Owning and operating a restaurant isn’t for the weak.

Licenses. Labor. Permits. Taxes. Gentrification’s unyielding homogenization. Food trend impermanence (remember molten chocolate cakes?). Myriad hurdles make breaking even during the first year cause for uncorking Champagne. But some lucky stalwarts have been around for decades, defining dining culture while weathering figurative and literal storms that keep people coming back for more.

While not as numerous as Los Angeles or San Francisco, Orange County lays claim to a handful of turn-of-the-20th-century eateries that remain standing to this day. After a series of recent restaurant closureS that saw old favorites shutter — most notably, Watson’s Soda Fountain & Cafe in Orange and Laguna Beach’s White House Restaurant (founded in 1899 and 1918, respectively) — there remain four pre-war restaurants still firing up the grill and setting tables after all these years.

Cook’s Corner is shown with a full compliment of motorcycles parked out front. (Photo by Jeffrey Antenore, Contributing Photographer)

Cook’s Corner

19152 Santiago Cyn Road, Trabuco Canyon; 949-858-0266, cookscorners.com

Founded: 1926

Having survived earthquakes, forest fires, recessions and floods, this bar-slash-restaurant, noted for its Harley-riding clientele, has been a staple at the corner of Santiago Canyon Road and Live Oak Canyon Road in Trabuco Canyon since the Depression Era. Despite making national headlines for a mass shooting in 2023 — an ex-police officer shot and killed three people and injured six — Cook’s Corner is best known as the oldest-running dining establishment in Orange County.

Named after the Cook family, who owned a stretch of land in Trabuco Canyon, the structure itself dates back to 1884 when it started life as a beekeeper’s cabin. In 1926, Earl Jack “E.J.” Cook converted the building into a restaurant for local miners and ranchers, adding a full bar once Prohibition ended. In the mid-1970s, Victor Villa and Volker Streicek, who sold motorcycle accessories, purchased the restaurant and bar from the Cook family. The two cemented Cook’s Corner as a biker bar, minus the dust-ups often associated with such establishments; biker gangs and loud music were common, but biker colors and physical clashes were verboten inside.

Today Cook’s Corner still stands as a friendly biker outpost where people come to check out a slice of the rustic community while enjoying tacos, burgers, booze and live tunes. And as a reminder of the harmonious atmosphere the owners intended, the sign above the entrance reads, “Cold beer. Good food. Children welcome.”

Mrs. Knott’s Chicken Dinner Restaurant opened in 1934, years before the adjoining theme park. (Photo by Michael Goulding, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Mrs. Knott’s Chicken Dinner Restaurant

8039 Beach Blvd., Buena Park; 714-220-5319, www.knotts.com/dining/mrs-knotts-chicken-dinner-restaurant

Founded: 1934

Starting out as a tea room with only five tables in 1934, this space has since grown into a staple of Orange County culture, located just outside of its namesake 160-acre amusement park. Named after family matriarch Cordelia, who, along with her husband Walter owned a 10-acre berry farm, the restaurant first started serving chicken dinners on Mrs. Knott’s wedding china on which she placed the first eight chicken dinners in June 1934 for 65 cents.

In the early days of Knott’s, customers, primarily Los Angeles-area residents, would stop by en route to the Pacific Ocean during the summer months to purchase pie or boysenberries to take with them for snacks on the beach. As the Depression Era tightened customers’ purse strings, the restaurant, then called Knott’s Berry Place, needed more customers. Walter thought his wife’s chicken, a favorite of family and friends, would do the trick. A plate of fried chicken, biscuits, mashed potatoes and rhubarb hit the menu on June 13, 1934. Word spread. Patrons arrived in droves. And the five-table small tearoom soon expanded to accommodate 900 diners at one time.

“I’m very grateful that my family was able to create something that has lasted,” Marion Knott, the last surviving child of Knott’s Berry Farm founders Walter and Cordelia Knott, told the Orange County Register in 2009. “A lot of it was plain old luck. [Dad] told you he was only a farmer. But he had vision, and that’s what it took.”

Today the chicken meal costs $21.99 — and remains a bargain. Along with famous fried chicken, guests at Mrs. Knott’s Chicken Dinner Restaurant can also enjoy omelets, burgers and boysenberry-infused cocktails (thanks to a full bar) in a remodeled setting inspired Cordelia’s home kitchen, including a potbelly stove and rustic furnishings.

ALSO SEE: These are 10 of the oldest restaurants in Los Angeles County

Harbor House Cafe has been serving diners in Sunset Beach since 1939. (Photo by Chas Metivier, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Harbor House Cafe

16341 Pacific Coast Highway, Sunset Beach; 562-592-5404, www.harborhousecafe.com

Founded: 1939

Noted for classic movie posters and antique displays gracing the walls, the first Harbor House Cafe opened in Sunset Beach in 1939. A popular pit stop for surfers and beach bums heading to and from the sands, Gary Quick, a Hollywood movie producer, bought the restaurant in 1975 (both Sunset Beach and Dana Point locations) and adorned it with star memorabilia, including photos, posters and sports jerseys.

