Orange County’s Historic Golden Bear Rock Club to Be Reincarnated

From the early 1960s through mid-1980s, the preeminent rock ‘n’ roll club in California’s Orange Country was the Golden Bear. The intimate venue across from the Huntington Beach pier played host to artists ranging from Janis Joplin and Neil Young to Patti Smith and Steve Martin to Lone Justice and local-kids-made-good No Doubt. It was closed down for redevelopment in 1986, leaving a hole in the O.C. scene that has subsequently been filled somewhat, but not entirely, by clubs like the Coach House and the Grove of Anaheim.

Now there are plans to bring the Golden Bear back to life, not as the seaside dive it once was, but as an intimate corner of OCVibe, a 100-acre entertainment and dining complex that is soon to be built in Anaheim on what are now paved parking lots adjacent to the Honda Center.

Representatives for the project are announcing plans for the entire complex at an event nearby in Anaheim Wednesday night. Some of the principals behind the new Golden Bear and the huge campus that will surround it offered a preview of their ideas for the reincarnated club to Variety prior to the gala unveiling — and brought the original club’s final owner, Carole Babiracki-Kirby, into the conversation as well.

Orange County music fans who have been waiting about 40 years for a revival of the Golden Bear — whether they knew it or not — will have to wait a few years longer, as the club is not scheduled to open its doors until 2028, two years after the first phase of OCVibe opens. But two other bigger-sized concert venues, which don’t yet have names, will also be opening on the newly developed parcel, creating a rare ecosystem for live music that will encompass everything from the 350-seat Bear to the already existing Honda Center, with two theaters in-between.

Does nostalgia for the Golden Bear still exist, four decades or so after it went into that good salty-aired night? The OCVibe developers believe it does, and creating to that link to the past was preferable to starting for its smallest entertainment space.

“We’re really looking at it being more than just an entertainment district,” says Tracee Larocca, the chief marketing officer of OC Sports and Entertainment, which is the management arm of OCVibe, Honda Center and the Anaheim Ducks. “It’s a hub for culture and connected communities. And as the idea for building this district was being developed, I think we ideated around the incredibly diverse population that surrounds Honda Center and Orange County, and we wanted to make sure we were creating sort of a beacon that represented the very rich history of Orange County. And as we were contemplating that from a music and culinary and experiential standpoint, the opportunity to bring back the Golden Bear sort of started percolating with the team, and everyone got really excited about that idea of giving the Golden Bear a proper home at OCVibe. I wish I could point to a specific person, but it really did just sort of pop up as we were trying to think of: How can we honor the history of music in Orange County? And Golden Bear was just top-of-mind.”

Says Bill Dwight, OCVibe’s senior director of programming, who already oversees booking for the Honda Center and will do the same for the new complex’s additional three venues, “The thing that we are really focusing on here is having a music ecosystem here in the district. We’re gonna have the Golden Bear, which will be a small venue. We’ll have a mid-size theater. We’re gonna have the concert hall. And then we’re gonna have the Honda Center. So, as bands and agents and managers are routing their tours, we want to be able to give them more options. And we want to use the Golden Bear as kind of the launchpad for their careers. Then as they come back through each step of the way, as they’re getting bigger and bigger in their career, we’re going to have every size venue option for them to hit, until they eventually come and play the Honda Center. That’s really important for us here too, to not only help support some of the national touring bands, but also use Golden Bear as a launching pad for some local bands as well.”

Adds Dwight, “We would really, really love to kind of do exactly what Golden Bear used to do back in the ‘60s, ‘70s and ‘80s. They would really try to build up a lot of the local bands from Orange County and some of the up-and-coming artists — like, No Doubt and I know Chili Peppers played there in the beginning of their careers. But we also would love to have some larger national, arena-level acts come and do a multi-night stay and play in an intimate setting.”

