Start at the base of the pier and walk toward Pier Avenue. Four storefronts inside that short loop have seen changes over the past several months, and each is taking on a distinct identity. The bar that ran two decades of surf culture through its doors is gone. The seafood counter that anchored the corner is gone. What's replacing them isn't accidental variety. It's one clear direction, arriving from a handful of the same people, at the exact moment the city's outdoor event calendar goes quiet for the year.
If you've noticed a favorite spot dark and wondered what's coming, here's the fuller picture, plus what's left on the calendar before Hermosa settles into its quieter months.
Four Addresses, One Six-Month Window
The turnover isn't spread across town. It's stacked inside a five-minute walk of the pier, and it's happening on a timeline tight enough that a local doing a normal weekly loop would notice the change in real time.
| Old tenant | Becoming | What's different |
|---|---|---|
| Waterman's Safe House for Surfers (closed August 27 after 18 years) | Brick and Mortar | Art deco theme leaning into the century-old Pier Plaza building, quarterly seasonal California menu |
| Playa Hermosa Fish & Oyster Co. | Kasamar | Coastal-inspired tavern concept from co-founder Stephanie De Los Santos, no confirmed opening date yet |
| Slay Hermosa | Sushi Bar | Omakase experience built around highly curated, seasonal tasting menus |
| 73 Pier Ave (new build-out) | Tiki Kai | Now open, from the team behind Hula Hula Room, Eat at Joe's, Paddy O'Brien's, and The Bounty Room |
Three of these four moves bring new dining concepts to existing storefronts. The fourth, Tiki Kai, is a bar concept with a designed, themed build-out.
One Operator, Two Storefronts on the Same Plaza
Here's the detail that's easy to miss if you only track restaurants one at a time: Brick and Mortar isn't an outside group moving in. It's owner Justin Safier, who already runs Vista directly across the plaza, opening a second concept in the space Waterman's left behind. Safier has described the direction as closer to Roaring '20s Palm Springs than beach bar, which tracks with the building itself. The Pier Plaza structure Waterman's occupied for 18 years is a century old, and the new concept is built to lean into that architecture rather than cover it up.
Chef Andrew Adams, who also runs the kitchen at Vista, is handling the menu at Brick and Mortar too. He's planning a California-driven lineup that changes with the produce each quarter. That's two restaurants, one plaza, one kitchen lead, and a shared point of view about what this stretch of Pier Avenue should feel like next year. When one operator controls two storefronts across the same public square, that's not a single restaurant opening. That's a bet on the direction of the whole block.
The Track Record Already Exists a Block Away
None of this is a gamble on an unproven idea. Hermosa Beach's chef-driven dining scene already has a track record within a short walk of the pier, and it predates this fall's turnover by several years.
Vin Folk, a small family-run bistro on Hermosa Avenue that debuted in November 2024, has since earned a Michelin Bib Gourmand distinction and a Los Angeles Times review that put "culinary destination" in the headline. AttaGirl and Stecca Taverna opened in the same stretch of years, alongside Redwood Pie, a pizza spot that's built its own following. Ryla arrived in 2022, a partnership between chefs Ray Hayashi and Cynthia Hetlinger and the Simms Restaurant Group, the team behind Manhattan Beach staples like M.B. Post, Fishing With Dynamite, Simmzy's, Tin Roof Bistro, and The Arthur J.
Baran's 2239 has been doing upscale New American food in Hermosa since 2016, long enough that chef and partner Tyler Gugliotta has watched the whole shift happen from the inside. The four spaces changing this fall aren't testing whether Hermosa wants this kind of dining. That question got answered a few years ago.
Tiki Kai Skipped the Wait
While the other three spaces are still mid-transition, Tiki Kai is already open at 73 Pier Ave, running 4 p.m. to 11 p.m. Monday through Thursday, until midnight Friday and Saturday, and closing at 10 p.m. on Sunday. It comes from the hospitality group behind Hula Hula Room, Eat at Joe's, Paddy O'Brien's Irish Pub, and The Bounty Room, so the operators know the pier crowd well.
The detail worth a slower look on your way past: the front door was hand-carved by Peter Asmar of Asmar Studios. It's the kind of thing you'd walk by without noticing unless someone pointed it out, and it fits the pattern of this fall's openings. The bar is still a bar, but its design gives the space a distinct character.
The Season's Last Big Draws Are Already on the Calendar
The restaurant handoff isn't happening in isolation. It's landing right as Hermosa's outdoor event calendar winds down for the year, and the timing lines up almost too neatly.
The Hermosa Beach Concert Series runs its Sunset Concerts on the sand south of the pier on the two Sundays following Labor Day weekend, free and open, chairs and coolers welcome. The second and final show of the year has already taken place, and the stage teardown was scheduled for the days right after. Coastal Cleanup Day follows on September 26 at Schumacher Plaza, spanning both sides of the pier. From there, the calendar shifts to fall proper: Pumpkins in the Park at Edith Rodaway Park on October 10, and the Skechers Pier to Pier Friendship Walk along the Strand and through Pier Plaza on October 18.
One more date worth knowing if you care about the neighborhood's surf history: this year's Surfers Walk of Fame induction goes to John Van Hamersveld, the designer behind the Endless Summer poster and album covers for the Rolling Stones, the Beatles, and Jefferson Airplane. It's a small irony worth sitting with. The same season Hermosa retires an 18-year-old surf bar, it's formally honoring one of surf culture's own design legends. The neighborhood isn't walking away from its surf roots. It's expressing that identity in different ways, at the bar and on the wall.
What It Adds Up To
None of these four changes would mean much on their own. A restaurant closes, a new one opens, that's every commercial strip in every coastal town. What makes this fall different is the clustering: four storefronts inside one short walk, one operator opening a new concept alongside an existing restaurant on the same plaza, and a fall calendar that's about to hand the pier's foot traffic from festival crowds back to dinner reservations. If you've lived here long enough to remember when this stretch was mostly flip-flops and pitchers, the next few months are worth walking through slowly. The block is telling you what it wants to be next.
Schneider Properties keeps a close eye on these shifts because they're part of what makes the Beach Cities worth paying attention to, block by block and season by season. If you're curious how a changing commercial corridor like this one tends to shape the neighborhoods around it, or you just want to talk shop about what's opening next, Schneider Properties is always happy to compare notes.
