Which East 17th Street storefront will have a new name over the door first? It probably isn't the one Orange County has been talking about since May. Erewhon's lease at 140 E. 17th St. got the headlines. Its own website points to a September 2027 debut, about eleven months from now. The first changes will come farther east, in the 300 and 400 blocks, from tenants that have said much less in public.
On a map, the reset on 17th Street looks like a cluster of announcements. On a calendar, it looks like a staircase. Each incoming business is at a different stage, and most of those stages can be checked in public records and on the companies' own pages. Read in order, they show that the strip is refilling from its eastern end inward.
Two closings, one building's worth of goodwill
The first change came in May. That month The Country Club closed. Its website now shows a single word, "Closed," above a note thanking guests and inviting them to "our sister restaurants, Playa Mesa and Wild Goose, both located on 17th Street." That note aged quickly. On Aug. 1, Playa Mesa's owners announced the restaurant had closed after eight years on 17th Street. The Orange County Register reported that no reason was given.
Mario Marovic and Andrew Gabriel founded both restaurants through the Lounge Group, their Newport Beach-based hospitality company. Wild Goose, the group's third spot on 17th Street, is still open. Playa Mesa's run began strong. In 2018 the Register's food critic praised its menudo, its cocktails and a pork chop al pastor he called "brilliant."
Within four weeks of Playa Mesa's closing announcement, its space had a new tenant lined up.
The 400 block moves first
On Aug. 27 the Orange County Business Journal reported that Zov's would open its fifth Orange County restaurant at 428 E. 17th St., the former Playa Mesa. Zov Karamardian founded the Mediterranean restaurant in 1987, and three generations of the Karamardian family now run it. The flagship is at the Enderle Center in Tustin, followed by Irvine, Newport Coast and a San Clemente location that opened earlier this year.
The timing is close but not fixed. Orange Coast reported on Sept. 11 that no official opening date had been set, and that the family aims to open before the end of 2026. The magazine lists the dishes the family is known for: kebabs, mezze platters, golden lentil soup and pistachio roasted seabass.
"Everything we serve traces back to my mother's kitchen. The approach hasn't changed in four decades." — Armen Karamardian, CEO of Zov's, to Orange Coast
Zov's is also the only full-service restaurant among the incoming tenants. The Lounge Group's two closures are being replaced by one sit-down room and a set of counters.
The coffee shop that announced itself through a health permit
A short walk west, at 385 E. 17th St., the current Jack in the Box site, Better Buzz Coffee Roasters looks set to open its next café. The company hasn't announced the site itself. Better Buzz's locations page lists its existing Costa Mesa café at 2701 Harbor Blvd., Suite D1, and doesn't mention 17th Street.
The OC Health Care Agency's plan-review record tells the story instead. It lists Better Buzz Coffee Roasters at 385 E 17th St as new construction of a restaurant under 2,000 square feet. The county received the plans on June 2, 2026, and marked them "unable to approve" twice, on June 8 and Aug. 13. Revised plans came in on Sept. 9, and on Sept. 24 the record changed to "PLAN APPROVED / AUTHORITY TO CONSTRUCT."
An approval to build isn't an opening date, and nothing in the record predicts one. Still, two weeks ago this project crossed a line that Erewhon, at the other end of the street, is nowhere near publicly. Of the incoming tenants, Better Buzz said the least and has the most paperwork done.
The middle blocks are still "coming soon"
Farther west, the signs are less specific. Sourdough & Co., the sandwich, soup and salad chain, has a page for an E. 17th St. location at 299 E. 17th St. It says "COMING SOON!" and offers a hiring link marked "Accepting Applications Soon." It shows no opening date.
Bear Flag Fish Co. is planned for the former Santa Monica Seafood space. What Now OC reported the address as 154 E. 17th St. in October 2025. Bear Flag's own locations page still describes three Southern California shops: a counter in Lido Village on the Newport Peninsula, one at Crystal Cove, and a fish market and counter at Pacific City in Huntington Beach. Costa Mesa isn't on the list yet, and no opening date has been published.
Neither of these is a pending rumor. Both are named on the companies' own sites. Neither has set a date.
The 100 block waits the longest
At the western end of the strip, the old T-Shirts Warehouse at 140 E. 17th St. is set to become Orange County's first Erewhon. Bear Flag will be its next-door neighbor. The Register noted in May that the company rarely talks to traditional media, so the September 2027 date on Erewhon's website is the most specific public timeline available.
The two businesses headed for the 100 block are the two that drew the most attention. They are also the two whose arrival is least certain or furthest away.
The order of arrival, as of early October 2026
Lined up by how far each project has publicly progressed, the street changes in roughly this order:
- Zov's, 428 E. 17th St. The lease is announced, the opening is targeted before the end of 2026, and no date has been set.
- Better Buzz Coffee Roasters, 385 E. 17th St. County plan approval with authority to construct came on Sept. 24, 2026. The company hasn't made a public announcement or given an opening date.
- Sourdough & Co., 299 E. 17th St. Listed as "coming soon" on the company's site, with no date.
- Bear Flag Fish Co., former Santa Monica Seafood space. Planned, not yet on the company's own locations list, no date.
- Erewhon, 140 E. 17th St. The website points to September 2027.
The one open question is the old Country Club space. No replacement tenant has been reported since it closed in May.
Taken together, the first changes on 17th Street will come from the 400 and 300 blocks, near Wild Goose and the Jack in the Box corner. The western end of the strip stays as it is longer than the headlines suggested. Anyone tracking the street can watch the same public pages used here: the county's plan-review records, the "coming soon" pages, and local reporting from the Register, the Business Journal and Orange Coast. For a wider look at the neighborhood around the corridor, our Eastside Costa Mesa neighborhood guide and weekend lifestyle guide to East Side Costa Mesa cover the blocks on either side of 17th Street.
A change of tenant on a main street affects the homes a few blocks away, through the morning coffee walk, the dinner reservation that no longer exists, and the grocery run that will soon be shorter. Leslie Thompson follows these changes block by block across Eastside Costa Mesa. If you'd like to talk about how the new East 17th Street lineup fits your plans for your home, schedule a private consultation.
