Downtown Huntington Beach is essentially Main Street: a five-block stretch between the pier and 6th Street, lined with surf shops, bars, taco stands, ice cream parlours, and a handful of restaurants. It is small enough to walk end to end in ten minutes and concentrated enough to feel like a town centre, which is rare in Orange County's strip-mall sprawl.
The street comes alive on Tuesday evenings for Surf City Nights, when the three blocks closest to the pier close to traffic for a farmers market, food stalls, a beer garden, and live music. On weekend evenings the bars are loud and the demographic skews young. The architecture is mostly 1980s and 1990s, but a few earlier buildings survive — the Helme-Worthy Store and Residence on 5th Street is the most notable.