American food didn't work. Neither did Mexican. How about Cantonese?
In the abandoned building at The District in Tustin that once held Bistro West and Pablo's Cantina, there are plans to open Happy Harbor Restaurant. There's currently a Happy Harbor in Rowland Heights which serves everything in the dim sum spectrum from xiao long bao to egg custard tarts and one in Alhambra which specializes in wontons, noodles and congee.
If it comes to fruition, the Happy Harbor at The District won't be serving dim sum like the Rowland Heights one. The owners told me this when I called them to confirm their plans. They said they will offer Cantonese-style food but did not go into specifics. Whatever it may be, it will be the first serious Chinese restaurant in the plaza and hopefully the first tenant that will survive in that corner since The District opened five years ago.
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Surely the Happy Harbor folks must have seen the lines at Capital
Seafood, not more than a block away in the
Asian-heavy mall Diamond Jamboree, and wanted some of that action. To
them I say, (insert Cantonese phrase for “good luck”here)!
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Before becoming an award-winning restaurant critic for OC Weekly in 2007, Edwin Goei went by the alias “elmomonster” on his blog Monster Munching, in which he once wrote a whole review in haiku.