Naugles Remains Shuttered as Unending Lines Cripple Fledgling Restaurant

You might want to postpone that family vacation to Fountain Valley you’ve been planning — the small Naugles test kitchen cafe that brought about the return of a long-dead fast food franchise is closed indefinitely, and there's every indication that they won't reopen until they can do something to help quell those massively long lines.

In a note posted over the weekend, owner Christian Ziebarth said that the Mt. Langley Avenue location, which is really just a small restaurant space inside of an industrial part of town, would be closed until further notice. The issue, it seems, has been all the attention.

It’s a nice problem to have, certainly, but for new restaurateurs like Ziebarth — who is a web developer by trade — even popularity can come at a cost. For now, no one is quite sure when Naugles will return — or where. There are cryptic hints being passed around Facebook that the next time Naugles flips over the open sign will be at a new location much more capable of handling the hordes that have been lining up for the limited menu of fast food classics. And, ideally, one that can operate 24 hours a day.

Until then, your only recourse will be to dine at your nearest Del Taco (the corporation bought the Naugles chain roughly 25 years ago, before shuttering all locations) and, while munching on a bean and cheese burrito, dream of what could have been.