While Surf City goes vertical and the skyline of downtown becomes “uptown”, the biggest events around lately have been grand openings. The newest complex, The Strand, has experienced not one, but a series of grand opening events, with Forever 21 having such a large turn-out that the gift certs for the first customers were quickly gone before the entire crowd managed to enter the store. From RaSushi Restaurant with its red lights to the red-lit tower atop the new Shorebreak Hotel, night time is quite interesting in its lighting scheme, to put it mildly.
The Shorebreak, a boutique Joie de Vivre property, was set to open in March, then April 1, and now mid-April (that’s just how these things go.) Having just launched a beautiful Sacramento hotel, Joie de Vivre’s Sacramento Citizen Hotel in Sacramento’s historic 1925 Cal-Western Life building, that hotel received accolades for its remake in the J Building at 926 J Street. Painstakingly restored, the Beaux Arts Citizen luxury, boutique hotel rolled out the red carpet in February. While the fanfare in Huntington Beach will be every bit as unique, it promises to include some of the Surf City charm the locals expect.