What's New on Main Street Seal Beach: Fall 2026 Storefronts

In August 2025, the Seal Beach Sun counted nine empty commercial spaces on Main Street. By June 2026 the count was six. Three fewer dark windows on a street this short is easy to see, and most of the businesses moving in serve food. A wine bar now fills a former sushi spot. A French bakery is going into a café that sat empty for more than two years. A Belgian waffle shop is taking over a reading room. A shuttered bank building now has approvals to become a restaurant. Old Town's comeback is happening mostly around food, and over the past year the City of Seal Beach has started actively helping to make these matches.

Below is the status of each space as of the latest public updates in late summer and September, along with the reasons behind the faster pace.

Where the storefronts stood at the last check

• 210 Main St.: Solera – Kitchen + Wine Bar, open since June.
• 137 Main St.: Chaupain Artisan Bakery, remodel underway, opening expected late 2026.
• 226 Main St.: POM Waffles, approved in April, with gift cards on sale and no opening date posted.
• 208 Main St.: Former Bank of America building, approved for restaurant use, no tenant announced.
• Main Street and Pacific Coast Highway: Former Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, owners seeking a long-term tenant.
• 246 Main St.: Seal Beach Vintage, open since spring.

Seal Beach Vintage is the one retail shop on that list. It opened at 246 Main sometime between the Sun's March and June counts. In that same June inventory, the Sun noticed help-wanted signs at Charo Chicken and Launder Pet. Businesses that are hiring tend to be businesses that are busy.

Solera made the first move at 210 Main

The space at 210 Main has had several tenants. It was Grandma's Cookies until the mid-2000s, then a series of sushi restaurants, then Osteria Mare Blu, as the Seal Beach Sun has recounted. Solera – Kitchen + Wine Bar soft-opened there on June 15. It held its grand opening with a Seal Beach Chamber of Commerce ribbon-cutting on June 29. According to the restaurant's July 9 press release, more than 1,200 guests came through in the first 15 days.

Co-founders Brandon Martini, a certified sommelier, and Todd Wohrman built the restaurant around three things: a sommelier-selected wine list, a from-scratch seasonal kitchen, and charcuterie made in-house. Executive Chef Michael Droma's résumé includes The Bazaar by José Andrés, Sotto, Cantinetta Luca and Sugo Social.

"People come to Seal Beach and they want to slow down. We built a place that makes that easy."

Martini said that in the same release. His point shows up in the hours. Solera serves lunch and dinner every day: 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday, and until 11 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. It takes reservations, and walk-ins are seated as space allows. For Main Street, that means one more set of lights on after dark on a block where an empty storefront used to sit.

The next two arrivals are a bakery and a dessert shop

Solera brought evening business to the middle of Main. The next two openings bring morning coffee and afternoon dessert, so more of the day is covered.

Chaupain Artisan Bakery at 137 Main

The Old Town Café space on the 100 block went dark in January 2024 and stayed empty after that. Community Development Director Shaun Temple confirmed in a July 8 email that the incoming tenant is Chaupain, a bakery, and that tenant-improvement permits had been issued. By August the company logo was already on display at the shop.

Patch reported on August 31 that signage at 137 Main points to a late-2026 opening. The bakery was founded by husband-and-wife team Sarah and Sami Ellouze. In an Instagram post quoted by Patch, the owners said "Seal Beach holds a special place in Sarah's heart, with memories dating back to her childhood." The menu is handcrafted breads, French pastries, breakfast, lunch and coffee. Chaupain already runs bakeries in Laguna Hills, Newport Beach, Laguna Niguel and San Clemente. As of late September, its locations page still listed Seal Beach as "coming soon."

POM Waffles at 226 Main

The Belgian waffle shop is going into the former Christian Science Reading Room space. The Reading Room has moved to another address on Main. The Planning Commission approved a minor use permit on April 6 for applicant Georges Hoebrechts's waffle and ice cream shop at 226 Main. The shop's website promises "authentic Belgian waffle craft with a light coastal lifestyle," along with coffee and ice cream. It still reads "Coming Soon to Seal Beach," though gift cards can already be bought online. The Sun reported that the owner ran an online survey of Old Town residents on Nextdoor. As of the Sun's August update, no opening date had been announced.

The two big spaces are being steered toward food as well

The two largest vacancies on the street sit at opposite ends of the commercial stretch. In both cases, the plans so far point toward food.

The former Bank of America building at 208 Main is the furthest along on paper. In October 2025 the California Coastal Commission approved changing its use from a bank to a restaurant, and the city has issued its own permits. At the July 6 Planning Commission meeting, Temple said the owners are "clear from the city and the Coastal Commission to move forward once they find the tenant that they're looking for." A demolition crew was working at the building in August. No tenant has been announced.

The other is at the top of the street, at the corner of Main and Pacific Coast Highway, where Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf has closed. As the Sun reported from an August 13 Chamber of Commerce networking breakfast, District Two Councilman Ben Wong said city staff tracked down the building's owners, who want a long-term tenant. The city suggested a bagel shop. That's only a suggestion and no lease has been signed. Still, it fits the pattern on the rest of the street. If both spaces end up serving food, nearly every recent change on Main will have come from someone opening a kitchen.

Why the pace picked up this year

Much of the momentum traces to the city's Business First Advisory Committee. Management Analyst Jennifer Robles has taken on a new role as business concierge. Temple described the effort as "starting first with Main Street, find out any sort of challenges or difficulties and how the city may assist."

The clearest result so far is the waffle shop. At the Chamber breakfast, Wong said the owner got through planning permits in six weeks, and he credited Robles with moving the application along. A storefront can sit dark for a long time between lease signing and opening day, and six weeks of permitting is quick. Robles's outreach to the bank building's owners and the Coffee Bean landlord is the same effort, aimed at the spaces that have no tenant lined up yet.

The bigger question is the rulebook. Wong pointed out that the Main Street Specific Plan dates to around 1996. "It's almost 30 years old now," he said, and he called it "a bit constricted" and later outdated. The Business First committee is expected to take up Main Street beautification and the Specific Plan. Any rewrite would affect which kinds of businesses can open on the street in the coming years, so it's worth following on Planning Commission and City Council agendas.

Several spaces are still empty. The Sun's June count included the units at 214 and 214A Main. It also noted office space for lease inside the Seal Beach mall at 311 Main, which doesn't face the street directly.

At the foot of Main: pier base repairs scheduled for this winter

Main Street ends at the pier, and the pier has work coming. The City of Seal Beach's Capital Improvement Program lists Phase 2 of a project on the pier's concrete abutment, also called the Pier Base. Construction is projected for November 2026 through March 2027. Phase 1 patched cracking and spalling on the base's exterior and added a new epoxy coating. Phase 2 will make repairs based on a structural analysis, which may include reinforcing or repairing beams, supports or foundations. The budget is $568,000 from the city's Tidelands fund, and TYPSA, Inc. is the structural engineer. The project page last listed its status as preliminary design. Its financial data was last updated February 13, 2026, so the schedule could still change.

The earlier phase finished on August 20, 2024. That job covered deck waterproofing, concrete and railing restoration, and painting the abutment. The city's project listing doesn't say whether Phase 2 will limit pier access. The project page and city notices are the places to check before a winter walk to the end of the pier.

Kimberly has watched Main Street change for decades, and she keeps a running list of which storefronts are opening and which are still papered over. To talk through what the new arrivals on Main could mean for your plans, reach out to Kimberly Kelly. Let's Connect.