Golden Lantern's Big Empty Storefront, and the Mile of La Paz Road That Filled In First

"We saw an opportunity to create something fresh for Laguna Niguel," Specialty Restaurants' chief operations officer Ryan Smith said in July, announcing a new steak-forward concept called Good Boy for the space at Ocean Ranch Village where Hendrix Restaurant and Bar used to pour happy hour wine and carve rotisserie chicken. It's a good line, and Good Boy sounds like it might be worth the wait. The wait itself is the part worth sitting with. The restaurant isn't opening this year. It isn't opening this winter. Specialty Restaurants and the city's own reporting put the target at early 2027, which means the storefront at 32431 Golden Lantern, the one everyone still calls "where Hendrix was," will have sat dark for the better part of two years by the time anyone eats there.

Meanwhile, about a mile up the road on La Paz, three storefronts filled in while nobody was watching the marquee center.

The Corner Everyone Still Calls By Its Old Name

Hendrix opened in 2017 at Ocean Ranch Village, the Shea Properties center anchored by Trader Joe's, Curl Fitness, Cinépolis and Bottega Angelina, and for years it was the restaurant people picked before a movie or after a long weekend at Salt Creek. Reviews over its last stretch tell a familiar story of a restaurant changing hands and losing its footing, and by this year the space had closed for good.

Good Boy is the announced replacement, and the pitch has some texture to it. Smith described it as "a playful, steak-forward concept with a 'no veto' menu designed to offer something for everyone," and company spokesperson Chelsea Kottke framed it as the kind of place meant for "dinner, an after-work drink, weekend brunch, or a late-night celebration." That's a real menu philosophy from a real operator with other concepts in its portfolio, not a placeholder press release. But even a well-planned restaurant with backing takes time to build out a kitchen, pull permits and staff a dining room this size, and that timeline is exactly why the highest-visibility corner in the neighborhood's biggest shopping center is still sitting empty heading into 2027.

A Mile Away, La Paz Road Filled Three Storefronts First

While Ocean Ranch Village waited, Plaza de la Paz quietly turned over. Sweetgreen opened its fifth Orange County location at 27221 La Paz Road, Suite K, on June 17, 2025, with a grand opening that matched every meal sold with a donated meal to Laguna Food Pantry. It seats 43 diners inside and another 42 on the patio, and it arrived with a limited-time KBBQ menu built in collaboration with COTE, a Michelin-starred Korean steakhouse, not exactly a soft launch for a fast-casual chain.

A few doors down in the same center, Nick the Greek opened its sixth Orange County location at 27221 La Paz Road, Suite E. Local franchisee Deminar Elieh, who already runs a Nick the Greek in Union City, said he wanted to bring the concept to "a tight-knit community that values fresh, delicious food." And a short distance from there, Gina's Pizza was working on its fourth Orange County location, with co-owner Kerry McMahan targeting a spring 2026 opening to extend the brand's Sicilian-inspired menu into the neighborhood. If that timeline held, the fourth Gina's is already slicing pies by the time you're reading this.

Three tenants, one strip center, all in the same twelve-month window that Ocean Ranch Village spent with its highest-profile space sitting vacant.

The Corridor, Side by Side

Laid out this way, the pattern is hard to miss. The smaller, simpler formats moved in fast. The full-service replacement is taking roughly triple the time.

Why the Small Storefronts Always Move First

None of this is a knock on Good Boy or Ocean Ranch Village. It's just how restaurant buildouts work. A fast-casual concept like Sweetgreen or Nick the Greek is dropping a known kitchen layout into a space, plugging in equipment the brand has installed dozens of times before, and opening the doors. A full-service restaurant and bar concept means a custom kitchen, a liquor license, a dining room built from scratch and a staff trained before a single reservation goes out. Hendrix itself took time to get right when it opened in 2017, and Good Boy is walking the same road, just with a longer runway because the space has been sitting untouched since Hendrix closed.

That's useful to know if you've been checking that storefront every time you drive past on your way to Cinépolis. It's not stalled. It's just moving at the pace these buildouts move.

What's Actually Worth a Trip on La Paz Right Now

If you're deciding where to eat this month, the open list is longer than the anticipated one:

• Sweetgreen, 27221 La Paz Road, open daily 10:30 a.m. to 9 p.m., with a rotating seasonal menu and patio seating for 42
• Nick the Greek, 27221 La Paz Road, Suite E, open daily from 11 a.m.
• Gina's Pizza, targeting its fourth Orange County location nearby, likely already open if its spring timeline held

Pair a stop there with something already on the fall calendar. Crown Valley Park hosts Fall Flicks with a screening of "Toy Story 3" on September 25, and the Laguna Niguel Fall Festival Market takes over Crown Valley Community Center on October 3 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., free admission, with local vendors filling the grounds. Both give you a reason to be on that side of town anyway, and both are a short drive from the same stretch of La Paz Road that's been doing the neighborhood's actual restaurant turnover this year.

Keep an Eye on Golden Lantern, But Don't Wait on It

Good Boy is a real restaurant with a real operator and a real menu concept behind it, and when it opens in early 2027 it will likely be worth the reservation. But if the last year is any indication, Laguna Niguel's dining scene isn't waiting around for one flagship space to reopen. It already moved a mile up the road, three storefronts at a time, while the center everyone assumes is the neighborhood's restaurant row sat quiet.

That's the part worth knowing if someone asks you what's new to eat in town. The honest answer right now runs through La Paz Road, not Golden Lantern.

For more on what makes daily life in Laguna Niguel worth paying attention to, from its trail system to its park calendar, explore the neighborhood guide. And if you're weighing a move to this stretch of South Orange County and want a local read on where the neighborhood is actually headed, Vanessa Moore is always glad to talk it through. Let's Connect.