There’s a lot of restaurant news afoot of late. We’ll start with closures, then update you on new eats around the county.

Epic Wings has opened in Mission Viejo, the first in the chain to franchise outside of San Diego County.

Dunkin’ Donuts’ “next generation concept store” in Quincy, Mass., features a beer-like tap system for cold coffees.

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Smokey Fred’s in Orange will close at the end of the month because the owner, Fred Rea, needs time to recover from an upcoming heart surgery.

A Seal Beach Pei Wei is closing March 25, the second restaurant in the chain to close in the county in recent months. (Photo courtesy of Wikipedia)

Taps Fish House & Brewery in Brea will open its doors at 4 p.m. on Friday, March 23, revealing a new look after a $1.5 million makeover which began March 11 at 101 E. Imperial Highway. (Courtesy of Taps)



Taps Fish House and Brewery in Brea is getting a $1.5 million makeover. (Photo by H. Lorren Au, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Taps Fish House and Brewery in Brea is getting a $1.5 million makeover that will refresh the dining room, patio and kitchen areas. (Photo by Paul Rodriguez, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Joe Manzella, owner of Taps Fish House will unveil a refresh of his Brea restaurant on Friday, March 23. (Photo by Paul Rodriguez, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Pei Wei contracts

Orange County will have lost two Pei Wei restaurants by the end of March.

A unit in Huntington Beach has already closed and will be followed by the Seal Beach restaurant. A company representative said the restaurants’ leases expired.

“We’ve made the difficult decision to close our Huntington Beach and Seal Beach locations as a result of their recent lease expirations,” the company said in an email. “We appreciate the on-going support of the community, and we encourage our guests to continue visiting us at one of our nearby locations.”

The Seal Beach Pei Wei is closing March 25. A tipster told the Register a sign indicated a Five Guys burgers would take its place.

A company representative said gift cards would be good at all area restaurants, which includes sites in Brea, Tustin, Newport Beach, Laguna Niguel and inside John Wayne Airport.

The restaurant, a fast-casual version of P.F. Chang’s, serves Pan-Asian-inspired dishes.

The Texas-based chain got a new chief executive in early 2017. J. Hedrick told D Magazine in Dallas that Pei Wei’s annual revenue is “north of $300 million.” The chain has 225 locations with 6,000 employees in more than 20 U.S. states, South Korea, and the UAE.

“Over the last few years, we’ve had some closures, and a couple of product designs that didn’t resonate,” he told the magazine. “We’d gotten a bit out of touch with our guests. We needed a complete refresh. So, this is an opportunity to do a reset.”

BBQ owner bids farewell, for now

Smokey Fred’s BBQ on E. Collins Avenue in Orange will shutter at the end of March. The restaurant had been in place for just shy of five years.

Owner Fred Rea told his fans in a Facebook post he’s been diagnosed with a heart defect.

“My doctor explained to me that I was born with this heart defect,” Rea wrote, “It’s very serious, and I will have to undergo corrective open heart surgery on April 6th at Saint Joseph’s Hospital.”

Rea explained that his mom-and-pop shop cannot sustain a prolonged closure while he recovers. “I have no choice but to close my doors,” he wrote.

The restaurant will maintain its website during his recovery so that Rea might return to business afterward.

Address: 129 E Collins Ave.

Knowlwood shutters

A Knowlwood on 17th Street in Santa Ana has closed.

The restaurant is now C’est What 17, an Asian fusion eatery. A limited number of Yelp reviewers scored the restaurant positively. Their menu highlights included the pho (soup), oolong tea with boba, popcorn chicken with a waffle and a Vietnamese sandwich or bahn mi.

The Anaheim-based Knowlwood chain was founded in 1957 and recently celebrated its 60th anniversary. The company has locations Anaheim Hills, Irvine and a cafe at the Santa Ana Zoo.

The chain in recent years has shrunk by half. In 2016, the Knowlwood at the Fullerton train depot on Harbor Boulevard closed. It had been there since 1994. Another unit closed in Laguna Niguel.

Taps reborn

Taps Fish House & Brewery will open its doors at 4 p.m. Friday, March 23, revealing a new look after a $1.5 million makeover that began March 11 at 101 E. Imperial Highway.

