks for Orange County at Huntington State Beach in Huntington Beach, CA, on Tuesday, April 19, 2022. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Cox began her career operating Orange County restaurants in 2011, when she created a business plan for SeaLegs Wine Bar. By the time her daughter, Sahara, was 1 the concept opened and the business grew.

It was followed by SeaLegs Wine Bar, SeaLegs LAX, and SeaSalt Woodfire Grill.

“Then, I came to bid on this,” says Cox, waving her arm at the sunshine washed sand surrounding her newly remodeled Huntington Beach House. It has an updated DJ booth, a Slush House that dispenses slushy margaritas, and a kitchen that serves birria ramen and giant burgers. A gold-colored hand statue by Damien Sanders of Monster Stage will be unveiled soon for photo ops on the sand.

Alicia Cox, CEO of Prjkt Restaurant Group, raises her hands as she joins others as they cut the ribbon on The Huntington Beach House at Huntington State Beach in Huntington Beach, CA, on Thursday, July 29, 2021.(Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

For Cox, the strategy is to bring people to the beach earlier. She’s starting with brunch.

“It gets people here earlier and they stay for the day,” she says. “I want to make sure that guests come in and have a really good experience in Huntington Beach.”

Cox’s aspirations for the area extend beyond her concessions.

“It’s about giving back to our community and changing the way my daughter and the kids around me think,” she says. “That ripple effect starts with something.”

We met Cox at Huntington Beach House to discuss her plans for the area’s concessions, what to eat by the beach, and how her unique partnership with California State Parks came to fruition.

(This interview is edited for brevity and clarity.)

Q. How did you forge the partnership with California State Parks?

A. I saw this bigger picture. We’re going to reimagine the way you play when you come to these beaches. California State Parks, they’re the largest real estate holder in the state of California, and we’re one of the top parks to come and visit. I’ve met the director of the State Parks and some of the higher-ups, and they’re looking at us as a model of where the future can go. That was the idea with Kevin Pearsall (State Park Superintendent III, Orange Coast District, California State Parks), he wanted it to be more like those world class beach experiences in Europe and Australia.

Q. Tell us about the state-of-the-art vending machines.

A. There’s this conex box, which is a shipping container. There’s nothing there. Now we have state-of-the art vending machines. You scan a QR code and put in your credit card info. Then a little door pops open. You rent basketballs, Bluetooth speakers that you can use on the beach, and firewood. We have 24-hour options that are just right there. We’re able to take this dead piece of real estate and turn it into a useful experience for people on the beach.

Music lovers gather on chairs and benches at SeaLegs at the Beach on Bolsa Chica State Beach for dinner, drinks and an outdoor concert by the Metropolis Chamber Musicians in Huntington Beach on Thursday, April 8, 2021. (Photo by Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Q. Is that why you started hosting events?

A. We’re recreating recreation. People come out to the beach every weekend. It can’t be that same stale feeling all the time. The idea is that when we get finished with California Fork and Spoon, you can take your bike all the way from Brookhurst (Street) to Warner (Avenue) and go to every venue for a different type of experience. There’s a SeaLegs Doggy Dog brunch on Saturdays with doggy cakes and puppuccinos. We have a DJ that’s playing the Dog Pound album mixed into all sorts of music. Then we have sponsors that do free giveaways, like treats and cool tennis balls. At Sahara’s we’re getting a full liquor license. As soon as I get that, we’re kicking off a Biggie brunch with ’90s and 2000s music. We’re also partnering with Strut (from Costa Mesa) to do the first OC Pride event out here.

Q. Music is an integral component of your venues. What acts do you book?

A. My sweet spot is growing the grassroots Orange County music base. Artists that may be on the verge of going on the next level. It’s having that platform to showcase their talents. We want to put eyes on them. Bands like Yachty by Nature. He is a math teacher. When we first started working with them, they were a smaller band. Now, they’re so coveted. Being out here and watching these artists grow became a passion that I didn’t know that I had. So fulfilling. It’s awesome to see them become something bigger and to know that we’re part of that process.

Birria Ramen is among the dishes on the menu at the Huntington Beach House. (Photo by Jenn Tanaka)

Q. The food at each venue is so different. Birria ramen at Huntington Beach House, calzones at Sahara’s Sandbar & Pizza, and churro waffles at SeaLegs at the Beach in Bolsa Chica. How do you come up with the menus?

A. I always think, how can we showcase different food on the beach? I’m always researching. At Sahara’s, you’ve got this beach-style pizza. It’s how we’re making the dough. How the dough rises because we’re next to the ocean. We tested so many different doughs and researched pizzas in the area. We nerded out and learned all about what makes good dough.

Restauranteur Alicia Cox and her daughter Sahara Whitney, then 11, at Sahara Sandbar & Pizza at Huntington State Beach in Huntington Beach, CA, on Tuesday, April 19, 2022. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Q. Sahara’s Sandbar & Pizza is named after your daughter. Is that why you donate $1 from every pizza sold to Families Forward?

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A. When I was bidding on the concept, I had to be really creative. I knew it was the widest gap of sand in the Western Hemisphere. Sahara was 7 or 8 at the time. She was talking to me and I was like, “Oh my gosh! Sahara, the most mysterious gap in the world, the desert!” When it was time for it to be executed, there was this moment where I thought, this is going to define her as a human being. Her name was on this. It had to be a teaching moment. My daughter had to realize that when she had an opportunity, she had to do good with it. So we started looking for a charity. We love documentaries and there was one about the motel kids in Orange County. To help other children, what can we do? Families Forward is an incredible charity that takes care of families who are on the brink of homelessness.

The last component was to actually get involved. We go and take warm meals to those families in Huntington Beach. It’s an unbelievably beautiful experience. It opens up such a perspective on life. It goes back to being grateful that we have all this so that we can do good for others. I’m glad that my daughter gets to be on the forefront of that.

For more information about Saturday afternoon concerts, visit sealegsatthebeach.com/events

Orange County Register

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Restaurant owner Alicia Cox offers food and drink to OC beach-goers

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