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Biz News: Portola Coffee Lab opening 4 new shops

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Portola Coffee Lab, the popular coffeehouse founded in Costa Mesa’s South Coast Collection four years ago, is expanding with four new locations throughout Orange County.

Portola plans to open coffeehouses this year in The District at Tustin Legacy, downtown Santa Ana, Old Towne Orange and the Kaleidoscope shopping center in Mission Viejo.

“When we opened, achieving quality meant slowing down and focusing on ingredients,” Portola co-founder Jeff Duggan said in a statement. “Today, we are fortunate that, thanks to technology and technique, the line between speed and quality is starting to blur, making it possible for us to extend our reach in the region.”

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Portola was recognized as the 2015 Micro Roaster of the Year by Roast Magazine.

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Wahoo’s co-founder speaks on radio show

Wing Lam, one of three founders of Wahoo’s Fish Taco, spoke Wednesday during a live interview on “Critical Mass,” a business news radio show hosted by Richard Franzi.

During the appearance at a fundraising event at the Center Club in Costa Mesa, Lam spoke about Wahoo’s challenges in weathering economic downturns.

Lam helped found the fast-casual chain in Costa Mesa in 1988. It is now based in Santa Ana.

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Sugarfina has new spot at South Coast Plaza

Sugarfina, a gourmet candy store that operated at South Coast Plaza from November to January as a seasonal shop, has reopened in a new full-time location by the carousel at the Costa Mesa mall.

Sugarfina, based in Beverly Hills, says it offers more than 150 types of sweets from artisan candy makers around the world.

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Newport software firm wins innovation award

MSC Apex, a computer-aided engineering platform of Newport Beach-based MSC Software Corp., won the 2015 Golden Mousetrap Award as one of the most important design technology innovations of the year, MSC said.

MSC Apex won in the Design Tools Hardware & Software category, which covers computer-aided design, product data management and product lifecycle management software.

Winners were chosen by the Design News editorial team and its advisory board and announced Tuesday at the 14th annual Golden Mousetrap award presentation at the Pacific Design & Manufacturing Trade event in Anaheim.

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Pelican Hill resort, spa earn 5 stars

The Resort at Pelican Hill and The Spa at Pelican Hill in Newport Beach earned five-star ratings, the highest awarded by Forbes Travel Guide in its 57th annual Star Awards, the resort announced Wednesday.

It is the resort’s third consecutive Five Star Award and the spa’s sixth consecutive.

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Hong Kong energy company to open Irvine office

Energenz, a Hong Kong-based energy consulting company, is expanding to the United States with new offices in Irvine and Las Vegas.

Energenz will operate in Irvine out of the office of partner JBA Consulting Engineers at 36 Technology Drive.

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Too Faced Cosmetics moving to bigger digs

Too Faced Cosmetics of Irvine plans to move to a much larger base in the city under a 104-month lease for the entire ground floor of Gen2, an office development at 18231 W. McDurmott that was completed by Bixby Land Co. in September.

Too Faced is moving from an 11,000-square-foot building, effectively tripling the size of its operation. The company is working on an interior design at the new location and plans to take occupancy later this year.

Financial terms of the lease were not disclosed.

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Business executives on judging panel

Business executives from Irvine, Costa Mesa and Newport Beach were selected as judges for Ernst & Young’s (EY) Entrepreneur of the Year awards program.

The executives from Costa Mesa businesses are Craig Boundy of Experian North America and Heidi Golledge of CareerBliss.

Dan Lubeck of Newport Beach-based Solis Capital Partners was chosen, as were Irvine executives Anand Nallathambi of CoreLogic, Jeff Frieden of Auction.com, Steele Platt of Yard House Restaurants, Steve Layton of LBA Realty, Steven Plochocki of Quality Systems Inc. and retired SiliconSystems founder Michael Hajeck.

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