Hello Back Bay Bally-Hoos, happy Friday!

With all the restaurants closing and opening in the past year (including the upcoming Ggiata, which looks amazing), it’s good to hear of a local staple that has been around for ~60 years is still thriving. It’s longevity is almost as fascinating as the people who eat chili in August.

To our new readers—welcome! The Back Bay Buzz delivers just the right amount of news and events for locals in Newport Beach and Costa Mesa. No crime, no politics, no spam—just the good stuff. We scan newspapers, blogs, social media, business journals, and Google alerts so you don’t have to.

In today’s Buzz:

— Jon Dougher, Publisher, Back Bay Buzz

Charlie's Chili has never been about a guy named Charlie. The name was invented on a Balboa Island porch in the summer of 1967, when Pete Torre — a former galley cook whose chili had already achieved minor legend status among fishermen aboard the Frontier — split a few bottles of Mondavi Mountain Red with friends and decided to open a restaurant. "Charlie" just sounded right next to "Chili," and it had the added benefit of protecting the founders if the whole thing flopped. It didn't. Torre opened his first tiny spot on Balboa Island next to Island Market, quickly opening a second location on Lido next to Davey's Locker and Delaney’s (now Bluewater Grill). The spot had odd hours, with Pete pulling double shifts bartending at The Quiet Woman. Within a few years the crowds forced a move to the foot of the Newport Pier, where the restaurant has sat since 1972. At its peak, Charlie's ran 24 hours a day, a place where dock workers, late-night partiers, and a morning "coffee clutch" of old-timers all overlapped over chili cheese omelets and biscuits and gravy. A Costa Mesa franchise attempt fizzled because Torre himself was the draw, and in 1987 he sold to the Farmanfarmai family, who kept the menu untouched and steered the place toward a more family-friendly identity for the next three-plus decades. Now, after a stretch of quiet years, Charlie's has gotten a proper facelift: a restored iconic sign by Sign Imaging, a revamped interior, a new cocktail program and golden hour happy hour, plus online ordering on the way. The chili recipe hasn't changed. But the joint at 102 McFadden Place feels awake again — still steps from the sand, still serving the chili cheese omelet that put it on the map, and still anchored by a name that was never real but has somehow meant something to Newport Beach for nearly sixty years.

🌊 Water temp = 73º
Suit Rec: Spring suit 3/2

Thanks! Please ignore any typos, our editor is feeling overheated after performing field research at Charlie’s Chili.

PS: Feel free to let me know any feedback or inside scoops you have for the newsletter. Just reply to this email, I read every one. Thanks!