“It’s a big-picture renovation that simply says that after close to 20 years of high-volume business, we’re ready for a major refresh,” said proprietor/founder Joe Manzella, who opened the original TAPS with his sister and their late father.

The reno has been timed to coordinate with the opening of a four-level, 476-space structure to help alleviate parking woes.

Inside the restaurant, the bar and the oyster bar will be outfitted with new stools, televisions, lighting and artwork. The dining rooms have walnut wood tables, leatherette booths and fresh flooring. The lobby and foyer also got an update.

The patio will also have new flooring, heaters, speakers, televisions and a new trellis.

The refresh extends to the kitchen as well with new equipment and workstations and an upgraded air conditioning and lighting system.

Brea is the flagship location of Taps, which also has restaurants in Corona and Irvine. Manzella also plans to open TAPS Brewery & Barrel Room in Tustin in May to expand production of its award-winning beers.

— Anne Valdespino, staff writer

Wings in MV

Epic Wings, a San Diego-based restaurant chain, has crossed the county line into Orange County.

The restaurant opened in Mission Viejo recently on Marguerite Parkway. The chain began at Wings N’ Things in 1982 and has grown to 18 units in Southern California.

The Orange County franchise location is owned by the Koch brothers (not those Koch brothers). Ali, Mehmet, and Reggie Koch emigrated to San Diego from Turkey in 1991. Epic Wings was their first employer.

“Wings N’ Things, and now Epic Wings, has been a part of our lives for as long as we can remember,” Reggie Koch said in a statement. “The company has always treated us like family and we have been able to grow alongside its success for over a decade.”

Hours: 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily. Address: 28621 Marguerite Parkway #B6.

Cafe relocates

XA Sweet & Savory Cafe has a new home.

The restaurant, originally in Orange, has reopened at 5 Points Plaza in Huntington Beach. The cafe is serving cookies, drinks, smoothies with boba add-ons now. A full-service menu should kick in by the end of April, a representative said.

The cafe closed at the end of 2017 on Main Street in Orange and reopened March 17 in Surf City.

The family-owned restaurant’s menu includes an eclectic selection and a build-your-own entree feature. Customers choose a protein (chicken, pork, beef, lamb, tofu, tilipia, cod or salmon) and a sauce such as lemon basil, blackened Cajun, coconut lime, red curry and more. Other menu options include homemade pastry, savory pies, rice bowls and salads.

Address: 18685 Main St., Suite 103; phone: 714-465-2722.

New Dunkin concept

Southern California’s next Dunkin’ Donuts will be a little different from most of 12,000-plus restaurants in the chain.

The location — which opened Thursday, March 22 in Corona — will be a “next generation concept store,” only the second in the chain. The first opened in January in Quincy, Mass.

The store features similar signage as one that opened in Pasadena in July with just the word “Dunkin’” over the door.

New features include a grab-and-go section, craft brewery style taps for cold beverages, and uniforms with upbeat messages such as “Fueled by Positive Energy.”

The Corona Dunkin’ Donuts, which has a drive-through, is in a shopping center anchored by a Smart & Final Extra! grocery store that opened in November.

The franchisee is Parag Patel, who was selected as Dunkin’ Donuts developer of the year in July. Patel opened the city of Riverside’s first Dunkin’ Donuts in September 2016. It happened to be the chain’s 12,000th store.

— Fielding Buck, staff writer

Tustin update

The Village at Tustin Legacy has welcomed several new healthcare tenants — for you and Fido.

The shopping center, which opened in late 2017, is just east of the blimp hangars and includes a new prototype store for Stater Bros.

HealthSouth Acute Rehab, HearUSA/HearX, Hoag Hospital, Lindora Clinic and Tustin Legacy Animal Hospital are joining Board & Brew, Burger Boss, Dunkin Donuts, CVS, Pier 76 and Pizza Press.

The Stater Bros. store offers some high-end options such as in-store made sushi, tri-tip, split whole chickens, Texas style pork ribs and salmon fillets, and a full-service deli.

The Hoag Health Center will include primary care, an urgent care clinic, imaging services, physical therapy and specialty care.