A wood-fired kitchen designed for open-flame pizzas, whole meats, and seasonal vegetables will anchor chef Tim Hollingsworth's forthcoming restaurant at OCVIBE, the $5 billion mixed-use district rising around Honda Center in Anaheim, California. Slated to open in late 2027, the as-yet-unnamed concept represents one of the more equipment-intensive back-of-house builds in the district's expanding culinary program.
The Kitchen Build
The production heart of Hollingsworth's restaurant will be a live-fire cooking suite centered on wood-burning equipment capable of handling pizza, large-format meat cookery, and vegetable preparations simultaneously. Flanking that core will be a visible raw bar and a dedicated pastry station — both positioned to face the dining room, a layout decision that places front-of-house sightlines directly into active prep and finishing zones. That open-kitchen configuration demands careful ventilation design, coordinated hood placement, and utility rough-ins that support high-BTU wood-fire equipment alongside the refrigeration loads of a raw bar. Consultants and kitchen designers working on chef-driven, open-concept builds will recognize the complexity: wood-fire and live-fire cooking installations require custom exhaust systems, ember management, and clearances that differ substantially from standard gas-range layouts.
Scale of the Culinary District
Hollingsworth's restaurant is one of five chef-driven signature dining concepts planned for OCVIBE, joining chef Roy Choi's Best Friend, Osen Urban Table, and a restaurant from chef José Andrés tied to the district's SENA hotel. The broader culinary footprint grows even larger when Katella Commons — a 50,000-square-foot market hall — is factored in. That facility alone will house 21 chef-driven kitchens and six bar and lounge concepts, pushing the district's total food-and-beverage count above 35 concepts. For equipment dealers and reps operating in Southern California, the combined Katella Commons buildout and standalone restaurant openings represent a substantial specification and procurement cycle running through 2027 and beyond.
The first phase of OCVIBE — including the 5,000-person-capacity concert hall and Katella Commons — is scheduled to open in early 2027, with the standalone restaurant group, including Hollingsworth's concept, following in late 2027. A project of this scale, privately funded by the Samueli Family, will draw significant interest from foodservice equipment dealers and kitchen design consultants who specialize in multi-concept entertainment districts. The simultaneous commissioning of more than two dozen distinct kitchen environments across a single campus presents logistical challenges in equipment scheduling, installation sequencing, and hood and utility coordination that few projects of this type match in the region.
Hollingsworth spent more than a decade at The French Laundry before establishing his own presence in Los Angeles, and he received the James Beard Foundation's Rising Star Chef of the Year Award in 2010. His approach to the new concept — neighborhood warmth with a technically grounded, fire-forward menu — signals a kitchen specification built for high volume and theatrical presentation in equal measure.
Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.
