Riviera Village – Arlo Guthrie once sang that you can get anything you want at Alice’s Restaurant. But the truth is that you really can get anything you want in Redondo Beach’s Riviera Village.
The south Redondo business district has 300 stores in which you can get a bewildering assortment of things: burgers, books, paintings, jewelry, dresses, suits, coffee, crepes, running shoes, baguettes, pasties, lawyers, dentists, accountants, realtors, fine wines, massages, cakes, haircuts, doctors, cheap wines, glasses, dry cleaning, vegetarian food, cheese, beers, balloons, flowers, and even dirt.
But the Riviera Village is one of the places that is more than the sum of its parts. It’s a neighborhood that just has that certain thing, that certain sense of place that somehow has both the laid back vibe of a village and the wide open possibilities of a cosmopolitan city.
Redondo City Councilman Steve Aspel said that calling the Village the Best of the Beach may even undershoot the mark. “I would say it’s the best neighborhood shopping in all of California,” said Aspel. “I love all the restaurants and store…It’s a very relaxing place. Pretty much I’m in the village every five out of seven days. We shop there, we eat there, and we drink there. For me, there is no point going north – I pretty much live my entire social live in the Riviera Village. Even my wife thinks that’s kind of kinky.”
Aspel isn’t alone. The Village, located a block from some of the best ocean sunset views anywhere, has almost a lifestyle unto itself. City planners like to talk about creating “pedestrian friendly” neighborhoods. The Village walks the walk: people in the area can go days without getting in a car.
“Walking to dinner or to your favorite watering hole gives you a feeling of belonging,” Chez Melange restaurant owner Michael Franks told the Village’s Business Improvement District president Ellen Engleke in an essay she wrote earlier this year. “….The Village is not just for convenience, but supports a certain lifestyle: walking to buy pastries and coffee in the morning, sitting outside, one block from the beach…Life is good.”
See www.rivieravillage.org for more on the Village.
Runner up:
Downtown Manhattan Beach. See www.downtownmanhattanbeach.com for more about the business district
