Overlooking Crystal Cove – a popular stretch of Newport Beach coastline with calm blue water, light sand, and famous tide pools – the Crystal Cove Shopping Center is home to around 30 businesses, most in a continuous, one-sided plaza with several freestanding buildings: an Aston Martin dealership, Mexican restaurant Javier’s, and Mastro’s Ocean Club. On the retail front, it pairs anchor-scale retailers Banana Republic, Gap, Trader Joe’s, and Williams Sonoma with boutiques ranging from beachwear, bridal, and jewelry stores to Novecento for luxury fashions. Dining options include Bear Flag Fish Co., Blk Dot Coffee, Bluefin, Modo Mio Italian Kitchen, Parakeet Cafe, Z Pizza, as well as director McG’s modern American restaurant A Crystal Cove, and neighboring French dinner and tasting menu establishment Marché Moderne.
While there’s plenty of parking at the Crystal Cove Shopping Center, segmentation of the relatively shallow parcel and the daytime presence of delivery trucks can create some challenges, as does ongoing construction in the front of the plaza – a visual distraction from the plaza’s “casual coastal elegance” and otherwise unobstructed ocean view.
