Newport Beach’s new Irvine Ranch Market opens for business
Newport Beach shoppers’ almost year-long wait for Irvine Ranch Market ended Wednesday when the new Balboa Island store opened for business at 7:30 a.m.
By mid-morning the store was buzzing with customers.
“We are blessed having such support from people dying for us to open,” said co-owner David Wong. “Everyone kept saying, ‘Can’t wait for you to open,’ something we didn’t have at our other location in Costa Mesa.”
The shop on Irvine Avenue in Costa Mesa remains open.
Wong said the store tried to pack as much merchandise as possible into its 4,000 square feet at Marine and Park avenues. The location, previously occupied by Hershey’s Market, had been home to an old-fashioned general store of various owners and names since 1929.
The owners of the upcoming Irvine Ranch Market on Balboa Island in Newport Beach plan to have everything the tight-knit community needs while preserving a lot of what it knows.
Wong and co-owner Robin Kramer signed a lease in April and gave the space a new interior and refreshed facade.
The new store will offer baked goods, meats, house-made sushi and sandwiches, beer, wine, spirits, produce, dry groceries and salads made to order.
Carolyn Hasbrouck, a Balboa Island resident for 29 years, said she’s pleased that the new store carries a lot of the brands that she usually buys at stores off the island.
“We needed a really good market where we don’t have to get in the car to get what we need,” Hasbrouck said. “We all have to support the local businesses when we live here in order to make it a success.”
Kramer said Balboa Island is a perfect fit for the market and that opening there is an example of history repeating itself.
The previous owner, Joe Raymond, owned the original Irvine Ranch Market at 2651 Irvine Ave. in Costa Mesa in 1996 and Hershey’s at 200 Marine Ave. in 1998.
“We bought the Irvine Avenue location in 2000 and now the Marine Avenue location,” Kramer said.
Janet Sanders and Dee Higby, who wanted to people-watch, were the first to dine inside the new market.
“We were planning to walk the island and ... said, ‘Let’s go there and have lunch,’” Sanders said. “The Godfather Italian sandwiches are excellent.”
Chef Ryan Sumner, Kramer’s son, studied at Cordon Bleu and has worked at the Beachcomber Cafe, Charlie Palmer and Lighthouse Cafe.
“Everything is made fresh daily — salads, sandwiches, pastries, salsa and dips,” Sumner said. “There’s also a hot case with salmon, coulotte steak, pasta.”
Susan Hoffman is a contributor to Times Community News.
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