Have you seen the Little Free Library on Balboa Island?

“There is more treasure in books than all the pirate’s loot on Treasure Island.” – Walt Disney If you’ve ever taken a stroll around the path that twists along Balboa Island, you’ve probably passed a tiny blue structure sitting on the side of the way. Inside are no more than ten or twenty books, donated…

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8 Awesome Places to Watch the Sunset in Newport Beach

It’s a honeyed kind of light that settles on Newport Beach at sunset. Quiet, warm, calming. Some call it golden hour. Others call it dusk. Magic works, too. On Balboa Peninsula, watching the sunset is a ritualistic experience, like Sunday night football or Monday morning coffee. Here at West Oceanfront, we’re no stranger to celebrating the sorcery…

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Newport Beach’s Taco Bell Cantina is Fast Food with Booze

Taco Bell Cantina just opened in Newport Beach, a tiny wedge of an eatery standing tall and proud next to Stag Bar on 22nd St. off W. Balboa Blvd. (Yes, it’s in the same location as the now-defunct Original Pizza and yes, its presence represents the encroaching maniacal claws of rampant consumerism on our small,…

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Juice Served Here Closes as CEO Bids Official Farewell

Juice Served Here (JSH) has closed with unexpected finality in Lido Marina Village. And not only is the Newport Beach location shut down, the entire LA-based company, launched in 2012, is done. “This was been the hardest decision of my life,” wrote Alex Matthews, CEO and co-founder of JSH, in an epistle on the website titled,…

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Newport Beach Local Seinne Fleming Joins The Bachelor

Well, well, well. Newport Beach is about to get a little airtime on this season of The Bachelor. While the casting that placed Arie Luyendyk Jr. as the lead is getting lukewarm reviews, we’re totally on board with adding some local flavor into the rose-colored mix. A few days ago, Seinne Fleming of Newport Beach was announced among…

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Five Unexpected Christmas Gifts that are SO Newport Beach

We hate to be the ones to say this but enough is enough with those silly beach signs—we see you, “Life’s a beach!”—those trite shot glasses—“What happens at the beach stays at the beach!”—those awful tote bags—“Beach hair, don’t care!”—and lastly, the miniature glass bottles half-filled with sand and a single, teeny shell. What do…

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Pelican Hill on a Warm Winter Sunday

Ten minutes deep into a Phantom of the Opera-inspired uphill climb on the elliptical, my phone rings. Under normal circumstances, I wouldn’t have answered but the gym was empty and something about seeing the incoming call flash across my screen just as “Angel of Music” was reaching its soaring crescendo gave me pause. “Hello?” “Hey, what…

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Supermoon over Newport Beach

Like a Van Morrison song slowly building, the Supermoon ascended then loomed large across the Newport Beach skyline tonight, the first and only Supermoon of 2017. Spectators collected along the sand by Newport Bay, cameras at the ready, as the glowing orb rose above the buildings east of the beach.

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Modern Artisan Marketplace Graces Newport Beach

One thing was quickly apparent at the Modern Artisan Marketplace in Lido Marina Village yesterday: This wasn’t your average, neighborhood crafts fair. Modern Artisan Marketplace is an experiential confirmation there’s stylistic virtue to be found among the confluence of simple, modern clothes and folksy, handcrafted wear. The sartorial genre—bohemian hipster chic?—is the stuff of an…

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Do Newport Beach Like a Local

I’m not from Southern California. I can’t drop the word “stoked” into casual conversation or explain where the confusing web of freeways might get you if you took the 10 to the 91 to the 73. (Can someone just name these roads and be done with it?) Truth is, I’m just a girl from New York…

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