The block between Chapman and Glassell has been quietly rearranging itself all year. If you have walked the Plaza in the last few weeks, you have probably noticed the papered windows coming down and new signage going up, and you have almost certainly noticed the smell of focaccia coming out of a storefront that was not there last summer.
Late summer in Old Towne is a good time to take stock. The August lull sits right before the neighborhood's busiest weekend of the year, and the newest additions have had just enough time to settle in for a proper visit.
The Plaza is getting denser, not wider
Old Towne's footprint has not grown. What has changed is how tightly the interesting places now cluster around the fountain. The recent wave of openings is not spreading outward toward the freeway or south toward Chapman University. It is compressing inward, filling in the storefronts within a two or three block walk of the intersection at Chapman and Glassell.
That matters if you live here. It means a Saturday errand loop actually works on foot, and it means the character of the Plaza is being set by a small number of operators whose choices you will see every day.
The most notable additions this year:
| Place | What it is | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Centro & Storico Cafe | Second location of the family-owned Italian spot, with in-house focaccia and eight panini options, plus Pozzuoli Family Winery pours | On the Plaza |
| Oak & Poppy | Luxury piercing and fine jewelry studio, its first Orange County location and third overall | Historic district |
| Garrahan Hat Company | Handcrafted hat shop, announced as an upcoming opening by I Heart Old Towne Orange | Old Towne |
| The Win~Dow (proposed) | Smash burgers, fried chicken sandwiches, grain bowls, and shakes, with a pending ABC application under "The Win~Dow and a Bar" | 237 W. Chapman Ave. |
A few things to read into that list. Centro & Storico opening a second location in Old Towne is a vote of confidence from an operator who already knows the trade area. The Win~Dow filing a liquor license application at 237 W. Chapman, first reported in June 2026, suggests the concept coming to Orange will be broader than the walk-up burger window the brand is known for elsewhere. And Oak & Poppy choosing Old Towne for its Orange County debut is the sort of thing that shifts the retail mix a few degrees upmarket without changing the neighborhood's texture.
Where the regulars still go on a Tuesday
New is not the only measure of good, and one of the reasons Old Towne holds up is that its long-standing operators have not been displaced by the newer ones. If you are entertaining out-of-town family in August and want to show them the neighborhood without waiting in a fair-weekend line, the older guard is still where the evening actually happens.
1886 Brewing Co. remains the default for a beer and a plate of pub food you do not have to think about. Bluestone Lane, the Australian-inspired cafe on the Plaza, is the full-service version of the brand and worth the coffee alone. Bosscat Kitchen brought its Southern-leaning menu and cocktail program over from the John Wayne Airport side of the county, and it slots in nicely for a weeknight out. HAVEN craft kitchen + bar continues to run one of the deeper bourbon and whiskey lists in Orange County.
The Richland, the boutique hotel on the Plaza, has quietly become the neighborhood's date-night answer. Its bar, The Living Room, has the feel of a well-appointed private study and does some of the more careful cocktail work in the city.
Street Fair weekend, planned like a local
The Orange International Street Fair returns September 4 through 6, 2026. If you live inside the closure ring, the weekend is less about deciding whether to go and more about deciding when to run errands, where to park your own guests, and which routes will actually be open.
A few facts from the fair's logistics that are worth internalizing before Labor Day:
- Closures are wider than most residents remember. Chapman Avenue closes fully from Lemon to Grand, and Glassell closes fully from Almond to Maple, in effect Friday through the Monday morning cleanup at 8 a.m.
- Permitted parking restrictions are suspended. The three-day suspension of Old Towne's permit parking rules means the streets that are usually protected fill up faster than normal, so move your own cars into the driveway earlier than you think.
- Chapman University lots are typically the cheaper option than the private residential parking that pops up on lawns and driveways, which is worth telling guests before they arrive at your address.
- The Metrolink and OCTA station is two blocks from the event. For anyone coming in from the north or south end of the county, the train is the un-annoying answer.
- Get in early. The fair itself is family-friendly in the morning and gets rowdier as the day goes on, which is the honest version of the advice locals give each other.
- Eight stages, thirteen international food areas. The 2026 theme is Circle The World, and each street radiating out of the Plaza takes on a different country. Plan your loop around which country you actually want to eat from, not around the main stage.
The fair itself dates back to 1973, when it started as part of the city's centennial and drew fifty thousand people in year one. It eventually replaced the Orange May Festival, which had celebrated the start of the Valencia orange harvest until 1991. That history is worth knowing if you have guests who ask why a small California city closes its two main streets for a weekend every September.
If you want the quieter version of the same neighborhood energy, the calendar around it is generous. The Hart Park Bandshell at 701 S. Glassell runs its free summer concert series through the end of the season, and the Orange Home Grown farmers market at Plaza Park rotates monthly programming (knife sharpening on first Saturdays, cooking demos on second Saturdays, kids club and the seed lending library on third Saturdays).
A design note, since it is what we notice
One of the reasons the newer operators have landed well is that they are working with, not against, Old Towne's inherited fabric: the brick storefronts, the divided-light windows, the shaded sidewalks. Centro & Storico's warm interior and the restrained palette at The Richland both read as extensions of the district's original architecture rather than imports laid on top of it.
That is worth paying attention to as a homeowner. When the ground-floor retail on your block is picking materials and finishes that respect the neighborhood's period detailing, the residential streets tend to follow. Refinished oak, matte black hardware, honed limestone, warm-white lime-washed exteriors, restrained landscaping around specimen oaks and olives — these are the same choices playing out inside the historic homes a few blocks in from the Plaza. The Plaza sets the tone, and the tone shows up in what the homes are worth showing off.
If you have been thinking about a refresh before the fall, this is a good moment to walk the district with an eye for what feels intentional and what feels dated. The distance between the two, in Old Towne especially, is often smaller than people expect.
When you want a design-forward read on how your own home reads against the neighborhood it sits inside of, Real Estate by Cindi is glad to walk it with you. Request a design-forward market consultation and we will start with what your block already gets right.
