The Summer Huntington Beach Gets Its Pier Restaurant Back

For four years the end of the pier has been quiet in a way it wasn't supposed to be. The old Lets Go Fishing stand closed. Ruby's got passed over. A new plan stalled in permits. If you've lived here through any of that, you've watched tourists walk to the end, look around, take a photo, and walk back. That's the version of summer we've been running on.

The 2026 version looks different. There is a restaurant coming back to the pier, three new dining rooms have already landed downtown, and the summer rhythm most residents actually use has quietly gotten better while everyone was arguing about the pier lease. This is a guide to the version of Surf City you can build a week around when you already live here.

The pier gets a restaurant, probably

The short version: former Huntington Beach Mayor Keith Bohr is turning the old bait and tackle shop at 21 Main into a pier restaurant called Huntington's on the Pier, and he is now under real pressure to open it. When he came back to the city council last month to receive a $1.3 million bond for his pier project, which is designed to protect the city in case the project falls through, several council members had questions about his timeline. Councilmember Twining said at the Jan. 20 meeting he wanted Bohr "to get going so he can open up by the end of summer hopefully."

What actually gets built there matters if you plan to eat there. The project adds a 250-square-foot kitchen, two outdoor dining patios measuring a combined 630 square feet, and an expanded public restroom facility. City documents show the restaurant's interior will accommodate approximately 50 guests, featuring open-air windows that allow diners to enjoy ocean breezes. An outdoor, climate-controlled patio will offer additional seating for 25. Bohr described it as a "California coastal casual" concept with a menu of tacos, burgers, seafood, salads, appetizers, and desserts. A beer and wine license is already in hand, and a full liquor application is planned.

Whether it opens by Labor Day is genuinely uncertain. The restaurant was originally set to open in May 2022, but permits and documentation pushed it back for years, and Bohr said his team has had to work through three state agencies, the OC Health Department, and various city departments. Treat the opening date as a moving target and check before you walk down.

What actually opened while everyone waited

The pier is not the only place to eat, and the last two years have been busier than the pier drama would suggest. Three openings worth knowing:

None of these are the marquee pier reopening. All of them are more likely to be open on a given Tuesday.

Building a week around the rhythm

The strongest argument for living here is not any single event. It is that four evenings a week already have a shape if you want to plug into them.

Tuesday nights on Main

Surf City Nights closes Main Street to cars every Tuesday. It is a farmers market, a street fair, and the closest thing HB has to a standing weekly ritual. If you moved here in the last two years and haven't gone, that is the fastest fix on this list.

Friday and Saturday along PCH

The stretch of Pacific Coast Highway between the pier and the Waterfront has quietly turned into a live-music corridor on weekend afternoons. On a recent June Saturday, the calendar included Tribute to Led Zeppelin X Jimi Hendrix at Beach City Provisions, Flashback Heart Attack at SeaLegs at the Beach, Sammy Listoe X LRoc at Sea Salt at the Beach, and a DJ set at The Huntington Beach House, all within about a mile of each other. If you have out of town guests, this is the route.

Sunday concerts at Pier Plaza

Pier Plaza is a public gathering spot with stone steps, cement seats, and a tiled mural wall depicting scenes from Huntington Beach history, and concerts are held at the open-air amphitheater on a regular basis during summer months. The Fourth of July slot this year belongs to Square Dance Heroes at 1:00 PM, which tells you the programming leans local rather than headliner.

The marquee weekends to actually plan around

Most of the summer calendar is background. A handful of dates are worth blocking off because parking, traffic, and downtown access change materially:

• July 3 and forward: NSSA Nationals. The 2026 NSSA Nationals Surf Competition begins July 3. Multi-day event, footprint at the pier, expect the south side of the sand to be busy.
• July 4: Parade and Pier concert. The 4th of July Parade is one of the seasonal family events HB anchors its calendar around. Downtown streets close early.
• Late summer: US Open of Surfing. The event is free with a large footprint south of the Huntington Beach Pier, and it is the world's largest surf competition. It takes place directly across Pacific Coast Highway from resorts including Hyatt Regency, The Waterfront, Paséa, and Kimpton Shorebreak, so PCH is the choke point.
• Airshow weekend. The Huntington Beach Airshow is on the annual summer calendar alongside the US Open and the Summer Concert Series. If you live within a mile of the beach, you don't need a ticket.
• Taste of Huntington Beach and the HB Art Walk. Both are on the summer calendar and lean heavily on downtown venues and local galleries.

If your street parking situation gets tight during US Open weekend, that is not new. Plan groceries, dog walks, and any airport runs accordingly.

The beach most residents underuse

Huntington Beach offers 9.3 miles of soft, sandy beaches and approximately 78 parks. Almost nobody uses all of it. Three underused pieces worth resetting on this summer:

Dog Beach stretches from Seapoint to Golden West Streets along the coast, dogs are only allowed on this beach, and parking is available in two unattended lots south of the beach with meters charging a minimum of 25 cents. The lots fill early on weekends and are wide open at 7 a.m. on a weekday.

The 8.3 mile paved bike path adjacent to the Pacific Ocean features ocean views and soft breezes, with some sand that drifts onto the path. The stretch north of the pier toward Bolsa Chica is meaningfully less crowded than the pier itself, especially before 9 a.m.

Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve is the counterprogramming to the summer crowd. Free, quiet, and roughly ten minutes from downtown. If your out of town guests have "done" the pier twice, this is the third day of the trip.

The through line

Put the pieces together and the argument for this summer isn't the pier restaurant, and it isn't the US Open. It is that the daily texture of a Huntington Beach summer is no longer thin between marquee weekends. There is a Tuesday market that draws locals. There are three restaurants downtown that opened while the city was arguing about the pier lease. There is a live music corridor along PCH that assembles itself every weekend. And there is, finally, a plausible restaurant coming to the end of the pier, on a bond that gives the city something to enforce if it doesn't.

That is a better summer than we had in 2023. It is also the kind of thing you only notice if you live here.

When you're ready to talk about the house

Neighborhood texture is the reason most of my clients bought where they did, and it is the reason they stay. If a move within Huntington Beach or elsewhere in Orange County is on your radar for the second half of the year, Mike Doyle can walk you through what your current home would list for in this market and what's actually available in the pockets you want. Get your instant home valuation to start the conversation.