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New Shops Give Historic Downtown Santa Ana New Look
September 29, 2010
Thanks to an influx of unique and trendy businesses, historic Downtown Santa Ana is taking on new look and feel.
Joining nearly 50 restaurants and an estimated 800 shops in the downtown are a retro barbershop and a coffee roaster and café.
Everything about American Barbershop, from the stained checkered cement to the old tin ceilings and exposed metal air ducts, reminds you of the old shop your grandfather took you to on Saturday mornings.
“American Barbershop is a real barbershop with real barbers and they do strictly men's hair,” said George Mendoza, owner. “When you walk into American Barbershop it feels like you walked into an old shop in Chicago or New York.”
The shop, which will take up about 1,000 square feet in the former Ritmo Latino music store at the corner of 4th Street and French, is scheduled to open in December.
Merdoza’s first shop, which was named the best barbershop in the Inland Empire in 2009 by Cityvoter.com, is in Corona.
For more on American Barbershop go to http://www.myspace.com/americanbarbershop.
4th Street is also getting a coffee roaster and café that will serve the freshest cup of coffee. Eibar will provide fresh roasted coffee beans to restaurants, coffee lovers and businesses in Orange County but also will operate as a cafe open to the public soon.
Eibar gets its name form an area in the Basque region in Spain where Serveta scooters were manufactured. It part of series of, other scooter-themed cafes in San Francisco that serve fresh roasted coffee with an emphasis on slow drip.
Eibar, which will be located at 320 French St., get its beans from specialty coffee importers in San Francisco and roasts them in small batches and ground right before brewing.
Owner Matt Ortiz was born and raised in Santa Ana and sees his new venture as more than just a coffee shop. He hopes his shops will be a place that people from the Fourth Street area will want to gather and congregate for events and activities.
To make getting around easier, Lunch Express Trolley offers free rides to downtown restaurants and 800 businesses from seven convenient stops.
The service, which is offered Thursday and Friday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., is part of a pilot program to encourage 45,000 employees in the city’s civic center complex to experience good food and great shopping. The trolley can handle up to 35 riders.
