by Michael Santomieri
A simple stroll through the Hermosa Beach downtown can be a clarifying moment for anyone who cares to notice. Sangria, a 15 year icon and one of the sentinel points of Hermosa’s 1995 revitalization, is surrounded by 25-foot high boards. Hammering sawing, stuccoing and welding are plainly audible on the Plaza.
The relatively new stone and sand colors of the post-fire Sharkeez looms next to it. A newly refurbished Patrick Molloy’s stands steps away from the familiar orange Planning Commission sign affixed to The Lighthouse, signaling yet another renewal project, this one at the grand dame of jazz and Hermosa’s music history. A few steps further west and it’s clear that Hennessey’s has refinished its storefront. Waterman’s has revamped the former Dragon and features skateboard racks, clear, glassy epoxy tables and imported teak from Indonesia.
On the north side of the Plaza, witness the glittering new Palmilla, Ron and Greg Newman’s offering of boutique tequila brands and educated Mexican flavors. Upstairs, Fat Face Fenner’s sports a new front face and signage. Mediterraneo, just a few short years ago, the new kid on the block, now stands as a stable watermark of Greek-Roman architecture, still with clean lines and blue and white colors of the Mediterranean.
The same trends are at work on Hermosa Avenue. Chef Melba persists in presenting her erudite take on Central American favorites. Establishment steps into the Blue 32 Spot. A new cupcake store moves into the former Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf. A cosmetic store replaces Lotus yogurt. Hot’s Kitchen takes hold in a long troubled Hermosa Avenue location south Pier. Abigaile, Ocean Club, The Rockefeller and Crème de la Crepe and Buona Vita Tratoria dress up Upper Pier.
From bar to bistro
A light bulb went on. The way forward is through the kitchen
Fifteen years after Hermosa’s herculean attempt at revitalizing the Downtown, it’s doing it again, but this time with no city or state funds, no fanfare, and no parking or planning wars. Hermosa is getting a major facelift, store by store, all funded by the downtown business owners, both old and new.
Why all this renewal in the face of tight credit markets and a still nascent economic recovery?
Our dancing/bar scene has been over-emphasized. It’s somewhat automatic and the only impact it has had on the changes you see on the Plaza is in new seating areas — nicer couches, sofas, comfortable chairs. Big glops of patrons standing in open spaces has become so 2002.
Many of us have decided that real progress is not going to come from the bar side. It’s maxed out on weekend nights. Growth and progress has to come from a different sector.
The maturation of the food market is driving many of the changes. It may seem counterintuitive with respect to the entertainment scene on the Plaza, but examples in Manhattan and Redondo have provided inspiration for many of Hermosa’s restaurant/bar managers and owners. Ortega 120, Shade, Simmzy’s, even MB Post showed many of us in Hermosa that guests were ready for the next chapter in food experience.
Young, passionate kitchen crews are manning the grills and hot lines at almost every new (and some older places as well) restaurant and restaurant/bar: Chef Melba, Mediterraneo, Hot’s Kitchen, Abigaile, The Rockefeller, Rok Sushi, Waterman’s, Palmilla. The newer chefs have all been to culinary institutes or hotel schools.
We in the restaurant business all watch Anthony Bourdain, Triple D, Iron Chef and Chopped. We know you do, too. Young people began going to culinary schools at unheard of rates about 10 years ago. After school, many of them either couldn’t cut it in the bureaucratic restaurants of the big city or wanted to bring their talents back home, so they took “second tier” jobs at bars — Sports bars, restaurant/bars, comedy clubs. They revamped sections of so many small towns that Guy Fieri put them on TV.
A new hybrid was born: the gastro pub. It marked a change in thinking. To the sideline went frumpy French chefs with rigid views of what sauce belonged on what fish or meat. Perfectly acceptable was the idea of making a burger from grass- fed, farm raised bison. Grinding your own meat from fresh butchered chuck was now not so tedious or costly. And no one was going to smack you on the head with a paper mache Michelin star if you drank red wine with fish. A new marriage was formed between restaurant and bar operations. Change had come and it was fun.
These factors have made many Hermosa restaurant community members confident that the time is right to move forward.
Socioeconomics are a sub driver, but thankfully, our residents are relatively stable financially. We’ve had no real shifts in average income, population dynamics or average ages.
A major hedge against traditional resistance to change is Hermosa’s influx of the mid-20s to mid 30s population. They arrive without history or prejudice. They are a tabula rasa of sorts and provide another opportunity to make an impression. While localism still rules the day, and longtime establishments with a familiar, stable crew is the goal of all of us, you can experiment and re-make yourself with far less trepidation.
Social media has certainly had its impact. A general manager at one of our most popular restaurant/ bars told me that he got 5 or 6 “likes” on every party-driven posting on Facebook, but got 10 to 15 when posting food pictures.
That’s significant to us.
We’ve heard a lot about teachable moments in the past few years and that development is one of them. It is going to be a major section in the bridge between perception of the Plaza as a late night destination and having a swinging chance at filling seats early, during dining periods.
Another development that has been food-driven social media portals such as Living Social, Groupon and Cloops. They seem to have injected new life into old concepts among younger and middle aged clientele alike. Wine dinners were the rage in the ‘90s, then died out. Hard. By attaching the feeling of an “unbeatable deal” to the concept and new twists engineered by restaurateurs, they are back. Tequila tastings and beer-paired, four course meals that feature smaller portions and great prices also have returned with new vitality.
To most of us in the industry, food, drink and entertainment should move together. Here in the Beach Cities, that takes a lot of work from ownership and management. Guests frequently choose one spot for eating and another for drinking. They often choose yet another place for entertainment. A lucky few had it all working under one roof in Hermosa’s early “Revitalization” days. Living Social and the rest are helping attract earlier food crowds large enough, with deals good enough, to make that happen again.
But what if restaurant/bars invested in good chefs who created the same deals, the same atmosphere and the right energy to…sorry Groupon…make an external artifice unnecessary? Among many of us, a light bulb went on. The way forward is through the kitchen.
It’s almost reflexive in the restaurant/bar industry to build a new look and feel. If you’re going to re-tool the menu and chef, it’s incumbent upon you to create another atmosphere. It’s a cousin of the philosophy of “build it and they will come.”
Large portions of our local dine-out and entertainment-seeking population (and we have among the highest percentage of that market in the country) gauge progress in their social lives by where they don’t go anymore as much as where they go. It’s about change. It’s about moving on. We absolutely have our classic exceptions — Shellback, Mermaid, Ercole’s, Poop Deck. The rest are up for grabs as instruments of renewal.
Those two dynamics — the need of consumers to paint their environments new again and the notion of food as a better marketing tool, a social point of gravitation – have provided most of the impetus for change in the buildings that line the Plaza.
Stay in touch with your local restaurant or restaurant /bar proprietors. They really do talk about what’s next, what you need or what they think you need. If you think an idea is cool, chances are they will, too. Change and progress is a lot more fun when we do it together.
Michael Santomieri is a partner in Sangria Equity Partners/Lucid Entertainment.
