20+ New Business Openings

More than 20 new businesses have opened up here in Huntington Beach. The bike lanes along Pacific Coast Highway are getting a major upgrade. There's also a pickleball tournament to benefit the local Huntington Beach firefighters, and a local Huntington Beach man received a life-saving kidney transplant. This is what's going on in Huntington Beach, and this is what we're here to talk about. And we're back with another episode of Unlocking Huntington Beach. What's going on? My name is Lane Stone, and we have another good one for you today. There's a lot happening here in our beautiful city of Huntington Beach. So let's get into it really quickly. And we're going to talk about segment number one here. All of the new businesses opening up in Huntington Beach. There's more than 20 of them that have recently opened up. And I'm going to list off a few, and hopefully we can all support local, support Huntington Beach, and try a few of these places out. So let's talk about Animal Republic, which is a veterinarian ER hospital, a parlor donuts. If you haven't seen me try a dozen of these different donuts, there is a previous video we can have in the link in the show notes there to see all of them, to see what you can get yourself into. And show I showed you what my favorite was. So we did a live tasting of parlor donuts. Uh Pico's Pizza and Coffee, that's over on Beach Boulevard next to Normita's. Moved the locations to Newland Center across from Beach Boulevard in between Adams and Yorktown. There is the Timber Lodge parlor, the Sushi. I don't want to mess this up, but I'm not Japanese, so don't take offense if I mess this up. Nigiriba, Sushi Nigiriba, and uh Boot Barn, Clatch Coffee, and Moonsha Boba. Uh so there's also more coffee shops unlisted, not listed here, but we'll have the full list in the show notes. Uh, there's wellness studios, other veterinarian clinics, there's an aviation training program, and as I mentioned, lots of beverage and coffee shops that have opened up. So it's a good sign that local businesses are here and they continue to grow and open up shop in beautiful Surf City, USA. So whether it's restaurants, retail, wellness spaces, people we're continuing to expand here in Huntington. It's great to see that. So let's support these new businesses and show them a little bit of love. I also saw recently that there is a brand new escape room uh coming to Huntington Beach over at Pacific City, opening up towards the end of March, I believe. And they have surf-themed escape rooms. I love escape rooms. I went to the one over by Bellatera. I think it's Wild Goose. That's what that one's called. So that one's worth checking out. But also, I will be hitting up the Pacific City one as well. All right, now let's talk about the bike lane project in Huntington Beach along PCH. So if you've driven along Pacific Coast Highway, uh you might have really noticed like bright green lines. Uh well, Caltrans has continued to work on what's called the State Route 1 bike lane project here in Huntington Beach. And the current construction includes rebuilding the center medium between Beach Boulevard and Twin Dolphin Drive, which is expected to be completed by the end of May. Now, crews are also installing signal pole foundations at several major intersections, including Brookhurst, Magnolia, Warner, and Seal Beach Boulevard. The medium work between Seapoint and Warner has not yet started. Major construction for the project is expected to be completed by the end of 2026. Now, of course, rain delays, weather delays, different factors could potentially delay that, but the goal is to get it all done by the end of 2026. The main goal here is to improve safety for cyclists and create more connected bike corridor along the coast. We've seen too many stories in the news, on the forums, on Facebook about bikers getting run over. And anything that we can do to continue the safety of our community, especially the cyclists, is really important. I love that they're doing these things because I like to think that Huntington Beach is being a very active place to live. We have beaches, we have hiking trails, we have so many wonderful things along our city. And that also includes a huge uh cyclist, uh basically group and a lot of people here that like to ride their bikes, especially along PCH. And you know, some of those roads you can go 60 miles an hour along PCH, uh, and people go way faster than that. But it to improve safety for our cyclists, that was something that's really important. So I'm happy to see that this project is underway and I can't wait for it to be done. And I hope that it is done prior to 2026 and not spilling into 2027. Now let's move on to a different segment. This is the Picklepalooza fundraiser. The Picklepalooza fundraiser is going to be located um at the Huntington Club, used to be called the uh Seacliff Country Club there uh on Palm, Pass Golden West. So if you're looking for something to do this spring, whether or not you are a pickleball player, yes, they have uh you I think they have 30 teams that can qualify for this particular tournament. It's a first come, first serve basis, I believe. So at so it will sell out and you need to act fast on the registration. We will provide the registration link if you do want to participate in the pickleball side of it. But if you don't, they also have just general admission so you can still partake in the barbecue that they're gonna have there and the events, the raffles, probably watch some of the pickleball tournaments going down. And all of this is a fundraiser to support uh the Surf City Fire Foundation, which is a good effort for Huntington Beach, the local Huntington Beach Fire initiatives. Uh the event takes place on April 18th, 2026, again at the Huntington Club, uh at which is formerly known as Seacliffe Country Club. They're stating that it's a full day of pickleball, food, drinks, a live DJ raffles, and plenty of community spirit. Um again, you don't have to be able to play to participate. You can get a general admission. Uh, but the tournament's limited to 30 teams, as I mentioned. So if you are a pickleball player and you want to show off your scopes and you want to win this tournament and you want to support a good local cause, think about the Picklepalooza happening um later in April uh over at the Seacliffe, excuse me, Huntington Club. I