BRIEFLY IN BUSINESS

Furniture anchors Balboa cottage shops

If anyone was wondering where the Cottage Corona del Mar shop that used to be on East Coast Highway next to Rothschild’s restaurant, look no further than the Balboa Island’s Cottage Courtyard Shops.

Kaycie Grubbs’ furniture shop became the anchor of the store co-op.

Hers is the largest of the four stores in the co-op and the only one that was an established business with a prior stand-alone location.

The owners are already working on their next artist’s showcase and hope to get a local Newport Bay gondolier to entertain.

Fashion Island, Santa help homeless

Anyone headed to take a photo with Santa at Fashion Island will become philanthropists of sorts as the shopping center donates portions of the proceeds to HomeAid Orange County.

Now through Dec. 24, part of the money raised from Santa photos will be donated to the nonprofit organization, which builds shelters for people who are temporarily homeless.

For more information about the organization visit www.homeaidoc.org.

John Wayne Airport commercial flights up

More people traveled out of John Wayne Airport last month than they did in November 2005, but total aircraft operations, which includes air taxis, cargo and commercial flights, decreased, according to a report released Thursday by the airport.

Commercial flights increased more than 4% in November compared with the same period last year, but air-taxi operations took a dive of more than 27%. Air taxis are for-hire airline carriers.

The reason for the slump in overall operations is most likely due to the decrease in air-taxi and military operations, which went from 11 instances in November 2005 to only four in 2006.

For more information visit www.ocair.com.

Yard House to open in Fashion Island

Fashion Island and the Yard House restaurant announced this month that a Yard House location will be moving in to the Newport Beach shopping center.

The new restaurant is scheduled to open in August and will be in a 9,000-square-foot space with an outdoor patio next to Bloomingdale’s.

The Newport Beach restaurant will serve as a mid-point for the chain, which has a store Triangle Square in Costa Mesa and at the Irvine Spectrum, another Irvine Co. property.

The restaurant promises to be a prime location for happy hour, with the concentration of businesses and its expected 100 types of beer on tap.

New salon open in Newport Beach

The Joshua Christopher Salon opened earlier this month on West Coast Highway, making it the second such salon in Orange County.

The original salon is in Fullerton and the owner Chris Nunez is making his first attempt at realizing a dream to open a salon with each of his stylists.

The Newport Beach location was opened under the direction of creative director and head stylist, Armando Flores, who is now a co-owner.

The salon features an outdoor balcony with harbor views, 18 hair stations, two rooms for aestheticians and one makeup station. The salon is next to the Newport European Motorcars across from the Balboa Bay Club on West Coast Highway.

Shopping center names decorating winners

South Coast Plaza named the winners of its window display contest Friday in seven categories.

Store managers and visual merchandise managers decorated the windows last week and the winners of the contest received gift cards to South Coast Plaza.

Ralph Lauren, Montblanc, Brooks Brothers, William Sonoma, Kiehl’s Since 1851, Pottery Barn Kids and Paper Source won top prize in their respective categories.

Folino named to silicon vendor’s board

Paul Folino, a major player in the construction of the Renee and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall and chairman of the board of Emulex, was named Friday to the board of directors of Solarflare Communications in Irvine.

In September, Folino stepped down as Emulex’s chief executive officer, but said that didn’t mean the business world would see him slow down.

Solarflare Communications Inc. is a silicon vendor that delivers Ethernet products.