Week in Review : MAJOR EVENTS, IMAGES AND PEOPLE IN ORANGE COUNTY NEWS : MISCELLANY/ NEWSMAKERS AND MILESTONES
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They’ve sliced up the old Orange Inn, a piece of history for generations at 7400 E. Coast Highway, just south of Corona del Mar.
The owner of the shanty, famous for fresh guava shakes and cottage-cheese-and-cucumber sandwiches, insists that the carefully dismantled structure is headed for cold storage, to be reconstituted in Irvine’s Old Towne.
“They can’t be tearing this landmark down,” said Steve Morgan of Corona del Mar, a regular patron for a decade. “I’m just coming back from Laguna Beach, and I want a shake. I don’t believe it.”
Half a century’s worth of memorabilia was strewn across the scuffed, green floor of the forlorn shack. A small sink was choked with plastic caps from bottles of “Just Squeezed, Pure, Fresh Orange Juice.”
John Bodrero, who had operated the Orange Inn since 1972, was only the third owner of the restaurant in 55 years. In 1981 his long-term lease expired and he began paying monthly rent to the Irvine Co., which owns the land and plans a complex of hotels, town houses and a shopping mall for the site. The Orange Inn closed its doors Sept. 28.
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