Carole Babiracki-Kirby was one of the three owners of the Golden Bear, along with her husband and his brother, during its last years, from 1974-86. “Go to Carol’s house. You’ll feel like you’re back there,” says Larocca of the former owner’s home. (Although there is no official museum space, the Golden Bear’s history has been commemorated in a hardback book, and nostalgic music lovers can still buy T-shirts with the club’s memorable emblem.)

“She’s been working very closely with us, as the historian of the Golden Bear and sort of the keeper of that identity,” Larocca notes. “And so i”It was really important that we had her blessing and sort of her thought partnership on how this might come to life. We’ve talked to her every step of the way from ‘Hey, we wanna do this’ to ‘Hey, here’s how we think we want the brand identity to (sit) and just simplify a little bit, so it feels like harkening back to the original, but just with a little bit more of a modern twist.’ And she’s been just a great thought partner in all of that.”

Says Babiracki-Kirby, “I let the torch pass. I’m happy for anybody that wants to do it, but I want them to do it right and make sure it’s like it was, which I’m sure they’re doing.”

The original closure has naturally stuck in her craw, even though the city of Huntington Beach has tried on a few occasions to honor the club’s legacy, with a reunion concert and a plaque at the original site. “Huntington Beach decided to tear it down for redevelopment, which that they never should have done. It was an iconic building. The former owner, Harry (Bakre, who started the club as a restaurant in 1923 and built it at its eventual Huntington Beach location in 1926), brought these sculptures in from Europe and had ’em up there, and they just tore it all down. That was the city council, who I’m not happy with.” There were attempts from the late ’80s on up through the 2000s to open a new Golden Bear, either in the building that replaced the demolished original or nearby, but they did not come to fruition.

When she and her family took the club over in 1974, they had no live entertainment experience. They’d just come back from a vacation in Greece, and opened a Greek food spot on the lot they acquired right next door to the Golden Bear. “We talked to George (Nikas, who owned and operated the club from 1966, three years after it had been turned into a folk club), and he said, ‘Oh, I’ve been doing this for 15 years. Time to move on.’ George said ‘I’ll teach you everything you need to know,’ and our first band was the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. So even though we knew nothing about the music business, we got going very fast. The first few years were rough, but then w just kept on and it got better. Once the musicians and agents found out we actually paid them, they were very happy to come back.”

Some of her favorite memories include Bonnie Raitt and Maria Muldaur sharing a stage, or the club being filled with friends of the Grateful Dead when Jerry Garcia and Merle Sanders would play there, as well as Robin Williams doing a run of shows when his fame was just beginning.

As for how the musical components of OCVibe will proceed, Larocca says, “Our first grand opening of the district will be in late ‘26, and will include a market hall, an office building, what we’re calling restaurant row, and the concert hall, as well as the outdoor urban park. In ‘28, we’re looking to open our South Plaza, which will include a hotel and another large (concert) venue, with restaurants and retail space. We’re still working through the specifics, but that’s where Golden Bear will come. And Golden Bear has a beautiful corner that we’re working to make very iconic for the space. And then we’re looking to wrap the project in early 2030-ish, with our third phase, which will include residential.”

Besides the “350-ish-seat” Golden Bear, the concert hall will hold about 5,700, and the midsize theater will be somewhere in the upper teens to mid-2000s, capacity-wise. Right now, those two venues are just being referred to as Midsize Theater and Concert Hall. “Sexy names,” laughs Larocca.

The idea for an entertainment and dining complex that would serve more or less as a privately operated downtown is hardly an unusual one, unto itself, with complexes from LALive to Downtown Disney having already operated as would-be town centers in southern California. OCVibe is emphasizing more parklike spaces as part of its appeal.

“Whether you’re going to a venue or going to dinner,” says Larocca, “you’ll be connected through a beautiful outdoor open space and parks and plazas. “We really think that this area will be a beacon to draw everyone in Orange County together, whether they’re coming for a ticketed event or dinner or just to hang out. I think that’s what really kind of sets OCVibe apart because of that sort of draw to the community to hang out (even without a destination in mind), because you don’t know what you’re going to experience from one visit to the next. And that’s why we think Golden Bear will be such a key element to this experience.”