Huntington Beach Happenings
by: Chris MacDonald
Published: April 28, 2025
HUNTINGTON BEACH...Happy Birthday to Calvary Chapel of The Harbour Member Steve Newsome.
Huntington Beach City Historian Jerry Person said" "Remember When"
Let's Boogie at the Boogie Woogie Cafe
When World War II ended and Gordie Higgins returned home to Huntington Beach to live and work he once told me that there were only two places in town that he felt comfortable in. One was a place on Main Street which Higgins couldn't remember its name and the other place was the Boogie Woogie cafe located at 508 Pacific Coast Highway.
In 1924 Joe Harris opened a candy store at 105 Main Street next door to Obarr's Drug Store. His store had been the former site of the Huntington Beach Sanitary Market that was operated by W. Holtkamp and J.C. Estep.
Harris Confectionary was to become a fixture there for nine years and if we would travel back in time to 1932 all we would only see ay 508 PCH would be a vacant lot at this location.
But in 1933 Harris wanted a permanent location on the new coast highway, so he planned and constructed a new earthquake-proof candy store. The interior was painted a cream color and inside would house his candy kitchen. The outside would reflect the Spanish style of construction that was so popular in California at the time that included Spanish stucco and tile work.
It was on Saturday, July 8, 1933 that Joe Harris held his official grand opening. Homemade candies were made in the back of the store and sold at the front candy counter. People could also sit and enjoy a malt at the soda fountain.
But by the late 1930s Charlie "Chick" Wilson was doing business at that location as Chick's Malt Shop and was offering the finest malts and shakes for 10 & 15 cents and you could also take home a bag or box of his homemade Huntington Beach candy.
One time when Charlie came down to open the candy store, it was on a Monday morning on August 15, 1938, he was surprised to find the store crowded with people and his front and back doors open. He was sure he locked up on Sunday night, but nothing was missing and remained a mystery. tp this day.
A year later the store became known as Kemp's Confectionary and by the start of World War II it was renamed Kemp's Place in 1942.
If you dialed 3953 on the telephone in 1943 a voice at the other end would be Mrs. Hazel Allen and she could have told you about her Business Men's lunch or her great Fried Chicken dinner as well as her malts, shakes, homemade pies and cakes at Mrs. Allen's Malt Shop. In February of 1944 Hazel sold her malt shop to Ted Luebben and his wife.
The Luebbens had come to California the previous September from Jackson, Minnesota. Ted's wife had experience in running a cafe having worked at one in Spirit Lake, Iowa. Her husband Ted was working as a guard at the Santa Ana airport and so it was no surprise that within a month they sold the business to Charles and Helen Young from Belmont Shore.
The Youngs first step was to rename the place the "Boogie Woogie" after the popular dance of the period. On February 24, 1944 they held their grand opening which included Merchant Lunches and Fried Chicken dinners for a dollar on Sunday, a special "Boogie Woogie" burger for a quarter, barbecued pork and beef sandwiches.
The Boogie Woogie continued through the 1940s and into the 1960s with only minor name changes to Boogie Woogie Malt & Sandwich shop in the 1950s and to the Boogie Woogie Coffee Shop in the 1960s.
A good friend of mind Art Hermann recalled years ago going to the malt shop after watching the Huntington Beach Oilers play at the high school. Art told me that place was always busy.
In the early 1970s it had become Richard's Coffee Shop and when I came here in the 1970s I was told that Edna Brown served the biggest and tastiest pancakes around and I can personally say they were right. Richard's closed in 1983 to be replaced by Z's Beachwalk Cafe.
That lasted until February of 1984 and in the next month Seaside Cafe opened its doors to the public and remained open until Surfside Pizza came along in November of 1986.
By January 1989 it had become P.J.'s Boogie Woogie and that name lasted until September of that year when the name was shortened to Papa Joe's Pizza until they moved out.
The Boogie Woogie and the building it was in has now become a memory in Huntington Beach history and Harris' beautiful cream color interior is just a memory along with the Spanish stucco and tiles have that have faded into memory too.