Dana Point Harbor Fall 2026 Guide: What's Open Now

If you live in Dana Point, you already know the harbor is under construction. What you may not have tracked is how compressed the next 45 days are about to be. Between September 15 and October 31, 2026, most of the Wharf as you have known it will serve its last plates and lock its last doors.

The good news is that the "new" harbor is not something you have to wait for. Pieces of it are already scattered around town, tucked into new addresses that longtime residents keep walking past without realizing who moved in. This guide is for the neighbors who want to say a proper goodbye to the old harbor and know exactly where to find the businesses that made it.

The 45-Day Window That Changes the Wharf

Two closure dates matter this fall, and they arrive back to back.

Wind and Sea is the anchor. The restaurant that started it all in 1971 has been the harbor's living room for more than half a century, and mid-September is your last month to sit at that window.

After October 31, the fence line pushes further in. Wind & Sea's final day of business on the Wharf will be September 15, 2026 in preparation for Building 1 construction, and Buildings 2-5 will follow for remaining Wharf retailers and restaurants with the final day of business on October 31, 2026. If you have a standing lunch spot on the Wharf, it is almost certainly on that list.

Who Is Staying Through Phase 3

Not everything on the water is going dark this fall. Harbor favorites, including The Brig, Beach Harbor Pizza, Gemmell's, Wind & Sea, Jon's Fish Market, Proud Mary's and Turks will remain open through phase three construction. Wind & Sea is the exception on that list because of the September date, but the rest carry through.

A few more names worth knowing if you want a boat on the water this fall:

• Dana Wharf Sportfishing and Whale Watching is still running trips. Some long-time tenants are staying and adapting throughout construction. Donna Kalez's Dana Wharf Sportfishing and Whale Watching remains open. Wind and Sea continues to operate.
• Catalina Express departures continue from the Wharf. The Wharf is Open for business including whale watching, sport fishing and Catalina Express.
• Art Sea, Gift Chateau, and Vintage Yacht Club picked up newly available Wharf spots as other tenants closed, so a few of the shop windows you see this month are actually newer than the building around them.

Where Your Favorites Already Went

This is the part of the story that gets missed if you have not been down to the harbor in a while. Several of the names Dana Point residents grew up with did not close so much as move.

Frisby Cellars stayed in the harbor and expanded into a larger footprint. Frisby Cellars stayed on the wharf, but moved into a larger space at the former Waterman's Restaurant. An outdoor patio and lounge area provides a newfound ambiance and the larger area gives Josh Frisby a better view and space. He now offers beers on tap, more food and an opportunity for private tastings and vintage releases. If you last visited Frisby when it was a small wine room, it is a different experience now.

Coffee Importers did not disappear either. Coffee Importers relocated across the harbor to the Ocean Institute campus. The morning routine works, it just points a little further down the road.

Harpoon Henry's is the one that did not come back. In August 2025, Harpoon Henry's, Bob Mardian's second restaurant and one of the harbor's most iconic names after 50 years in operation, closed permanently ahead of demolition. That closure is the reason you now see fresh construction fencing where the patio used to be.

Waterman's Harbor, Harbor Grill, El Torito, and Lil' Skippers Snack Shack are also gone from the harbor entirely. Waterman's Harbor closed June 1, 2022, the space now occupied by Frisby Cellars wine shop. Harbor Grill, which opened in 1984 and operated for 38 years as a family-owned waterfront restaurant, closed in September 2022. El Torito, which had operated in the harbor for decades, closed at the end of 2023. Lil' Skippers Snack Shack closed.

The Marina Side Is Actually Ahead of the Landside

If you keep a boat here or you just watch the docks from the bluff, the numbers on the water side are more encouraging than the fencing on land suggests.

The project replaces aging slips throughout the harbor with an entirely new marina delivering more than 2,500 slips total. Work began with a groundbreaking in August 2022. The West Basin Island opened for occupancy July 1, 2025, representing eight phases and 1,115 new slips at the halfway mark. Phase 9 opened October 2025. Phase 11 in the East Basin Island opened May 2026. Phase 12 demolition is currently underway as of mid-2026. Full marina completion is projected for 2027.

Put differently, the docks are running roughly a year ahead of the restaurants and shops. By the time the Wharf you knew is boarded up on Halloween, more than two-thirds of the new marina will already be in the water.

How to Actually Use the Harbor This Fall

A few practical notes for residents who plan to come down between now and October 31.

1. Park in the new structure. Please continue to enjoy 4 Hours of Free Parking inside the new parking structure. Both customer and designated boater parking remain available. Pedestrian access to harbor shops, restaurants, docks and boardwalk remain available. The old surface-lot habits from three years ago no longer apply.
2. Expect the fence line to keep moving. Effective July 7, 2026. In preparation for the start of Phase 5 landside demolition, a new construction fence line has been set. This perimeter provides clear demarcation for the next phase of construction and enhanced safety to the public from the new work zone while maintaining public boardwalk access and boater dock access. If your usual walk from the parking structure to the water has changed since summer, that is why.
3. Look for the tagged trees. In addition, the transplanting and boxing of substantial tree and shrub specimens continues. These mature plants will be nurtured until they are replanted into the final landscape plan. The mature trees you see boxed up along the fence are coming back in the new landscape rather than heading to a chipper.
4. The boardwalk is still open, end to end. Pedestrian access to the docks and the water has been preserved through every fence-line change so far.

What Comes After October 31

Once the current Wharf tenants close on Halloween, the harbor moves into its next phase in short order. Phase 4 (development in Dana Wharf) will get underway toward the end of 2026 and Phase 5 will likely start in mid-2027. That means the visible construction zone will grow through the winter rather than shrink.

Phase 3, the Mariner's Village build between Dana Wharf and Casitas Way, is the one to watch for locals who want a sense of what the finished harbor will feel like. This phase includes seven new commercial buildings with waterfront restaurants, retail, rooftop decks, outdoor event spaces, fire pits, and public green areas. Plans include a food hall concept called Boathouse along with multiple new restaurant buildings.

The longer-term payoff is a piece of infrastructure most residents underrate. When finished, the waterfront boardwalk will more than double, creating a continuous walkable path from Doheny State Beach to Baby Beach, one of the longest waterfront promenades on the West Coast. A continuous Doheny-to-Baby-Beach walk changes how a Sunday morning in Dana Point looks, and it is worth pacing off the current route before the new one replaces it.

There is one open question over the whole thing. The hotel construction is on hold after the Orange County Board of Supervisors delayed a vote in June 2026 on the long-term ground leases required to proceed. The item was continued to the August 11, 2026 meeting. Whatever the Board decides shapes the pace of the hotel side, but it does not change the September and October dates on the Wharf.

One Last Fall on the Old Wharf

If you have lived in Dana Point long enough to have a memory attached to Wind and Sea, this is the month to make one more. If you have been quietly wondering where Coffee Importers went or whether Frisby Cellars survived the demolition, the answer is that they are five minutes from where they used to be, in better rooms. The harbor is not disappearing this fall. It is turning over on a schedule you can now plan around.

When you or someone in your circle is ready to talk about how a changing waterfront is shaping value along the Dana Point coast, Myhanh Nguyen offers a boutique, neighborhood-first consultation grounded in the details residents actually live with. Schedule Your Free Consultation & Home Valuation to start the conversation.