In early 2019, Anton Segerstrom declared that “this is the year of food at South Coast Plaza,” while speaking at a dining event in the backyard of the Segerstrom family’s Home Ranch property on Fairview Road.
That year may have just been the appetizer, as the past month has served up plenty of food highlights at the Costa Mesa shopping center.
Singapore’s Paradise Dynasty, which recently opened at the center’s Bloomingdale’s wing along with a new food court, counts multi-hour waits for a table, something not seen since the opening of the mall’s other dumpling-focused standout, Din Tai Fung.
A recent sampling of Paradise Dynasty’s menu suggests the wait is worth it.
Last week saw the shopping center’s high-end French restaurant  Knife Pleat grab national headlines with the awarding of a Michelin star, the first ever granted for a South Coast Plaza eatery.
An event celebrating the accomplishments of Chef Tony Esnault and his wife and business partner, Yassmin Sarmadi, was held at the restaurant last Wednesday.
Execs taking part in the celebration were Segerstrom, Vizio CEO and founder William Wang, real estate investor Manouch Moshayedi, and Ross Pangilinan, the Business Journal’s Chef of the Year for 2019 (try the bone marrow pizza at SCP’s Terrace by Mix Mix).
For more on Paradise Dynasty and the Michelin awards, see next week’s print edition of the Business Journal.
If 2021 is the Year of Food at SCP, 2022 might be the Year of Art on the other side of Bristol Street.
The Orange County Museum of Art’s new $93 million building at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts campus opens about a year from now.
Last week, OCMA said admission would be free for 10 years, thanks to a $2.5 million gift from Newport Beach’s Lugano Diamonds.
It’s the largest-ever gift from Lugano, which a month ago sold a 60% stake of the business to Westport, Conn.-based Compass Diversified. Lugano received $198 million in cash as part of the transaction.
“Our goal is to remove as many barriers of entry as possible, and to connect as many people as we can to art and artists,” OCMA CEO and Director Heidi Zuckerman said, as part of a media tour for the under-construction facility last week.
The gift “will be a wonderful way to throw open our doors next year.”
This week’s print edition has plenty of info on the future of the auto industry, thanks to our Kari Hamanaka; see this week’s Automotive Special Report plus stories on Irvine’s Rivian and others scattered throughout the paper.
For a look into the auto sector’s past, visit the new Segerstrom Shelby Event Center in Irvine; an invite-only opening event is scheduled for Oct. 28.
It’s the work of Ted Segerstrom, whose father, Hal, served as managing partner of C.J. Segerstrom & Sons with his first cousin, Henry Segerstrom, until his death in 1994.
Ted and his wife, Rae, own a collection of more than 80 classic cars—primarily Ford Mustangs and high-performance Shelby and Shelby Cobra models. They bought the spot for their new showroom and events center about four years ago.
