Dwight’s Beach Concession, a Huntington Beach landmark since 1932, closed after fire

Dwight’s Beach Concession — which since 1932 has sold “world famous cheese strips” from a snack stand and beach rental business near the Huntington Beach Pier — is temporarily closed after a fire broke out in the structure Monday evening.

Huntington Beach Fire Department spokeswoman Jennifer Carey said the initial call came in at 6:20 p.m., radioed in by a nearby lifeguard on duty. The business was not open at the time of the incident.

“While we received calls from the public, it was actually sighted by one of our lifeguards, who saw smoke coming out of the top and called it in over a radio to the fire department,” Carey said Tuesday of the two-alarm blaze.

Fire crews from Newport Beach and Costa Mesa assisted at the scene, and the flames were quickly extinguished. One firefighter sustained minor injuries and was transported to a nearby hospital but was soon after released, according to Carey.

While the cause of the fire is still being investigated, officials are expediting their arson report procedure, given the fire’s placement and the scenario observed at the site.

Building inspectors surveyed the damage and yellow-tagged the structure, allowing business owners to retrieve items from the property, but barring Dwight’s from immediately reopening.

“As far as reopening or running the business, it’s not at that place — it’s not possible,” Carey said Tuesday.

The Huntington Beach landmark was launched during the Great Depression by proprietor Dwight Clapp, an “oil field roustabout convinced that tourism, not oil, was Huntington Beach’s future,” the Los Angeles Times reported in 2002.

Clapp reportedly persuaded the City Council to build a lifeguard tower on newly acquired land south of the pier and to rent him a corner of the tower for $100 a year.

There, he and wife Fae worked seven days a week and late into the night, forming ground beef patties by hand and chopping potatoes.

In the years that followed, the concession stand became famous for cheese strips, essentially tortilla chips topped with cold shredded cheese and served with “Dwight’s One and Only Strip Sauce.”

The original building was replaced seven years later, then was rebuilt in 1967 and underwent a plumbing renovation in 2021. A call to the business was not answered Tuesday.