Ever since the project was announced in 2020, news about the $5 billion Anaheim development known as OCVibe has been slowly trickling out. Backed by the Samueli family, owners of the Anaheim Ducks, the 95-acre mixed-use entertainment district was approved by the city in 2022 and is expected to open in phases starting in early 2027.
There will be a 5,000-seat, state-of-the-art concert hall as well as a resurrected version of the Golden Bear, a beloved Huntington Beach music venue that shuttered 40 years ago. And, of course, there will be plenty to eat at OCVibe – including new concepts by star chefs from Los Angeles, Orange County and beyond.
Once complete, OCVibe will almost certainly be the hottest place to eat anywhere in Orange County. At the very least, it’s a giant get for Anaheim, which, save for pockets like Little Arabia, is mostly known for theme park eateries and chain restaurants. OCVibe is only a 10-minute drive from Disneyland, sitting adjacent to the Honda Center and across the street from recently sold Angel Stadium. Soon it will offer locals, tourists and the greater Orange County community access to everything from fine dining to an expansive food hall.
Chef Tim Hollingsworth plans to open a wood-fired restaurant at OCVibe in 2027. (Trox Photos)
Former French Laundry chef de cuisine Tim Hollingsworth, fresh off debuting Alphabet Bar & Grill in the newly reopened Palisades Village mall, has joined the slate of top-notch talent. Hollingsworth’s landmark Downtown Los Angeles restaurant Otium closed in 2024 after a nearly 10-year run; his yet-to-be-named wood-fired restaurant at OCVibe will mark his first foray into Orange County.
“OCVibe is a great opportunity because it’s bringing people together in community, the same sort of things we focus on in restaurants,” Hollingsworth tells SFGATE. “It’s hard to imagine anything else like it in the area, with how beautiful and walkable everything is.”
Although Hollingsworth hasn’t worked out his menu’s details just yet, he confirms that there will be a raw bar and wood-fired pizzas. And although he doesn’t expect to serve any Otium classics, he hints that guests might see some “reinterpretations” of favorites.
A rendering of the SENA Hotel at OCVibe. (Rendering courtesy of OCVIBE)
Another big-name chef that has entered the mix is global superstar and humanitarian José Andrés: A ground-floor restaurant from Andrés’ group is slated to anchor the SENA Hotel, Anaheim’s first Autograph Collection property. The hotel is expected to offer more than 300 guest rooms, as well as other restaurants and bars run by Sage Hospitality Group.
“Anaheim, here we come! It is no secret that I love California … filled with amazing people, bountiful ingredients and energy. My team and I are excited to bring a new restaurant into this community that we look forward to being a part of,” Andrés, who operates three restaurants in LA and one in the Bay Area, said in a news release.
Last, but certainly not least, is OCVibe’s ambitious 50,000-square-foot food hall, dubbed Katella Commons, which is expected to feature 21 chefs and span a variety of cuisines and price points. Bold-faced names like LA legends Debbie Lee and Roy Choi have signed on to open concepts. Lee will operate Pado, a Korean-inspired seafood and raw bar, as well as an outpost of her LA Korean-style convenience store-and-street food joint Mokja. Choi, meanwhile, plans to open a location of his long-running Las Vegas restaurant Best Friend, which serves everything from his signature Kogi short rib tacos to buttermilk fried chicken.
Chef Roy Choi, who plans to open a location of his restaurant Best Friend at OCVibe. (Courtesy of OCVIBE)
The food hall, slated to open in 2027, is also enlisting up-and-coming talent like Danielle Duran-Zecca and Alessandro Zecca of LA’s “Mexitalian” restaurant Amiga Amore, as well as Alex Garcia and Elvia Huerta of boundary-pushing Mexican restaurant Evil Cooks in El Sereno. Orange County is well-represented on the slate, too, as is international talent like chef Guoming “Sam” Xin of Noodle Man.
Katella Commons Vice President Nick Pacific and his team traveled to more than 100 Orange County and Los Angeles restaurants to come up with the right mix of chefs and concepts.
“We wanted to bring some things that are unique, that don’t exist here in Anaheim,” Pacific says. “Hopefully we’ll create some momentum and bring more great chefs to the area. Orange County is very spread out, so we’re bringing it to one location where you can experience a lot of different things.”
Pacific adds that since Katella Commons is providing capital up front and handling all of the operations for the restaurants, it’s an attractive partnership for the chefs who have signed on.
“We look at it as, we’re creating the stage and then the artist fills the space,” Pacific says. “We want to create an environment where the chefs feel like they’re part of the team and they have all the support they need to be successful.”
A rendering of the entrance to Katella Commons at OCVibe in Anaheim, Calif. (Renderings courtesy of OCVIBE)
The team is hopeful that diners in Orange County and beyond will take note of the impressive culinary offerings.
“For a long time, people in Orange County drove to Los Angeles for the restaurants everyone was talking about. OCVIBE represents an opportunity to shift that dynamic,” OCVibe senior vice president of hospitality Anthony Olheiser tells SFGATE via email. “Chefs like Roy Choi and Tim Hollingsworth could open anywhere, and they’re choosing Anaheim, cooking alongside local operators who have spent years building loyal followings here.”
He adds: “That pairing of nationally recognized chefs and homegrown favorites says a lot about where Orange County dining is headed. The talent has always been here, and so has the appetite. What’s been missing is a place that brings the two together, and with OCVIBE, we’re building a dining destination with an identity all its own.”
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This article originally published at Star chefs like Roy Choi and José Andrés join $5B Anaheim mixed-use project.