Best of the Beach Retail 2024
Men’s Clothing
Spyder
Surfboard shaper
Dennis Jarvis, Spyder
Beach people have their own style of dress, and Spyder Surf is one of the reasons. Surfing drives beach fashions and locally, Spyder drives surfing. Co-owner Dickie O’Reilly is the director of the South Bay Scholastic Surfing Association (SBSSA), composed of 11 local high school surf teams. Spyder is a sponsor of the South Bay Boardriders, whose contests draw over 200 entries, from groms to grandpas. Spyder also produces the annual Spyder Surf Fest that accompanies the Hermosa Beach Surfer Walk of Fame inductions. This year’s Walk of Fame and Surf Fest, on Saturday, April 21, will be their 20th anniversary.
As a result, O’Reilly knows what’s coming in men’s fashion when he buys for Spyder’s three stores, on Pier Plaza and on the Pacific Coast Highway in Hermosa, and Manhattan Avenue in downtown Manhattan Beach.
Bob Bain, producer of the Teen Choice Award in 2019 with a board by Spyder Surf founder and shaper Dennis Jarvis. The board was presented that year to the winner of the Teen Choice Awards, held in Hermosa Beach. The winner was a rising young female singer named Taylor Swift. Photo by Jessie Lee Cederblom
Last year, after two-time world champion John John Florence launched his own apparel line he introduced it to the South Bay at the Spyder-owned art gallery around the corner from Spyder’s Manhattan Beach store. A highlight of Florence’s line is a hooded rash guard, which few surfers would have worn until Florence showed up in one at Pipeline. Now Florence’s hooded rash guards are hard to keep in stock, a problem O’Reilly solved by introducing a hooded rash guard to Spyder’s own apparel line.
Spyder protects its core image by carrying cutting edge wetsuits, including the fused Rip Curl wetsuits whose innovative stitchless and zipless construction minimizes leakage, and Capita snowboards, whose innovative camber makes them both faster and easier to control.
Spyder Surf founder Dennis Jarvis, winner of this year’s Best Shop Shaper vote, has long been known as an influential shaper for the sport’s top pros. But his reputation received a sharp boost this year for a board he made. The board was presented to the winner of the 2019 Teen Choice Awards, held on the beach in Hermosa. The winner was a rising rock star named Taylor Swift.
Spyder
65 Pier Ave.
Hermosa Beach
2461 Pacific Coast Hwy.
Hermosa Beach
1116 Manhattan Ave.
Manhattan Beach
(310) 374-2494
Jewelry Shop
Morgan’s Jewelers
M is for marriage, and M is for Morgan’s.
So it’s fitting that couples flock to the South Bay’s best jeweler to get caring, expert help finding the best wedding bands.
Options run through the classic and contemporary ranges, offering couples the freedom to express their unique individuality with their choices.
The family jeweler, founded in 1946, maintains its competitive prices by serving as a direct importer for items ranging from engagement rings, wedding bands, timepieces, and fashion jewelry such as necklaces, earrings, bracelets and rings.
Morgan’s website includes extensive general information about diamonds, pearls, precious metals and watches (What’s the difference between a chronograph, a chronometer, and a tourbillon?).
Morgan’s also offers jewelry cleaning, repair, appraisals and custom design.
Morgan’s Jewelers
22200 Hawthorne Blvd.
Torrance
(310) 375-4471
Gift Shop
Fringe
Our readers placed Fringe in the mainstream of their affections, praising the distinctive gift selection that stands alongside one-of-a-kind furniture pieces and other home décor.
“We carry a lot of local artists,” including painters, photographers and jewelers, said Debbie Talosi, who co-owns the store with Laura Hofmann.
Talosi said Fringe serves as a “go-to gift store” for gifts $5 and up, including candles, jewelry, salad bowls, glassware and barware.
Fringe has served the South Bay from its Catalina Avenue location for the past 15 years, with a strong emphasis on continuously new and attractive items.
“We have boxes coming in every day,” Talosi said. “There’s always something new and different coming in the door.”
Fringe
1806 Catalina Ave.
Redondo Beach
(310) 316-9100
Flower Shop
Rolling Hills Flower Mart
Our readers raved about the beautiful flower and plant choices, and the copious options to celebrate birthdays and other special occasions, offer sympathy, or send a thank-you gift basket.
The Flower Mart’s website is a feast for the eyes, with bountiful photos of roses, lilies, daisies and more. The effects range from effulgent splashes of red, orange, sunflower and purple to soft, subdued, peach and muted pinks and greens.
One Yelper wrote that she visited the Flower Mart for “a large bouquet for our new vet office who saved our cat’s life.”
“I asked for something happy and joyful for the [vet’s] staff to look at, and boy did they deliver. Our vet called us ecstatic and loved them! It was a hit.”
Yelpers also raved about reliable same-day service and a “killer” assortment of cards.
