Jan’s Health Bar still serving up the favorites 50 years later

Jan’s Health Bar may be celebrating 50 years in Huntington Beach, but much has stayed the same with the fast-casual eatery during that time.

Its familiar lineup of sandwiches, salads and smoothies has not really gone out of style. Owner Poppy Holguin estimated that 80% of the menu has remained the same over the years.

Holguin would know. She’s been going to Jan’s since she was a kid. She got her first job there while attending Huntington Beach High.

At the time, Jan’s was inside of Huntington Surf & Sport at Pierside Pavilion, having moved there from George’s Surf Center in 1990 when HSS owner Aaron Pai moved his shop to that prime location.

Holguin went to Long Beach State, then worked at a marketing firm in Los Angeles. But Jan’s remained a part of her life. She liked coming in and seeing her first boss, founder Jan Gaffney, even after the shop moved five blocks up Main Street to its current location.

“I was always a customer,” Holguin said. “Ultimately she started saying to me, ‘I’m tired, I don’t want to do this anymore. I’m going to sell it to you.’ So, it got very serious and then there was a point of my life where I was like, you know what? Maybe I’ll just bring this full circle, come back to my first job.”

Employee Monica Rodriquez waits as Martin Andrade and Joel Ramirezbuild sandwiches and salads during rush hour at Jan’s Health Bar in Huntington Beach.

(Don Leach / Staff Photographer)

Holguin bought Jan’s Health Bar in 2010 and nearly tripled the size of the headquarters with an expansion a few years later. She also branched out, adding locations in Costa Mesa, Corona del Mar, Laguna Beach and Irvine. She said the newest Jan’s is slated to open in Long Beach next year.

“I wanted to build a place where everybody could sit together, the community, the neighbors,” said Holguin, who still lives in Huntington Beach. “Most people during the winter take their food to go, but in the summer this store is bustling and people are rekindling, sharing their stories. What’s fun about bringing Jan’s to all of these different communities is that I get to bring a little piece of H.B. to them as well. Each one of my stores has the collages, and each one of my stores has someone who’s worked at Jan’s for five, six, seven, 10 years.

‘It’s just kind of bringing that little piece to each city. People have asked me, ‘Why don’t you franchise?’ but I don’t want to lose that community vibe.”

It’s hard for some to believe that it was 1972 when Gaffney set up shop. Jan’s is an institution for many locals and has maintained that community feel over the years, even as downtown Huntington Beach has changed to more of a nightlife vibe in some ways. Holguin said that more than half of her customer base comes to Jan’s multiple times a week.

Huntington Beach’s Poppy Holguin bought Jan’s Health Bar in 2010.

(Don Leach / Staff Photographer)

Pat Gleason, the general contractor on five Jan’s locations, lives three blocks further up Main Street. Gleason, now 61, has been going to Jan’s since the beginning, when it was nestled in the back of George’s.

He still has vivid memories of his mother dropping him off at the beach, then he would surf before spending time at the Robert August surf shop until he got really hungry. At that point, a sandwich from Jan’s would hit the spot.

“Jan’s, in my world, was kind of the original health food place before there was health food places,” Gleason said. “It just becomes like a go-to taste. There’s really not anything like it. Tacos and hamburgers and things are lots of different places, but I don’t know if she’s got someone who’s going head to head with what she does, at least not very well.”

Pai, an avid surfer who has owned Huntington Surf & Sport since 1979, also grew up with Jan’s food.

“We would just hang out on the south side of the pier, in the sand, then we’d always go to Jan’s Health Bar,” Pai said. “It was just cool going in there and seeing all of the locals but also the famous surfers from years past at the bar just ordering a smoothie or a salad or a sandwich. To this day, you can go into Jan’s Health Bar, and it’s the same thing, only in 2022. Famous surfers, local surfers, anybody that’s anybody in the community. Everybody goes there.”

Sandwich and salad builder Joel Ramirez in the kitchen of Jan’s Health Bar in Huntington Beach.

(Don Leach / Staff Photographer)

That is the vibe that Holguin wants to maintain as the shop enters its fifth decade. She said there will be promotions celebrating the 50th anniversary, particularly in the busy summer months when kids come home from school and bring their friends.

She wants it to be a place where people can not only enjoy food but also reconnect, while enjoying a piece of vintage Surf City.

“It’s a great feeling,” Holguin said. “It’s what motivates me to do what I do, 100%, is the community and the people who walk through that door. And my team, because I could not be sitting here without them.”

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