If you’ve spent any time at Pacific Pearl Cafe’s storefront, grabbed a seat outside Capas at River Street Marketplace or joined a Community Table dinner series at the Ecology Center, you have likely felt the steady hum of a chef who isn’t just running a kitchen, but building a South County staple.
For chef Michael Campbell, the opening of the White Rooster in Dana Point and the expansion of Pacific Pearl to Costa Mesa isn’t a sudden surge; it’s a natural deepening of his culinary roots. It is the evolution of a chef who has navigated the highest tiers of fine dining and decided that, in the end, there is no substitute for the coastal soul of Orange County.
Campbell’s life in professional kitchens began when he was 14, washing dishes at a retirement home in Roanoke, Virginia. “I still haven’t left the restaurant industry,” said Campbell, with a laugh. By 17, he was already managing a Southern smokehouse, an early education in fire and timing that still informs his work today.
That journey later took him to culinary capitals of the world, including stints at Avignon in the south of France and Barcelona. “Barcelona is still my favorite food city in the world,” he noted. Back then, he was a younger chef chasing the cutting edge. “I kept trying to work El Bulli,” the now-shuttered restaurant regarded by some as the best restaurant in the world. “That was the place to be in 2005.”
Chef Michael Campbell prepares a smoked tri tip bowl in his new restaurant, White Rooster, in Dana Point, CA on Wednesday, January 14, 2026. (Photo by Paul Bersebach, Orange County Register/SCNG)Eventually, he landed in San Francisco, where he helped open the powerhouse RN74 for the Mina Group, Michael Mina’s restaurant group behind Bourbon Steakhouse, among others. “Nothing rivals the competitive nature, the professional service team and the professionalism in the kitchen — that’s just where you want to be,” said Campbell of his time in the Bay Area.
After years of high-pressure kitchens and a tenure as chef de cuisine at The Loft at the Montage, Laguna Beach, Campbell headed north to Portland in the midst of the 2020 riots and pandemic closures, only to find his way back to O.C. to regroup and come up with his then-most successful plan yet: Pacific Pearl Cafe in San Juan Capistrano. This was his launchpad, a place to perfect the paella (yes, with socarrat, the coveted crispy and caramelized crust of toasted rice that forms at the pan’s base) and tapas that fueled his catering business.
White Rooster
Taking over the former Doheny Cafe space just across from Doheny Beach, the White Rooster is Campbell’s most personal project to date. The name is a wink to his staff’s affectionate nickname for him: Gallo Blanco.
“I’m intense in the kitchen, but not, like, throwing stuff around or anything like that,” explained Campbell. “Everything has got to be perfect because the wrong thing going out to the wrong person at the wrong time means no return, and that just bums me out.”
Chef Michael Campbell prepares Smoked Tri Tip tacos in his new restaurant, The White Rooster, in Dana Point, CA on Wednesday, January 14, 2026. (Photo by Paul Bersebach, Orange County Register/SCNG) The N’Oreasters are served at White Rooster in Dana Point, CA. (Photo by Paul Bersebach, Orange County Register/SCNG) The Smoked Tri Tip bowl is served at The White Rooster in Dana Point, CA. (Photo by Paul Bersebach, Orange County Register/SCNG) Show Caption1 of 3Chef Michael Campbell prepares Smoked Tri Tip tacos in his new restaurant, The White Rooster, in Dana Point, CA on Wednesday, January 14, 2026. (Photo by Paul Bersebach, Orange County Register/SCNG) ExpandAt the White Rooster, which officially opened on Friday, Jan. 16, the focus is on breakfast, dinner and, most especially, brunch. Campbell is applying the meticulous standards of his past to the most relaxed meal of the day. “I really want to take the fine-dining elements that I’ve picked up in New York and San Francisco and even at the Montage and apply them to a spot where you’re still paying 17 bucks for chilaquiles.”
His style has shifted away from the “tweezer food” era of his early days. “I was part of that fine-dining tweezer food where, for example, there would be five elements of the same ingredient on a dish,” he recalled. “I stopped being interested in eating that way and I stopped being interested in cooking that way. I just wanted something that’s a little more approachable. Familiar flavors but something I’ve never tasted before.”
Inaugural menu highlights at the White Rooster include such seaside seafood fare as grilled yellowtail tacos, crab enchiladas and shrimp and grits tamales. On the barbecue side, Campbell will prepare a smoked carnitas brunch burrito, 24-hour smoked tri-tip quesadillas and huevos rancheros, as well as smoked tri-tip tacos and the aforementioned chilaquiles with sunnyside eggs and queso fresco.
On the sweet side, the menu features four types of blue corn waffles (the N’Oreasters featuring blueberry, maple marmalade and mascarpone mousse look particularly glorious), salted caramel French toast, banana bread skillet, tres-leches trifle and Basque cheesecake.
Chef Michael Campbell has opened his new restaurant, The White Rooster, in Dana Point, CA. (Photo by Paul Bersebach, Orange County Register/SCNG)Dishes from Pearl Street Cafe will also make their way to the new Dana Point eatery, including avocado toast, a turkey reuben, a smoked tuna melt and the chopped salad tinged with truffle honey dijon.
From 3 p.m. until close, the kitchen will focus on burritos, tacos, bowls, frozen sangiras, wine and other festive fare.
The White Rooster’s underlying theme, as Campbell explained it, is akin to a coastal road trip from Santa Barbara to Ensenada, a menu that reflects “a showcase of some of the roadside cuisine and some of my personal favorites you would find along the way.” His wine list also reflects that journey, featuring wines from the regions, stretching from Santa Barbara to Valle de Guadalupe.
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“I wouldn’t want to call this necessarily a culmination of my career,” he said, looking around the new Dana Point space. “But I am pouring my heart and soul into everything here. I love what I do.”
The White Rooster is open seven days a week from 8 a.m. until 8 p.m.
Find it: 34320 Pacific Coast Highway, suite H, Dana Point, whiteroostercafe.com
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