still have it's still 20 years, it's the Seacliff Country Club. So the Huntington Club is still, even though it's been around for a while, I understand, uh still implanted in my brain as a Seacliff Country Club. Uh but hopefully you guys uh participate there. And um again, it it's money to support the firefighters who serve Huntington Beach. So what can be better than that? Especially to get out in beautiful weather here in Huntington, play a little pickleball, watch a little pickleball if you don't play, take part part in Raffles prizes, have some good food, and the facility at the Huntington Club is always improving. It's very, very nice, as you know if you or if you haven't been to it, I encourage you to check it out. And this is a good excuse for you to go check it out. Okay, we're gonna talk about the next segment. We just had something really cool and uh called the Revolutionary War uh reenactment at Central Park. And I saw on the forums and I saw on the ring doorbell notifications that a lot of people were saying, What's that explosion sound? What are those uh uh almost sounds like a cannon that are being fired? And and I believe a lot of that had to do with the Revolutionary War that came into town on March 7th and 8th. Well, the Huntington Beach Historical Society brought the American Revolution to life with a weekend living history in Central Park, and they had reenactments where they uh recreated battles, military drills, daily life during the Revolutionary War. Uh it's really cool because the event comes as the United States prepares prepares for the 250th anniversary of our independence. Um, kids even had the chance to participate as spies for George Washington, so that was kind of a cool thing. But it's also a reminder that Huntington Beach isn't just beaches and surf culture. There is a strong local history community here as well. And there's other events and reenactments like this. So if you feel like, oh, I would have loved to have seen that, I will love to my kids to participate in something like that. They do the Civil War reenactments of what as well, and you still have time to catch that one. So the Civil War reenactment that's coming up is on September 5th and 6th, and we'll have a link for in the show notes for that. So make sure that you mark your calendars if you want to be partake in the uh Civil War reenactment or just be a spectator, uh, because that is coming up in September. Okay, I also want to talk about a really cool story. It's called the Huntington Beach Miracle. Well, there is a man, Huntington Beach local, Sean Cortez. He is a resident who's been searching for a kidney donor, and he finally received a life-saving transplant. And I'm kind of gonna read off the story because I don't want to get any of the details wrong. It's such a beautiful story, and I'm so proud of what's happened here for all parties involved. But Sean has been battling a kidney disease and under and he had been undergoing eight hours of dialysis every night while waiting for a transplant. Uh last week I'm told that that ended. He received a kidney transplant at UCI Medical Center in Orange. And the donor was Dake Pacioni, uh, is a witness coordinator with the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office who had suffered a stroke and was declared brain dead earlier this year. And Jake was an organ donor, a family friend of Huntington Beach Public Affairs officer Jessica Cucia. Um, he has known uh he was known as someone who always gave back to others, and Jessica helped raise awareness for Sean's search for a donor last year. So when Jake's family made the decision to donate his organs, she immediately thought of Sean. And the transplant happened on February 25th, and Sean has now returned home and is recovering. What makes the story even more incredible is how the two men had so much in common. They were both hockey fans, they both love the LA Kings. That's the only part of the story I don't like, but it's okay. I'm happy that you're a hockey fan. Go Dugs. Um, and both were known for giving back to their communities. So again, beautiful story. I love that good people get have good things happen. And I love that Jake was somebody who was selfless and a giver. And even when maybe uh his brain capacity wasn't there to uh I don't know, make this decision or make this call, you know that this is something that he definitely wanted to do. And so this whole entire experience was called a true miracle, and it's a power, powerful reminder of how life-changing organ donation can be. So just wanted to say I love when uh some there's a positive story about our Huntington Beach locals, and thank God for uh Sean and hopefully you have a beautiful, swift recovery. I do have a friend um that also donated a kidney to his father uh recently, and he's since has been recovered and recovering really well. He's back to going on his runs and playing basketball, and dad, his dad's doing great. So I know that the the surgery is is worth it, and uh you're gonna be back to normal life in no time. So uh shout out to you, Sean, and and shout out to Jake. Thank you, thank you so much for the donation, helping out one of our own here in Huntington Beach. And there you have it. That is this week's episode in Unlocking for Unlocking Huntington Beach. I hope you enjoyed it. We love bringing entertainment, news, all the happenings here in Surf City each and every week. If you want to follow us on any of the socials, you can find us at unlocking HB. You can also find us on YouTube if you want to watch this on video. Um, you can find us there at Unlocking Huntington Beach. You can follow myself personally on my Instagram at LaneNOC. There's so many ways to make sure that you're staying up to date and you're hopefully you're liking and subscribing and sharing this because we are a newer channel and we're trying to grow and we're trying to get the word out to our neighbors of Huntington Beach. And this is exclusively for Huntington Beach. We're gonna be having interviews coming. We have Suzanne with the corner market coming soon. We have a chocolate, a local chocolatier coming soon for interviews. So if you want to get the inside scoop on all of this, you need to be subscribed so that you don't wait, you don't miss another episode. I want to leave you with this as I always do each and every week. Do good, Huntington Beach deserves it.