For 26 years, the corner of Main and Olive smelled like syrup. If you ever ordered a short stack there on a Sunday morning before a walk to the pier, you had a small, reliable constant on a street that otherwise reshuffles its storefronts every few years. That constant ended this spring, and what replaced it is bigger, boozier, and tells you more about the city's plans than a restaurant swap usually does.
Champagnes Kitchen, a Newport Beach institution, opened its second location at 200 Main Street in May. On its own, that's a nice food update. But two months later, a few blocks up the same street, something else happened that had nothing to do with food at all, and the two events together point to a pattern most residents haven't clocked yet: downtown Huntington Beach is investing in two very different things at two very different ends of Main.
A Bigger, Boozier Version of a Newport Beach Original
Champagnes Kitchen has been part of Orange County's dining scene since 1989, when Rand McDevitt and Tina Voso opened the original bistro and deli in Newport Beach. They ran it for decades before retiring and selling the brand during the pandemic to restaurant operators Matt and Winnona Tobey. The Tobeys weren't strangers to Huntington Beach when they picked their expansion site. They moved here in 2015 to help launch a restaurant at Pacific City, and their kids were born and raised in Surf City, which is part of why they chose Main Street for the brand's most ambitious rollout yet.
The new location took over a 3,950-square-foot space at 200 Main, right at the corner of Main and Olive, inside what's known locally as Steve Daniel Plaza. Before the formal ribbon-cutting on May 22, the Tobeys ran a two-day locals-only soft opening on May 13 and 14, offering 20 percent off food and coffee to anyone who showed a Huntington Beach ID. That's a small detail, but it tells you who they were trying to win over first.
What makes this location different from the Newport flagship isn't the menu so much as what surrounds it. The original built its name on counter-service breakfasts and deli sandwiches. The Main Street spot adds a full evening cocktail bar, a six-seat liquor bar, and an espresso program built around Moon Goat Coffee, a local roaster. Winnona Tobey, a Culinary Institute of America graduate, oversees the kitchen, while Matt Tobey brings operational experience from stints at Urth Caffé, Wild Goose, and Starwood Hotels. It's a restaurant designed for foot traffic that starts at the beach and doesn't want to stop for the night.
A Few Blocks North, a Very Different Kind of Investment Landed
Here's the detail that makes this pairing interesting. The International Surfing Museum, founded in 1987 by Ann Beasley and Natalie Kotsch, spent more than three decades at 411 Olive Avenue, close enough to the Main and Olive corner that its longtime members almost certainly walked past that IHOP sign every time they visited. That address is essentially the museum's old neighborhood. This year, it left.
The Huntington Beach City Council voted in March to move the museum into the Main Street Library at 525 Main Street, and the new space held its grand opening on July 24, one day before the US Open of Surfing kicked off a run that lasted through August 2. The timing wasn't an accident. The inaugural exhibition marks the 50th anniversary of professional world championship surfing and honors Peter "PT" Townend, the sport's first-ever world champion, crowned in 1976. Visit Huntington Beach used the occasion to recognize Townend for his decades of coaching, commentary, and ambassador work for the sport.
The new space is bigger than a single gallery. Duke Aipa, son of legendary board shaper Ben Aipa, spoke about a wall inside the museum dedicated to the boards of past world champions and the stories behind them.
"Basically, my dad was the Elvis Presley of surfing," Aipa said of Ben Aipa's place in the sport's history.
The library's renovated first floor is also becoming home to the Gordy surf shop, described as Huntington Beach's first surf shop, along with a tribute to local lifeguard culture and an art exhibit. Mayor Casey McKeon has talked publicly about wanting this stretch of Main, working alongside the neighboring Huntington Beach Art Center, to become the city's version of an "art cultural district."
Two Ends of the Same Street, Two Different Bets
Put the two projects side by side and a pattern shows up that a single news item wouldn't reveal. The pier end of Main, where address numbers are lowest and foot traffic off the sand is heaviest, just got a bigger, later-hours restaurant built for tourists and locals winding down a beach day. The library end, several address blocks north, just became the anchor of a city-backed cultural corridor built around surfing history, art, and education rather than another round of dinner and drinks.
That's not a coincidence so much as two different constituencies getting served in two different places. The Huntington Beach Downtown Business Improvement District, a nonprofit established in 2004, oversees more than 250 businesses along Main, and most of the district's marketing energy understandably goes toward the food, shopping, and bar scene near the beach. The museum's move suggests the city sees an opening to build something else a few blocks inland, something that doesn't depend on tourist turnover to justify its existence.
If you're wondering whether the city's appetite for change stops at Main Street, it doesn't. Prime Pizza, which already operates in Los Angeles, Brea, and Mission Viejo, is preparing to open a Huntington Beach location on Warner Avenue this month, taking over the space that used to house Local Kitchens. It's a separate story from the Main Street shift, but it's one more sign that this is an active season for storefronts across the city, not a one-off.
If you're walking Main Street this month, here's what's changed:
- 200 Main Street, at Olive — Champagnes Kitchen now occupies the old IHOP space, open for breakfast through late-night cocktails with a Moon Goat Coffee bar up front.
- 525 Main Street — The International Surfing Museum's new home sits inside the Main Street Library, next to the Art Center, with its 50th-anniversary pro surfing exhibit now open.
- Main & Walnut/Olive parking structure — The first 90 minutes are free, which covers a quick stop at either end.
- Tuesday evenings — Surf City Nights closes Main Street to traffic for a street fair and farmers market, so plan around it if you want a quieter walk or a faster meal.
The Corner Changes, the Habit Doesn't Have To
Main Street has always turned over its storefronts. What's different this year is that the two biggest changes aren't competing for the same customer. One is chasing the crowd that's already at the beach. The other is trying to build a reason to walk past the beach entirely. If your usual loop starts and ends at the pier plaza, you've been missing the half of downtown that's actually new.
Doug Merlino and the team at BeachPointe Properties keep a close eye on every corner of Surf City, from the newest espresso bar on Main to the neighborhoods a few blocks off it. Whether you're just curious what's changed on your regular walk or wondering what your own slice of Huntington Beach might be worth these days, Doug's instant home valuation tool is there when you're ready, no pancakes required.
