Tim Hollingsworth, the Los Angeles-based chef who spent more than a decade at The French Laundry and earned the James Beard Foundation's Rising Star Chef of the Year Award in 2010, will open a wood-fire American dining concept at OCVIBE in Anaheim — adding one of Southern California's most recognized culinary names to a district that is rapidly becoming one of the region's most ambitious food-and-beverage destinations.

The restaurant is slated to open in late 2027 as part of the first wave of standalone dining at the privately funded, 100-acre mixed-use development surrounding Honda Center in Orange County. Hollingsworth joins a roster that already includes chef Roy Choi and chef José Andrés, whose restaurant will anchor OCVIBE's SENA hotel.

The Concept

At the operational center of Hollingsworth's restaurant will be a wood-fired kitchen turning out pizzas, meats, and seasonal vegetables over an open flame. A visible raw bar and pastry station will run alongside it, giving the dining room a live-production energy that operators in the experiential dining segment have increasingly found drives both dwell time and repeat visits. The design language draws from Southern California's mid-century heritage, with interiors aimed at feeling simultaneously polished and familiar — a neighborhood spot scaled for a major entertainment district.

"My vision is to create a restaurant that has the warmth and familiarity of your favorite neighborhood spot, while embracing the energy and excitement of everything happening around it," Hollingsworth said. "A place where the food is thoughtful, the atmosphere is lively, and the hospitality feels personal." His deep ties to Orange County — he noted that many of his Los Angeles restaurant guests have made the drive from OC — shaped the decision to plant a flag in Anaheim rather than expand within Los Angeles.

The Bigger F&B Picture

Hollingsworth's concept will slot into a portfolio of five chef-driven signature dining rooms at OCVIBE. Together with José Andrés' hotel restaurant and Roy Choi's Best Friend and Osen Urban Table, the lineup reflects a strategy increasingly common among large-scale mixed-use developers: anchor the food program with celebrity-chef credibility, then build a layered F&B ecosystem around it.

That ecosystem at OCVIBE is substantial. Katella Commons, a 50,000-square-foot market hall opening in early 2027, will host 21 chef-driven kitchen concepts and six original bar and lounge concepts, pushing the district's total food and beverage count past 35 experiences. The concert hall, with 5,000-person capacity, opens alongside Katella Commons in early 2027, providing a built-in traffic driver for surrounding restaurant operators — a model that hospitality industry analysts have flagged as critical to sustainable F&B performance in entertainment-anchored developments.

The $5 billion OCVIBE project, privately funded by the Samueli Family, is among the largest private investments in Southern California's history. When fully complete in 2033, the district will include more than 2,000 residences, three entertainment venues, and 20 acres of open space — creating the kind of mixed-use density that supports high-volume, chef-driven restaurant concepts through both weekday regulars and event-night crowds.

Anthony Olheiser, Senior Vice President of Hospitality at OCVIBE, framed the Hollingsworth signing as a deliberate extension of the district's community-rooted culinary philosophy. "From the beginning, our vision for OCVIBE has been to partner with chefs who tell authentic stories and create places where people genuinely want to gather," Olheiser said.

Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.