Bar And Restaurant On The South Bay Strand To Remain Open On Weekends
It was a mixed marriage to begin with, a long-standing dive bar being sold to a big-time developer.
Perhaps the Party Gods decided it wasn’t the right time or place.
So for now The Mermaid remains, well, The Mermaid.
“The escrow agreement between investment group One Pier Avenue LLC and Mermaid owner Diana Albergate, representative of the Thelen Family Trust, has come to an end,” reported The Beach Reporter. “Albergate said the property is no longer in escrow and that she is actively looking for a buyer. The Mermaid will remain open on weekends until a sale is final.”
Well, so much for those grand plans of turning this prized property on the Hermosa Beach Strand into a big, modern (and, no doubt, expensive) hotel. For now, we’ll have to settle for what the Mermaid has been for decades, a throwback-to-the-60’s bar and restaurant with old-time bartenders and waitresses, a dark and dingy place with a big leather booths, a piano and a PacMan machine.
And the funny thing is that the young and fun people of the South Bay kind of prefer it this way. Sure, places like Strand House in Manhattan Beach are surely nice and classy, but there’s also something to be said for a place where you can walk in with sand trailing off the sandals and sit down to have a cold Budweiser without having to primp in front of the mirror looking perfect going into a bar.
You can be yourself, which for many locals, is just the way they prefer things to be here. Well, okay, the guys anyway. The girls get frustrated that the men don’t like to dress up to go out, and The Mermaid give the guys another excuse to remain casual.
Plus, with the lines and non-locals rolling into the bars on the Hermosa Pier each weekend, it’s even nicer to have a place to go that’s not appealing to those looking to party and dance to hip DJ club music. The Mermaid remaining The Mermaid means Hermosa Beach is still hanging to its laid-back heritage.
And here’s something else about The Mermaid. The food is fantastic. Especially those sauteed mushroom.
Here’s a big tip about the Mermaid: Guys, feed those sauteed mushrooms to the girls and they won’t care how casually you are dressed.
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