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Seafood star Broad Street Oyster Company is on the expansion path once again, opening up inside one of the Southern California coastline’s most coveted restaurant locations. The pandemic-famous Malibu hotspot is taking over the closed former Ruby’s Diner at the very tip of the Huntington Beach Pier, with an opening slated for mid-summer.
Broad Street Oyster has become synonymous around greater Los Angeles for seafood and fun, bringing a colorful flair to its oceanic menu. Founder Christopher Tompkins spent months as a roving pop-up focused mostly on raw bar items before landing his Malibu restaurant. At the time the setup was meant to be temporary, but the business exploded in 2020 as Angelenos raced out to the beach for socially distanced dining, clogging the parking lot at Malibu Village. Tompkins’ fanbase has continued to grow in the years since, leading to expansions into Santa Barbara, San Francisco, and Downtown LA’s Grand Central Market.
Broad Street Oyster Co.’s menu is a mix of seaside staples and big, showy specials, with seafood towers stuffed with fresh oysters, Santa Barbara sea urchin, stone crab claws, and more. The lobster roll is a must-order for most, though the fish sandwich and (perhaps surprisingly) the burger are also big with the restaurant’s young, energetic crowds. Now Tompkins and his team will be reaching a whole new audience in Orange County, and at a highly visible address no less.
The in-the-round Surf City diner closed back in 2021, ending a long run for one of the coast’s most iconic eateries. Ruby’s had been serving customers at that site since 1996, though it fell on hard times as part of a bankruptcy proceeding in 2018. Prior to Ruby’s, the restaurant had been known as the End Cafe, though that business was destroyed in a massive storm in the late 1980s. The pier property did briefly return as a restaurant called Bud & Gene’s in August of 2022, with food from local chef Jason Witzl, but it quietly closed a while back. Now there’s hope that both the flash and substance of Broad Street Oyster Company will combine to shore up the currently unused space for years to come.
Expect Broad Street Oyster Company to open at the height of the summer beach season at 1 Main Street, Huntington Beach, CA 92648.
