Last time I tried The Stand, I found I preferred The Cut more. I'll have to give it another shot. I have also never seen it as busy as Board and Brew, which already is supporting multiple locations.
Hell yeah I love those cupped pepperonis. You can get them locally at Fresh Brothers but the best place I know of locally is Prince St Pizza in West Hollywood. (which is itself an outpost of the Prince St Pizza in Lower Manhattan)
I think the best thing to do is to alert other potential customers. As distasteful as the mandatory service charge is, or not accepting CC payments, it's not illegal and I don't think these kinds of things should be overregulated.
That's sad news. Chihiro is really nice and the croissants here are top top quality. I think my second fav is Pandor on the Irvine side of Tustin Market Place.
Have you tried their classes?
Overall I think my fav place to get breakfast is still Dough Exchange in Santa Ana.
I think you are thinking about a different house:https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-irvine-double-homicides-20170202-story.html
Both houses are close to the railroad (which IMO is no big deal at all).