Fashion Island's Ocean-View Corner Has Gone Quiet. The New Openings Are on the Other Side.

"The renovation will reorient the existing brick-and-mortar space to face the ocean rather than turn its back to it." That is how an Irvine Company spokesperson described the plan for Fashion Island's south corner to the Orange County Business Journal in November 2025. For anyone living up the hill in Spyglass, that sentence explains this fall at Newport Center better than any list of openings. The part of the mall closest to the Pacific is the part with no one in it. The new names are arriving elsewhere, and the holiday season starts in an inland courtyard.

Three Restaurants Left, Each Facing Away From the Water

The ocean-facing restaurant row used to hold The Cheesecake Factory, California Pizza Kitchen and P.F. Chang's. According to the Business Journal's September 14 report, P.F. Chang's was the last of the three to close. The other two had left in earlier years. The closure had already been reported by August 31.

Here is the order of events:

1. The Cheesecake Factory closes. As of November 2025, the Business Journal said it had been gone about two years. Its space became the anchor site for the planned hub.
2. California Pizza Kitchen closes in a prior year.
3. P.F. Chang's closes by late summer 2026, emptying that whole stretch.
4. Irvine Company plans construction "this fall" on what it calls the Coastal Overlook.

The spokesperson's wording is the point. These buildings sat on the ocean side of the center with their backs to the view. The redesign calls for expansive windows that capture panoramic Pacific views, and the Business Journal reported that the finished space will match the look of the RH gallery and the other ocean-facing buildings next to it.

RH Proved the View Pays

The plan copies a model that is already up and running. In 2024, RH moved from its longtime spot near the koi pond into a four-story, 97,000-square-foot building on the south end of the mall, facing the coast. Its rooftop restaurant, RH Ocean Grill, is what Irvine Company keeps naming as the inspiration.

"The community has responded enthusiastically to the beautiful coastal views and ocean breezes available while dining at RH Ocean Grill, and we will deliver a similar coastal ambiance in a refreshed restaurant space in this area of the center," a Fashion Island spokesperson told the Business Journal in September.

Gerard Widder, Fashion Island's vice president and general manager, framed the project in November 2025 as "the next phase of investment." He said it will introduce "fresh dining and lifestyle concepts that take full advantage of Fashion Island's remarkable location." The stakes are large. The Business Journal ranks Fashion Island as Orange County's second-largest shopping center, with $876 million in taxable sales over 12 months.

As of the September report, construction was planned for the fall, and Fashion Island described the space only as a new venue for "innovative" restaurant concepts. The report named none of them.

Where the New Names Actually Landed

While the ocean corner waits, the center has been filling in fast everywhere else. None of this fall's arrivals is part of the Coastal Overlook.

Telefèric Barcelona is the biggest dining addition of the season. It's a Spanish tapas and paella restaurant, and the Daily Pilot reported it open in August. The Pilot listed hours of 11 a.m. to 10:15 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 11 a.m. to 11:15 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. The restaurant's own location page has its current lunch and dinner hours. Since it took over the former Hopdoddy space, it filled an existing restaurant spot rather than adding a new one to the ocean side.

Levain Bakery, the New York shop known for its six-ounce cookies, opened its first Orange County location on September 4. The Business Journal said it drew long lines on opening weekend. The Daily Pilot reported daily hours of 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. after the opening, which makes it one of the earliest stops at the center.

The retail openings fall in a tight October window. Jones Road Beauty held its grand opening October 16 through 18 at Suite 1089. FARM Rio's arrival went up on Irvine Company's Fashion Island news feed on October 20, billed as the brand's only Orange County location. Hill House Home and Garage were still listed as upcoming in Irvine Company's September release and the Business Journal's September report, so you may see construction walls where those stores will go.

For a View With Dinner, There Is One Rooftop

With the restaurant row closed, the south end has a single ocean-view dining room: RH Ocean Grill, on the roof of the RH gallery at Suite 1101. Fashion Island's directory describes seafood and caviar, a skylit garden and panoramic views of the California coast. In its November 2025 piece, the Business Journal described a glass-enclosed rooftop that seats 260, with two wine bars on either side of the grand staircase entrance and a menu that included caviar-topped lobster rolls and grilled branzino.

That one room carries the center's whole ocean-view dining identity for now. It's also the room Irvine Company keeps pointing to as the template for the Coastal Overlook. When the Coastal Overlook does open, a dinner with a Pacific view at Fashion Island will mean choosing among several rooms instead of booking the only one.

The Holidays Start Inland, Too

The season's biggest night at Fashion Island happens away from the coast. The Tree Lighting Ceremony is on Friday, November 20, 2026, in the Neiman Marcus–Bloomingdale's Courtyard. According to the event page, it features:

• A 90-foot live tree
• Snowfall and holiday music
• The Sugarplums and Santa
• A 5 p.m. start, weather permitting

The page's summary line lists "5AM - 8PM," but the event description says the ceremony begins at 5 p.m., so plan on the evening start. The two newest food stops make it easy to build a night around the lighting. Levain stays open until 10 p.m., and Telefèric was reported serving until 11:15 p.m. on Fridays. Anyone who wants the water view on the same night will need an RH Ocean Grill reservation, since the ocean-facing restaurant row has nothing open this season.

Irvine Company is about to spend a whole construction season turning a building around to face the view it always had, because RH showed that buyers and diners respond to it. Spyglass homes face that same Pacific. If yours does, Cassie French can build your listing around the view, with staging from Classy AF Interiors that puts the windows at the center of every room and every photo. Request a free home valuation & staging plan, and we'll show you how your view can lead the listing.