For most of 2025, four of the most-watched storefronts in Laguna Beach sat dark. The historic Heisler Building across from Main Beach. The stilt-house perch at 858 South Coast Highway. The dining room at Dizz's As Is, which had been serving rack of lamb and raspberry duck since 1977. And the long-shuttered Ti Amo building down in South Laguna. Any one of those going quiet would have made news on its own. All four empty at once felt like the town was holding its breath.
That breath is out. Between March and July of 2026, every one of those addresses turned back on, and a fifth long-vacant space is about to join them. If you've only registered these openings as one long scroll of "new restaurants in Laguna," you're missing the part that actually changes how you use your own town. The buildings didn't reopen with the same kind of business. Look at what landed where, and a real split shows up between the errand you run downtown and the one you run at either end of Coast Highway.
Two Full-Service Rooms Landed Within a Few Blocks of Each Other
The most-watched vacancy in town belonged to the Heisler Building, dark since Bodega and Skyloft closed in early 2025. What moved in is Noble Ace, a Golden Age Hollywood-inspired speakeasy and restaurant from Chef Magellan Moore of Mastro's Ocean Club, backed by Elizabeth and Tom Schreiber. The team runs deep. Hillari Galindo took the General Manager role after two decades between Mastro's Ocean Club and Red O in Newport Beach, and Danny Reyes returned as Assistant GM after starting his Laguna career at Odessa. Designer Ralitsa Kombakis of Studio Rallou built the interior to hold the Heisler Building's history alongside a modern supper club feel. The room runs Sunday through Thursday from 4:30 to 10 p.m. and Friday and Saturday until 11.
Schreiber described the pricing spread to a local outlet this way: "This is like if Hillstone and Mastro's had a baby." That's a useful way to think about who the room is for. The bar with its piano is a walk-in evening. The upstairs and the chef's table are a reservation night.
In the old San Shi Go stilt building at 858 South Coast Highway, Amorelia Cocina Artesanal took the space through its own long road. Owner Gloria Seretti, whose family has run a Costa Mesa restaurant for decades, brought her son Daniel Paniagua in for the concept's first expansion, a Mexico City-centric fine dining room with a raw bar and patio seating. Both rooms require a reservation. Both sit within a few blocks of Main Beach. Both are priced for a night out, not a quick bite. That's not a coincidence of two leases signing close together. It's where the reservation-required, occasion-driven dining in Laguna is concentrating right now.
The Edges of Coast Highway Picked Up a Different Kind of Business Entirely
While downtown filled in with full-service, reservation-required rooms, the two ends of Coast Highway filled in with something built for a faster order and a quicker turn. Pizza and poke landed on the northern approach into town. Burgers took the south end. Bagels are headed for the deep south end, down in South Laguna.
Truly Pizza opened its second location on May 7 at 320 North Coast Highway, next to Urth Caffe, three years after co-founders John Arena and Donna Baldwin launched the original in Dana Point. The Laguna location held a ribbon-cutting on June 11, not long after the brand landed at No. 4 on the 2026 edition of 50 Top Pizza USA and took home Pizza of the Year for its Umami Mushroom pie. A few blocks away at 248 South Coast Highway, Nalu Poke, Tea & Boba is moving into the space Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory had held since 1984.
Down at the south end, in the building that housed Dizz's As Is for more than 40 years under the Pitz family before it closed on March 13, Small's Smash Club opened in June. Founded by professional snowboarder Jordan Small, it's the brand's second location after its 2025 debut in San Clemente, and it kept Dizz's existing bar and liquor license along with the ocean view, building its menu around a smash burger, tallow fries, and onion rings. Further south still, in the long-shuttered Ti Amo building in South Laguna, a sibling concept called Truly Bagels is slated to open as a counter-service, daytime-only spot, giving that stretch its first walkable bagel option in years.
Here's the quick version of where each one landed:
- Truly Pizza — 320 N. Coast Highway, full-service, northern approach
- Nalu Poke, Tea & Boba — 248 S. Coast Highway, former Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory space, northern approach
- Small's Smash Club — 2794 S. Pacific Coast Highway, former Dizz's As Is, south end
- Truly Bagels — the former Ti Amo building, South Laguna, deep south end
None of these require a reservation. All four are built around a faster in-and-out than the two rooms that landed downtown. If you want a slice, a poke bowl, a burger, or a bagel, the car now points to one end of town or the other, not to the center.
One More Storefront Is Still Finishing Its Transformation
A fifth address is close behind. The space at Glenneyre and Thalia that generations of locals knew first as Cafe Zoolu, then as ROUX, then most recently as Evan's Gourmet, is becoming Bar ízi, a small plates concept from owner Sam Rabon. The renovation has been underway for months, with a debut targeted for the end of August or early September. If you drive past and the windows are still papered over, it's close, not stalled.
How the New Map Actually Plays Out This Month
The timing lines up with two things already on the local calendar. First Thursdays Art Walk runs from 6 to 9 p.m. on the first Thursday of every month, with free trolley service for visitors and complimentary admission to the Laguna Art Museum from 5 to 9. The next one falls on September 3. Meanwhile, the Pageant of the Masters and Festival of Arts are still running through September, and a Pageant ticket also functions as a season pass to the Fine Art Show, including same-day admission to Laguna Art-A-Fair, a detail most residents forget to use.
Put those two things next to the restaurant list above and a few moves make sense:
- Park once for Art Walk. Walk the galleries on Forest Avenue first, then finish the night at Noble Ace or Amorelia instead of driving to a second spot.
- If you're holding a Pageant ticket, use the daytime hours on it. Take a picnic into the Fine Art Show on a weekday afternoon and skip the ticket line the tourists are standing in.
- Save the counter-service run for the errand version of eating out. Truly Pizza, Truly Bagels, Nalu Poke, or Small's are built for a quick stop before or after whatever else you're doing that day, not for the night you've been planning around.
None of this is really about mourning what closed, even with a 40-year restaurant like Dizz's leaving the block. It's about knowing which few blocks to aim the car toward depending on what you're actually doing that evening. That's a genuinely different map than the one Laguna had a year ago, and it's worth having in your head the next time you're deciding where to go.
Laguna Beach changes in small, specific ways like this all the time, and knowing the town this well is part of what makes it a place worth calling home. If you're thinking about buying or selling here, or just want to talk through what a specific street or building is worth in today's market, The McGuire Team has been doing exactly that kind of work in this community for over 30 years. Contact Us.
