Drive north on Beach Boulevard past the car washes and the nail salons and the strip malls that all start to look the same, and you would not guess that the run of Beach Blvd near Sampson Lane is about to become one of the more interesting new-business corners in Huntington Beach. Not because of what's already there. Because of what the City of Huntington Beach's own business tracker says is coming.
According to the city's Business Buzz page, which lists new and upcoming businesses with their exact suite numbers, two coffee concepts with almost nothing in common are landing within a block of each other on this stretch of Beach Blvd. One is a Southern California indie coffee brand known for skull mugs and skate-culture branding. The other is the U.S. arm of a coffee company that is close to a household name in Vietnam. That is not a pairing you'd expect to find on a stretch of Beach Blvd with no ocean view, and it says something about how this particular corridor is being read by the businesses choosing to bet on it.
One Address, Two New Tenants
The building at 18582 Beach Blvd is getting more crowded before it even opens. Rad Coffee has filed plans for a location there, and Waves Market & Spirits is set to occupy Suite 23 in the same address, according to the city's own listing. Two different concepts, one small building, on a stretch of Beach that most residents drive past on the way to somewhere else.
Waves Market & Spirits hasn't said much publicly yet. Its website currently reads only that the team is preparing something for the Huntington Beach community, with no menu, hours, or opening date attached. That kind of quiet rollout is normal for a small operator still working through permitting, but it means the market and spirits half of this address is still mostly a placeholder for now.
What Rad Coffee Actually Is
Rad Coffee is not a new name in the region. The company was founded in 2015 by Rusty and Jade Valore and currently runs storefronts in Upland, Covina, and Long Beach, built around skate culture, monster-themed drink names, and an aesthetic that leans intentionally offbeat rather than polished. The Long Beach location on Atlantic Avenue has built a loyal following for staying open until 10 p.m., long after most coffee shops in the area have closed for the day.
The Huntington Beach location, according to founder Jade Valore, will not be a copy of those existing shops. She told the local business outlet WhatNow that the plan is a smaller footprint built around a different philosophy, describing it as hands-on, DIY, and a little unconventional. The concept draws inspiration from early 1990s independent coffee culture, the kind built out of small stands and strong personalities before national chains reshaped the category. Valore has also said the project carries personal weight, since it's dedicated to her daughters and marks the brand's entry into a new community.
That is a specific bet: a smaller, rougher-edged version of a brand that already has proof of concept elsewhere, dropped into a stretch of Beach Blvd that has none of downtown's built-in foot traffic.
A Few Doors Down, a Different Coffee Tradition Entirely
Nearby, at 18645 Beach Blvd, Trung Nguyen Legend Cafe is also listed as coming soon. This is not a local startup. Trung Nguyen is one of the most recognized coffee producers in Vietnam, and its Legend Cafe brand made its first U.S. appearance in 2023 at 9039 Bolsa Ave in Westminster, inside the commercial core of Little Saigon. That original location built a following around phin-brewed Vietnamese coffee, egg coffee, and the kind of strong, condensed-milk-sweetened drinks that don't show up on a typical Southern California coffee menu.
A second Orange County location on Beach Blvd, outside the traditional Bolsa Avenue corridor, is worth pausing on. It means a globally distributed Vietnamese coffee brand is choosing to expand into inland Huntington Beach rather than deeper into Westminster or Garden Grove, where its core customer base is already dense. For a city with a meaningful bilingual and bicultural population, that is a small but real signal about where this kind of business now sees room to grow.
The Rest of What's Landing on This Stretch
The city's list shows this corridor isn't just about coffee. A few other names worth knowing if you live nearby:
- Tacos Madre, 17801 Sampson Ln, Suite 1, a short walk from the Beach Blvd cluster
- Urban Air Adventure Park, 21082 Beach Blvd, a large-format indoor entertainment venue further up the corridor
The city notes this list highlights select businesses and isn't comprehensive, and that opening dates for everything on it are still being finalized. Treat these as confirmed plans, not confirmed calendars.
Why the Quiet Stretch, Not the Pier
Compare all of this to what's landing downtown, which is where most of the recent business buzz in Huntington Beach has been pointed. The city's same tracker lists The Kickstand Soda Shop and Huntington's on the Pier both at Main Street addresses, alongside Champagnes Kitchen and Parlor Donuts, all part of downtown's ongoing tenant reshuffle that AceEstate covered in an earlier look at the neighborhood's food map. That downtown wave is built for visitor traffic: pier proximity, Main Street tourist walk-bys, the kind of location that depends on someone already being on vacation nearby.
| Corridor | New tenants (per city list) | Address |
|---|---|---|
| Downtown / Main Street | Huntington's on the Pier | 21 Main St |
| Downtown / Main Street | The Kickstand Soda Shop | 150 5th St, #B110 |
| Beach Blvd near Sampson Ln | Rad Coffee | 18582 Beach Blvd |
| Beach Blvd near Sampson Ln | Waves Market & Spirits | 18582 Beach Blvd, #23 |
| Beach Blvd near Sampson Ln | Trung Nguyen Legend Cafe | 18645 Beach Blvd |
The Beach Blvd cluster reads differently. There's no beach view, no pier foot traffic, nothing built for a visitor who's only in town for a weekend. What's landing there instead is aimed at people who already live nearby and are choosing where to get coffee on a random Tuesday, not where to spend a vacation afternoon. A skate-culture coffee brand betting on a DIY, community-first version of itself, and a Vietnamese coffee institution choosing an inland stretch over its own established base, both point the same direction: this corridor is being treated as a neighborhood, not a destination.
What This Means If You Live Out This Way
If your daily loop already runs along Beach Blvd, this is the stretch to keep an eye on over the next few months. None of these businesses have confirmed opening dates yet, and the city is upfront that its list can change. But the combination of names filing plans along this one stretch, an indie coffee brand, a Vietnamese coffee institution, a taco spot, and a large entertainment venue, is a more interesting local story than another downtown storefront swap. It's worth checking back on Rad Coffee's and Trung Nguyen Legend's social channels as the year goes on, since neither has announced a firm open date.
For everything else happening around Huntington Beach right now, from the neighborhood's broader housing patterns to what's changing downtown, the AceEstate team keeps close tabs on the city block by block, not just from the portals. If you're weighing a move to this part of town or just curious what your own home might be worth given how the neighborhood around it keeps changing, get your free home valuation and let's talk about what's actually happening on your street.
