The Shore in San Juan Capistrano opens with shave ice and musubi

“It’s got to look like the snow falling into Winona Ryder’s hand in ‘Edward Scissorhands,’” chef-owner Michael Campbell tells his employees about the proper consistency of shave ice. “That’s what it should look like.”

Read more Orange County football preview 2026: Kappa League

The wrong texture, he added, is something closer to what came tumbling out of the Snoopy Sno-Cone Machine of his childhood.

“It’ll come out chunky like that, which is fine, but that’s not shave ice,” he said. “So we temper the blocks of ice for 20 minutes.”

Such specificity might seem excessive for a mound of frozen water doused in syrup, but Campbell, whose career has included the sort of kitchens where such distinctions are taken very seriously, has brought that same attention to detail to The Shore, his new Hawaiian street-food space in San Juan Capistrano.

At The Shore, the syrups are made in-house using real fruit, including, whenever possible, produce grown locally. Campbell, for example, used local strawberries for the opening and even recently brought in fresh peaches.

The shave-ice menu is divided loosely by Hawaiian geography. The O’ahu section keeps things simple with a choice of watermelon, raspberry, pineapple, lemon or strawberry. Maui Island Vibes gets more elaborate with Passionfruit Lemonade, Hawaiian Punch, Pina Pina Pina (Dole Whip, pineapple, shave ice and diced pineapple finished with hibiscus and salted plum powder) and Tiger’s Blood (strawberry, coconut, raspberry and watermelon).

ALSO READ: How years of high-stakes cooking led Michael Campbell back to the beach

Meanwhile, the Baja Classics section veers south with tamarindo, mango Tajín, horchata and hibiscus lime.

The shift is intentional, he noted. Despite the Hawaiian influence, Campbell didn’t want The Shore boxed in. The name was originally going to be North Shore, a nod to O’ahu and its famed surf culture, but he reconsidered. “I didn’t want to be strictly dialed in to being stereotyped that way because we’re on the shore here, too, right? In Southern California,” he said. “And there’s that invisible line between California and Mexico.”

The coastal stretch has become something of a recurring map for Campbell. Earlier this year, he described his Dana Point restaurant White Rooster as a road trip from Santa Barbara to Ensenada, one where grilled seafood, barbecue and Mexican flavors share a table. The Share also takes a similar route, only this time with a Hawaiian detour.

While shave ice might have supplied the original spark, the savory menu here borrows liberally from the food Campbell recalls eating in Hawaii.

The North Shore Shrimp Truck bowl, for example, takes its cue from Giovanni’s and other shrimp trucks dotting O’ahu’s North Shore. The bowl features wild Mexican shrimp covered in garlic, seared on a griddle and finished with even more garlic butter.

“If you’ve been to the North Shore and you go to Giovanni’s Shrimp Truck, there’s something special there,” said Campbell. “I just wanted to recreate that.”

Read more Orange County football preview 2026: Foxtrot League

Rice bowls, served over white rice with Campbell’s “Haole Kimchi,” include overnight-smoked kalua pork with hibiscus onions, smoky teriyaki, cilantro and scallions; tamari-teriyaki glazed salmon with avocado, spicy aioli and furikake; and miso mustard chicken.

His Pacific Pearl ahi poke bowl is a riff on the Hawaiian staple. “I like poke a certain way with chili sauce and garlic oil,” he said.

Also on the menu, Joshy’s Loco Moco, Campbell’s futzed-with version of the Hawaiian plate-lunch special made with maitake mushrooms, a fried egg and black truffle gravy.

The handheld side of the menu features a double-decker Spam musubi that comes with smoked teriyaki and pickled ginger, while a crab musubi pulls from the chef’s Baltimore roots with crab salad tucked beneath a sheet of nori.

But his self-proclaimed favorite might be the menu’s most gloriously excessive item, a bacon-wrapped hot dog musubi, described as a Tijuana dog topped with crab salad, smoked teriyaki and kimchi.

ALSO READ: 7 very, very good milkshakes in Orange County

Burritos can be found here, too. The kalua pork pressed burrito stuffs smoked pork, kimchi, chile aioli and melted cheese in a flour tortilla before hitting the griddle, while the poke burrito wraps ahi, furikake, white soy, avocado and scallions.

Campbell’s current roster of restaurants is a stylistic departure from the kitchens where he spent the earlier part of his career. He helped open Michael Mina’s RN74 in San Francisco and later served as chef de cuisine at The Loft at the Montage Laguna Beach. Before that came stops in France and Barcelona and an early fascination with the exacting, composed cooking of that era.

But these days, his ambitions look more casual, and it’s all the better for it.

After returning to Orange County, Campbell opened Pacific Pearl Cafe in San Juan Capistrano (still open, newly expanded and located next door to The Shore), which became the launchpad for his catering business and later expanded to Costa Mesa. Capo Comidas Californios at River Street Marketplace and White Rooster in Dana Point followed earlier this year.

The Shore pushes him even further toward the food he wants to eat after getting out of the water — namely, rice, poke, shrimp, musubi and a mound of glacial ice fine enough for Winona Ryder.

And Campbell isn’t finished with The Shore. During a recent visit on a seemingly quiet Wednesday afternoon, lines snaked out the door with families, afterschool kids and even the occasional French bulldog eagerly waiting.

One more scoop: A second location is already on its way to Dana Point. Campbell said the new Shore will open Aug. 30. The restaurant will move into the recently shuttered Dirty Dough on Del Prado. The Shore also plans to serve a limited menu during the upcoming Re-Do Market on Aug. 30.

For Campbell, two Shores in South County makes sense. Hawaii might supply much of his inspiration, but the eatery is rooted close to home. “We’re already on the shore here,” he said.

Read more Rancho Santiago Community College District trustees suspend current board chair

Find it: 31654 Rancho Viejo Road, Suite G, San Juan Capistrano, theshoreoc.com