Fruitful Main Street Excursion

Start with navel oranges, then contemplate “Inney” at the new Huntington Beach Art Center. The center and a new produce shop have just opened on Main Street.

5 to 5:20 p.m.: Follow huge yellow footprints down a little alleyway to Corey’s Super Produce.

“Stop right there, and try one of those big grapes,” said owner Jim Clinton as I peeked in. “They’re awesome--red globes.”

They were awesome.

“Yep, and those Larry Anne plums over there--they’re out of this world! Texas ruby grapefruit, three for a buck. Here.”

They were, indeed, delicious.

So, tell me, what’s realllly good?

“Strawberry papayas--if you like papaya, that’s the one,” Clinton said. “The red bananas are sweeter than the yellows. One lady said, ‘They’re rotten!’ I said, ‘Lady, they’re not rotten; they’re awesome, try a bite!’ Some people, there’s no convincing.

“And these Braeburns are the best apple in the world. They’re $1.49 in the stores--I have them at 99 cents, and they’re absolutely killer. They’re going out the door; they sell themselves. I’m sure you’ll buy some after you taste them.”

Right again.

All apples, including Fuji and Gala, are 99 cents a pound. Limes are five for a dollar, a dime a lime for smaller ones, perfect for the tequila crowd. Carrots are 99 cents a pound for organic, 39 for conventional. What’s the difference?

“About 60 cents a pound!” Clinton said.

Clinton’s a shrewd marketer.

“The little kids like those (painted) footprints,” Clinton said. “They bounce up here and show Mom and Dad. Once you get the parents in, they all come back.”

5:20 to 6:20: Notice the 105-foot-long mural-in-progress in the parking lot at the Huntington Beach Art Center. Inside the new 11,000-square-foot facility (it opened March 25), notice also the strategically placed little yellow signs: “Would you rather have had three-and-one-half decades of works on paper?” and “Have good sex. Have safe sex. Support art.”

The signs and the mural were created for one of three current exhibits, “Community Properties” (through June 11.) Be sure to spend time at an installation by Los Anthropolocos called “White-Fying,” which includes a video, mummy and documentary photographs of two specimens (Hughie and Leenda) of a “lost White civilization.”

The often-hilarious installation effectively explores issues of ethnicity by using the same anthropological and archeological techniques used by European researchers to support claims about race, culture and primitivism. The “godless brutes” were supposedly discovered by scientists Bobby Sanchez and Ritchie Lou (Los Anthropolocos), but Lou and Sanchez are actually the artists.

“How to Start Your Own Country” is an exhibit by students of Huntington Beach High School. Surely, the most provocative piece is a men’s room sign with an arrow pointing down to a metal bucket of faux excrement. The handiwork of man-hating sophomores? Maybe, only the artists are two young men (Le Mai and Cody Thueringer). OK, so maybe it’s about the demonization of men these days. If not, I wouldn’t want these guys starting a new country! If it’s dark when you arrive or leave--no skimpy museum hours here--you’ll see “Inney,” an undulating colored-light installation by Jennifer Steinkamp, which is projected on to the art center entryway and visible from the street.

“We want people to think of the center as a place to come at night,” said director Naida Osline.

6:20 to 6:45: There’s a continuous book sale at the Huntington Beach Main Street Branch Library; all books out front are 10 cents. Inside the Booktique, most hardcovers are 50 cents and paperbacks 25 cents.

Special holdings at the branch include binders filled with issues of the Huntington Beach News dating to 1916 and 22 file cabinets full of United Nations resolutions, documents and yearbooks. Along one hallway is “Freedom Shrine,” copies of historical documents including the Monroe Doctrine, Patrick Henry’s instructions to George Rogers Clark and the Gettysburg Address.

Three score photos of Huntington Beach scenes by local photographers are on display through April 22. Running concurrently is an exhibit that includes two dozen historic cameras and examples of photographic printing methods, such as daguerreotypes, ambrotypes and stereoscopes.

6:45 to 8: At Niccole’s Italian Ristorante, there are bars and tables upstairs and down, with views upstairs, of course. The glass front makes it feel open; the staff makes it feel cozy and is accommodating to a fault. Soups are $4, pizzas are $8 to $10. Antipastos range from a bruschetta ($5.25) to salmon carpaccio ($7.50), pastas from capellini alla checca (angel hair pasta with tomatoes, basil and garlic, $8) to sinfonia del mare (seafood symphony over tagliolini pasta, $17), main plates from pollo all’ aglio (double breast of lightly pounded, grilled chicken with roasted garlic and aromatic herbs, $13.50) to spedino di scampi (skewered prawns and scallops in a garlic white wine sauce over grilled polenta, $20).

It all makes for a picture-perfect evening.

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3-HOUR TOUR

1. Corey’s Super Produce

526 Main St.

(714) 969-3772

Open Monday through Saturday, 8:30 a.m. to 7 p.m., and Sunday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

2. Huntington Beach Art Center

538 Main St.

(714) 374-1650

Open Tuesday and Wednesday, noon to 8 p.m.; Thursday, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m., and Sunday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

3. Main Street Branch Library

525 Main St.

(714) 375-5071

Open Monday through Thursday, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., and Saturday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

4. Niccole’s

520 Main St.

(714) 960-8091

Open Sunday through Thursday, 5 to 10 p.m., Friday and Saturday, 5 to 11 p.m.

PARKING / BUSES

Parking: There is free parking in lots at the art center and restaurant and street parking at the other locations.

Buses: OCTA Bus 1 runs north and south along Pacific Coast Highway with stops at Main Street.