Balboa Island's Frozen Banana Shop Is Coming to Belmont Shore

Sugar 'N Spice aims to open at 5269 E. 2nd St. in early December, where its Balboa Bar becomes the Belmont Bar.

On Balboa Island's Marine Avenue, an ice cream bar wearing a chocolate coat and a roll of toppings goes by Balboa Bar. Up the coast on Long Beach's 2nd Street, the same bar will go by Belmont Bar.

Sugar 'N Spice, the Newport Beach sweets shop whose roots go back to 1945, plans to open its Belmont Shore store in the first week of December, owner Mysa Tran told What Now Los Angeles. That's if permits and construction keep pace. The shop is moving into the old European Wax Center space at 5269 E. 2nd St., and the bar's new name is its nod to the neighborhood, Longbeachize reported Oct. 9.

The business started smaller. Bob and Dorothy Cook opened it as Dot & Bob Candies, and it took the Sugar 'N Spice name in 1959, Longbeachize reported. In the decades since, the banana in its chocolate jacket became what the shop is known for, and it's headed north along with the bars.

That banana comes with an old argument attached. Sugar 'N Spice and Dad's Donuts, its neighbor on the island, have each claimed they sold frozen bananas there first, Smithsonian Magazine noted. The magazine found an older claim across the water, though: around 1940, Don Phillips opened The Original Frozen Banana beside the Balboa Peninsula ferry landing.

Tran owns the business with Khe Lam. She told What Now the Shore reminded them of the island: the coast, the neighborly feel, a street of locally owned shops. "We weren't just looking for another storefront. We wanted a community where Sugar 'N Spice could truly belong," she said.

The neighborhood's business group is already on board. "We love that Balboa Bars are becoming Belmont Bars, starting a whole new tradition right here in Belmont Shore," Heather Kern, who heads the Belmont Shore Business Association, told Longbeachize. The hope, Longbeachize reported, is to be open by the Belmont Shore Christmas Parade.

Belmont Shore doesn't have to settle who sold the first frozen banana. If the permits cooperate, it gets a bar named after itself in December.

Source: whatnow.com, retrieved October 19, 2026. Other sources: longbeachize.com, smithsonianmag.com.