Huntington old-school

Surf City wasn’t always so suburbanized and jammed with shopping malls. A few remnants of an older world remain.There have been plenty of articles written about malls -- Bella Terra, the Strand, Pacific City. These names describe the city’s future, consume our thoughts in the present, and have gotten a lot of attention in the past.

Well, this week we’re going old school. Forget about the Hyatt Hotel or the new Main Street. We’re talking the Golden Bear nightclub, the original Papa Joe’s Pizza and Plastic Fantastic -- local landmarks from a time when there were more bikers than real estate agents, the streets were not always safe and thousands of little groms crowded every surf spot from Goldenwest to Old Man’s Beach.

OK, so the groms -- those crazed youths who spend every waking moment thinking about surfing -- still rule the waves, but nearly everything else has gone, razed to make way for the next generation of Surf City residents. Most of coastal Huntington Beach has changed, but if one looks close enough, there are still a few spots that can take you back to a different era.

Java Jungle

Progress doesn’t always feel good.

Just ask Scotty Cochran, owner of one of downtown’s longest running surf shops and cafes. A few blocks off the main drag, Cochran dodged the 1990s downtown revitalization and managed to avoid getting swallowed up by the sluggish Strand project, only to have to fight for his life when the bulldozers for that project finally showed up and construction hassles spilled into his parking lot.

Blocked-off streets, barricaded sidewalks, gnarly dust clouds -- you practically needed a hard hat to get inside.

“They killed me last Christmas, but we’re ready for this year,” Cochran said from the dimly lighted shop on Pacific Coast Highway where he brews his own java and waxes philosophical on every epoxy he sells.

Cochran first opened his cafe in 1990, taking over a beachside location once home to 1970s surfboard company Plastic Fantastic. The decision to sell boards came several years later with the closing of Surf City staples like Robert August and Wind and Sea.

“I want to create a place that wasn’t the Nordstrom of surfing,” he said.

Java Jungle is at the corner of 6th Street and Pacific Coast Highway

More ‘core shops: 5th Street Surf Shop and Rockin’ Fig Surf Headquarters.

Vintage and Vinyl

If you’re trying to score the original Clash “Combat Rock” LP or grab a T-shirt from the Stone’s “Voodoo Lounge” tour, look no farther than Vintage and Vinyl, a by-old-rockers, for-old-rockers treasure chest guaranteed to be playing a Ramones song whenever you walk in the door.

Owner Jinx Verona changed the name from Taxi Taxi several months back, but the slate of offerings remains the same: vintage rock and punk vinyl and trendy thrift-shop threads and accessories.

“We’re purists. We do it because we really love it,” Verona said. “We dress vintage, our cars are vintage, our homes are vintage -- we really love it.”

But the best thing about Vintage and Vinyl is its location on Beach Boulevard’s last seedy strip mall. Just doors down from Vintage and Vinyl are two sex stores, a head shop and a pawn broker. Talk about one-stop shopping.

Vintage and Vinyl is located at 17845 Beach Blvd.

Other vintage clothing stores: Rose Closet, What a Girl Wants and Denim Blue Boulevard.

Magnolia and Adams

The three shopping centers at the intersection of Magnolia Street and Adams Avenue might seem more appropriate in the Soviet Union than they do in Surf City, USA.

Boarded-up windows, stores with half-empty shelves -- Huntington Beach’s legacy is its dying strip malls, usually at high-traffic thoroughfares and city entry points.

City Councilman Keith Bohr said the disproportionate number of aging strip malls can be blamed on owners who inherited the property from their families, multiple owners who can’t agree or difficulties getting plans approved through City Hall.

“We have too many, and for a long time we’ve had a process that’s difficult and long,” he said.

For years the intersection of Brookhurst Street and Adams Avenue took the prize for its shell-shocked strip mall.

Developers of the Beachmont Shopping Center recently demolished the old retail village and plan to construct a new Ralphs supermarket in its place.

Another strip mall to be missed: Yorktown Plaza at Brookhurst Street and Yorktown Avenue.