Speaking of cinema, filmmaker Miguel Ali shot his first feature, “Confessions of a Womanizer,” mainly at Harbor House Cafe in Sunset Beach. Ali, who spent much of his time at Harbor House Cafe while studying at Chapman University, based one of his characters, played by Gary Busey, on Quick.

“Gary Busey is his clone, the mannerisms, his thoughts,” Ali told the Orange County Register in 2014. “They’re both really eccentric, but really affectionate.”

Today guests return to Harbor House Care for its diner-forward menu. Cheeseburgers, Cobb salads, patty melts and milkshakes all make an appearance. Even grilled beef liver, a dish you don’t see often these days, can still be found on the expansive, laminated menu at this seaside institution.

Although Harbor House Cafe was once open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, it has since scaled back its hours.

Sariñara’s Tamale Factory

2218 W. Fifth St., Santa Ana; 714-558-8650

Founded: 1939

Founded by Juan and Felipa Sariñara, who immigrated to Santa Ana from Durango, Sariñara’s Tamale Factory, Orange County’s oldest Mexican restaurant, located in the heart of Santa Ana, has stayed in the same family since it opened in 1939. Teresa Rodriguez Nieves, who inherited the family restaurant in 1985, is the third generation member of the family to own and operate the institution.

“For us, our home is here,” Nieves explained in 2014. “The restaurant is everything for me. I raised my girls and my sons here.”

The cozy restaurant, which was once a single-family house before refashioning into a restaurant, prepares some of Southern California’s best tamales each day. During the holiday season, they knead, spread and steam thousands of tamales (house-made, of course). Though they offer a wide variety of fillings, the tamales’ recipe — from the masa to the pork preparation — remains the same.

But it’s more than just tamales; Sariñara’s also serves menudo, taquitos, soups, tacos dorados and more.

ALSO SEE: These are some of the oldest restaurants in the Inland Empire

Dick Church’s Restaurant

2698 Newport Blvd, Costa Mesa; 714-884-4522, www.dickchurchs.com

Founded: 1947

Although it received a makeover in 2022 (its green tarp awning at the entrance replaced in favor of a black A-frame and the front patio redesigned for live music), its vibe remains the same. You can still find the same orange booths and counter seats. Country fried steak is still on the menu. And a root beer float costs only $5.

Dick Church’s is just over 50 years of age, but it has gone by different names over the decades when it first opened in 1947. Baby’s Beef Burger, Bud’s Drive-In, Art’s Coffee Shop were its former iterations, making it one of Orange County’s longest continually operating restaurants.

Restauranteur Bodie Rasmussen (Lost Bean Coffee, Lost Vine Wine Bar) purchased Dick Church’s in 2017 from its longtime owners. His new ownership has resulted in an admittedly much-needed makeover for the classic diner. New brass light fixtures, white paint, decorative tiles have all been added. The kitchen has also been updated to add more quality to its classic menu. Instead of frozen products from Cisco, fresh meats, like the tres popular waygu beef, are used for French dip sandwiches. Craft cocktails, like an Aperol Spritz or a Moscow Mule, have been added.

But the new owner has kept Dick Church’s original diner spirit alive with enough momentum that, fingers crossed, will help keep the venue going for another 75 years.

A chef grills teaks for El Presidente Ball at El Adobe restaurant in San Juan Capistrano. (Photo by Anna Reed, Orange County Register/SCNG)

El Adobe de Capistrano

31891 Camino Capistrano, San Juan Capistrano; 949-493-1163, www.eladobedecapistrano.com

Founded: 1948

Despite its status as one of U.S. President Richard Nixon’s preferred dining pit stops (back when San Clemente served as the site of the Western White House), the history of El Adobe de Capistrano — or simply El Adobe, as locals call it — dates back to a time long before any U.S. leader suffered indigestion inside its hallowed halls.

El Adobe de Capistrano, which has been around since 1948, occupies a building that, in part, dates back to 1797. The two unassuming structures, now joined together as El Adobe, were once a residential house, the home of Miguel Yorba Adobe in 1797, and a building that served time as a trading post, a stagecoach stop, a post office and the Juzgado jail, established in 1812. Legend has it that ghosts haunt the eatery, most notably inside the wine cellar that, before storing cabernets and pinots, once housed inmates awaiting trial or the firing squad.

Related Articles

In 1948, rancher Clarence Brown opened El Adobe restaurant in the space after purchasing the property (the two buildings became one in 1910). The restaurant originally served continental fare, but after comments by Nixon, who had the chef make him private meals, word got out about its Mexican-American fare and the owner changed the menu to offer more south-of-the-border grub.

Today El Adobe, which received a gentle redesign in 2003, adding a new mesquite grill and hood system in its kitchen, remains the go-to spot for many in South County looking for a classic Mexican-American meal. Guests at this historic spot can enjoy empanadas, fajitas (served on a sizzling skillet for dramatic effect), enchiladas, salads, tacos, burritos and more. For $22, patrons can order “The President’s Choice,” a smorgasbord that comes with Mr. and Mrs. Nixon’s favorites: chile relleno, chicken enchilada, crispy shredded beef, Spanish rice and refried beans. What the former U.S. president lacked in law-abiding transparency, he made up for in competent taste for our regional fare.