By 4 a.m. on a Friday morning, people were already waiting in the parking lot. By 8:40 a.m., nearly 400 people had lined up at Newport Beach’s Fashion Island. The queue snaked through the labyrinthine, open-air ode to luxury retail. Even a Los Angeles news helicopter hovered overhead to capture the scene.
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The reason for this ballyhoo? Levain Bakery, the New York City-born purveyor of fat, six-ounce cookies, had opened its first Orange County location. And people, caught in the throes of new-dessert ecstasy, wanted in.
These customers weren’t grabbing a cookie while they shopped. They had come to the mall for the cookies themselves. The same food-first, shopping-second inversion can be found at Din Tai Fung at Brea Mall, Hello Kitty Grand Cafe at Irvine Spectrum Center and the new Blue Box Cafe by Daniel Boulud (surely its caviar-topped eggshell has found its way into your feed by now) at South Coast Plaza.
A far cry from the mall food of yore, when a Hot Dog on a Stick or a Mrs. Fields’ cookie served as fuel between stops at Macy’s and Spencer’s Gifts, not the reason for the trip.
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While some traditional malls in some of the country’s glittering metropolises have stalled — San Francisco Centre, once that city’s largest mall, closed in January — Orange County’s gleaming retail palaces continue to pull people in. Restaurants, bakeries and snack shops, from high-end splurges to affordable bites, are being treated less like galleria amenities and more like destinations in their own right.
“What people show up for now is dining and restaurants and food experiences — just what communities want in their neighborhood now,” said Anastasia Kouimelis Scott, vice president of real estate and development at Levain Bakery. “I think that has reflected in leasing patterns.”
At Fashion Island and Irvine Spectrum, the shift is measurable in the tenant roster. The two properties now have 83 dining and specialty-dining concepts between them, according to the Irvine Company. Sixteen opened within the past two years. Recent arrivals include Levain, Din Tai Fung and Ralph’s Coffee, the brand’s first West Coast location.
“We’ve seen over time that restaurants have become much more than an amenity to shopping,” said Ken Gillett, president of Irvine Company Retail Properties. “Our customers are looking for places where they can spend time, connect and have an experience in addition to shopping.”
Irvine Company said combined traffic at the two centers increased 18% over the past five years. It did not say how much of that gain could be attributed to dining. Gillett said visitors who come for coffee, lunch or dinner tend to stay longer, shop afterward, visit more stores and return more often.
That does not mean the old anchors are kaput. Gillett said Nordstrom and Target at Irvine Spectrum and Neiman Marcus at Fashion Island remain important “for designer fashion and beauty.” Malls fold meals into the visit, with eateries including Sushi Roku, 59th & Lex, Sessions, Bazille and Cafe Bistro. The strategy, he said, is to balance retail, dining, entertainment and other experiences.
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Beyond their food courts, Orange County malls offer an impressive culinary lineup. At South Coast Plaza, Michelin twinkler Knife Pleat shares space with AnQi Bistro and Vox Kitchen & Bar. Taiwan-born Din Tai Fung opened its first Orange County spot there, while Singapore-based Paradise Dynasty made its U.S. debut there in 2021. Blue Box Café by Daniel Boulud is the only one outside Tiffany & Co.’s New York City space. Even affordable concepts with chef pedigree have popped up at the Costa Mesa mall; Tiny’s Burger, chef Sang Yoon burger-and-bodega concept, opened in June.
“Dining is a major draw at South Coast Plaza,” said Tenley Zinke, the center’s executive director of marketing. “Whether it’s a leisurely lunch or a celebratory dinner, a memorable restaurant experience gives guests a reason to linger and make a day of it.”
Fine dining, however you see it, is nothing new at malls. Zinke traces South Coast Plaza’s retail-dining marriage to 1968 when Joseph Magnin featured Le Soupçon (both closing in 1984). Charlie Palmer and others followed. What has changed, though, is the breadth of the offerings and their weight in leasing decisions, with restaurants increasingly expected to generate some of the traffic historically supplied by department stores.
Nationally, that shift comes as department stores, once the almighty anchors of American malls, lose some of their pull. U.S. department store sales were virtually flat through the first eight months of 2026, rising above 0.2% year over year. Meanwhile, total retail and food service sales rose 5.2%, according to a recent.
At Brea Mall, that shift is visible outside. Its exterior redevelopment adds an outdoor plaza and 11 retail and dining space, including a 14,000-square-foot Din Tai Fung, North Italia and Pacific Catch. The Shops at Mission Viejo is building a 50,000-square-foot open-air village near its food court. North Italia is slated for late 2026, followed by Gus’s BBQ, Tommy Bahama Marlin Bar and Blue Bottle Coffee in early 2027.
“People are planning dining occasions more intentionally than ever, and they’re willing to go out of their way for experiences they’re excited about,” said DJ Duporte, senior director of marketing at North Italia. “Whether someone comes for dinner and stays to shop or comes to shop and decides to grab a meal, the best properties create that natural connection.”
The buildout comes as several of the country’s malls post traffic gains. Estimates supplied by location-analytics firm Placer.ai show visits increased year-over-year every month from January through August at Brea Mall, Irvine Spectrum and Fashion Island. In August, visits rose 30.4% at Brea Mall, 14.8% at Irvine Spectrum and 6% at Fashion Island. South Coast Plaza gained 6.3% while The Shops at Mission Viejo climbed 1.2%.
Placer.ai, which provides location intelligence and demographic data for retailers, cannot isolate dining visits or establish cause and effect. Redevelopment, retail openings, events and other factors could also affect traffic. But it’s hard to ignore the importance of food – and humongous cookies – as a main draw.
Neither Irvine Company nor South Coast Plaza disclosed what share of revenue comes from dining. South Coast Plaza does not publish its landlord revenue. But a November 2025 Orange County Business Journal report put its annual taxable sales at $2.6 billion, placing it among the country’s biggest revenue generators.
At that scale, dining is hardly a side dish anymore. In today’s Orange County mall, where denizens are more prone to “add to cart” than hit a brick-and-mortar, a six-ounce cookie or basket of xiao long bao may be what gets customers through the door.
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