Rolling Hills Flower Mart
231 Vista Del Mar
Redondo Beach
(310) 540-3333
1016 Manhattan Ave.
Manhattan Beach
(310) 937-7377
Shopping Center
Del Amo Fashion Center
Embrace the coastal chic lifestyle at Del Amo Fashion Center, the South Bay’s premier retail destination. It offers more than 250 specialty and department stores, including South Bay exclusives such as Nordstrom, Zara, Uniqlo, Arhaus, Kate Spade New York, and Hugo Boss. Experience the charm of our Outdoor Village for an array of retail and dining options.
Del Amo Mall
3525 W Carson St.
Torrance
(310) 542-8525
simon.com/mall/del-amo-fashion-center
Women’s Clothing
Ribbons
Ribbons still retains the small town feel of Riviera Village in 1981, when Leah Shirejian opened her women’s boutique clothing and accessories store. Cashiers still hand-write receipts and gift-wrap purchases for free. Customers call themselves “Ribonettes.”
“Listening to what our customers want and feedback they give is very important to us,” a store spokesperson said. “We’ll often have three generations of a family come spend the afternoon shopping here and each one can leave with a pink Ribbons bag full of fun new items.”
Ribbons
1909 S. Catalina Ave.
Redondo Beach
(310) 373-4401
@ribbonsboutique81
Paul’s Photos offers instructional photo tours locally, nationally and internationally. A recent tour went to Canada to photograph the Northern Lights. Photo courtesy of Paul’s Photo
Camera shop
Paul’s Photo
Think of the joy old photos bring. Don’t let dumb mistakes deny you that joy.
Paul’s Photo has spent six decades helping people to find joy in their photographs, a service no longer common.
Here are some suggestions from Paul’s second generation owner Mark Comon.
Charge the batteries.
Pay attention to the lighting in movies. Light your subjects if the available light is bad. Compact lights are small enough to carry and work well with phone camera as well as the newest mirrorless cameras.
Get a full frame mirrorless camera. They are smaller, faster shooting and easier to use than didgital SLRs. And they take better video than old camcorders.
Process your photos using Adobe Photoshop or Adobe Lightroom. They are not hard to learn and they are better than the free programs that come with your camera.
To get the most joy out of your photography, take a class
Paul’s Creative Photo Academy offers beginning and advanced classes for iPhones as well as cameras.
It also offers Camera Walkabouts locally, photo excursions nationally and internationally.
Mark emailed this advice from Canada where he led class in photographing the Northern Lights.
Photography Store
Paul’s Photo
23845 Hawthorne Blvd.
Torrance
(310) 375-7014
Paulsphoto.com
Antique Shop
Stars Antique Market
Our readers once again heaped praise upon the three-decade institution in a homey, barn-style building on upper Pier Avenue.
Some 50 antique dealers occupy spaces in the 7,000-foot display area, providing a wide selection of antiques and collectibles, with new items rotating in on a regular basis.
The dealers also work behind the counter.
“We’re basically a co-op,” said Mike Molen, who co-owns the store with wife Bonnie Moton.
(“Our names are so similar we just kept them,” Mike said. “We both just became ‘Molten.’”)
The store’s dealers “all have their own method of shopping, and bringing in what they think are great items,” Molen said.
The wide variety is enhanced by a number of younger buyers, whose sensibilities augment those of their older colleagues.
An online store displays items such as a graceful and handsome German Arts & Crafts bowl, a Bakelite poker set right out of a time machine, and a vintage Housewife Barbie that takes the beholder straight back to the mid-century.
An Instagram account (@starsantiquemarket) keeps antique lovers up to date on the brick-and-mortar store’s rotating stock.
Stars Antique Market
526 Pier Ave.
Hermosa Beach
(310) 318-2800
Nursery
Deep Roots Garden Center and Florist
Deep Roots may be the most accurately named business in the South Bay. The sprawling compound at the corner of Sepulveda and 2nd Street in Manhattan Beach has been a plant nursery for six decades. Jon Bell, who began working at the nursery when he was 15 — bought the business in 2009, at 28, and re-named it Deep Roots. The nursery, which is also a floral shop, carries seeds, tools, organic fertilizers, pots of every size, chimes, garden boxes, bulbs, birdhouses, and offers landscaping and floral design services, as well as a full-time florist, regular workshops, and educational outreach.
“We are really customer service oriented,” said Bell. “We like to treat our customers like family as much as we can. And we’re trying to do our best to offer sustainable plants that are good for California.”
Bell has relationships with some of his customers that go back decades. But Deep Roots does not rest on its laurels – which include winning every Best of the Beach since 2011 – but instead is always evolving, always looking for new ways to meet the needs of its customers.
“We are honored to once again be voted Best Nursery in the South Bay,” Bell said. “As lifelong members of the community we share a bond with our customers that goes beyond our store. We have formed real and lasting friendships and make new ones on a daily basis. We strive to provide the community with a destination for inspiration and a resource for knowledge. Our heartfelt thanks go out to all those that voted for us and we look forward to our future with the South Bay.”
Deep Roots Garden Center & Florist
207 N. Sepulveda Blvd.
Manhattan Beach
(310) 376-0567