South side of the pier

It doesn’t exactly scream old school, but there are few spots in town with as much history as the Huntington Beach Pier.

The south side was where legend Corky Carroll got knocked off his board by looming helicopters trying to capture his photo and was ground zero for the riots that came out of the now-defunct OP Pro.

Nearly every major contest is held on the south side of the pier, including the U.S. Open of Surfing and the recent Junior World Championships.

Other spots to rip: River mouth, Goldenwest, the Cliffs and Bolsa.

Other old-school places we didn’t want to forget

* Sugar Shack: An ode to all things greasy, the Sugar Shack is the unofficial epicenter of the Surf City universe. Those lucky enough to find a table might rub elbows with local pro surfers -- Timmy Turner’s mom owns this joint -- politicians, high school chums and the homeless guy who lives in your lobby.

* Scary house on Pecan Avenue: Out of respect for the owner, we’re not going to give the exact location, but numbered street residents often whisper about this white cottage with a small picket fence separating visitors from thousands of chipped garden gnomes, beheaded teddy bears and broken bird baths. On summer nights, kids dare each other to run up and touch the fence. During a full moon, people just run.

* Perqs: You haven’t lived until you’ve been kicked out of Perqs, Huntington Beach’s ode to alcohol, rock ‘n’ roll and nonconformity. Owner Gary Mulligan spent years fighting the city’s attempt to demolish his brick building during a revitalization effort. Besides its rowdy rock shows, Perqs best asset is its shrine to the old Golden Bear nightclub.

Local favorites

Here’s some other old-school favorites from local folks:

* Jeana Cason, owner of El Zev jewelry store.

The Harbor House Café. Sure, it’s technically in Sunset Beach, but there are few places that can satisfy late-night cravings like this vintage dinner.

“I started going there when I was 16,” she said. “It’s always open, and they have the best food.”

* Jill Hardy, Huntington Beach mayor and teacher.

Dwight’s on the beach, world famous beach concessionaire that put nacho cheese on tortilla chips and renamed it “cheese strips.” The item was an overnight success.

“For my bridal party, we went to Dwight’s and had strips of cheese because we all grew up eating that,” she said.

* Andy Verdone, Huntington Beach High surfing coach.

A little surf spot near 14th Street. Verdone said he remembers when there used to be a wall there where graffiti artists would ply their trade. One image of Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi outlasted many of the other spray-painted symbols.

“Everyone remembers the picture of the Blues Brothers that used to be on the sea wall,” he said. “It reminds [me of] when we were a simpler town.”

* Maureen Sloan-James, property manager for Five Points Plaza.

The fire pits at Bolsa Chica State Beach draw nostalgia from locals and inland visitors to Five Points Plaza, Sloan-James said.

“Even though they finally redid that beach,” she said, “that brings a lot of memories to people who visited here when they were kids.”

QUESTION

What’s your favorite old haunt in Huntington? Call our Readers Hotline at (714) 966-4691 or send e-mail to hbindependent @latimes.com. Please spell your name and include your hometown and phone number for verification purposes.Pacific Coast Highway and Main Street in Huntington Beach, circa 1904. 20051124iqdvnfknMARK DUSTIN / INDEPENDENT(LA)Beth Miller, a clerk at Vintage and Vinyl, holds an old Patsy Cline concert poster. 20051124iqdvmpknKENT TREPTOW / INDEPENDENT(LA)Scotty Cochran, left, owner of Java Jungle coffee and surf shop, displays his stock of vintage magazines as friend George Lambert shows off a board on Tuesday. 20051124iqdvetkn(LA)Huntington Beach, circa 1928. 20051124iqdve7knKENT TREPTOW / INDEPENDENT(LA)Scotty Cochran, left, owner of Java Jungle coffee and surf shop, displays his stock of vintage magazines as friend George Lambert shows off a board on Tuesday. 20051124iqdvf3kn(LA)Alpha Beta store in Huntington Beach, circa 1921.