Empty Bars Now Fill On Once-Thriving Pier Ave.
These days, tho, once-bustling South Bay Beach City is more like a bust. Once one of the top nightlife meccas of Los Angeles, Hermosa Beach is now a tiger with its stripes removed, a lion that’s turned into a mouse.
On weekends, there are manageable lines at the “Big 3” bars – American Junkie, Patrick Molloy’s and Sharkeez – while other places sit more than half empty. Go during the week and you could roll bowling balls down Pier Plaza and not knock over anyone.
Here’s one example: on a Thursday night in October it was so quiet you could practically hear the ocean breeze blowing against the palm trees. For a long time, Thursdays were a very lively time to be at the pier. Plus, on this night the Dodgers were playing an elimination game in the MLB Playoffs; you could think there would be a lot of people cheering in the bars. But the bars were as calm as if it were a Monday night in the middle of winter.
It begs these questions: where have all the people gone and what’s the future of Hermosa Beach’s nightlife?
The people are still around but they are simply going out elsewhere or staying at home to socialize with friends. They have lost their homing beacon for the pier, and that could pose long-term problems for Hermosa.
If and when Redondo Beach ever gets the pier waterfront redevelopment project built, then that will become the South Bay’s top nightlife destination. The recent opening of Shade Hotel in Redondo Beach is already pulling people away from Hermosa.
Hermosa Beach isn’t doing itself any favors by running off tourists with its new and strict policy against short-term rentals. It’s also had discussions about closing the bars at midnight (as it is now, you can’t have a drink in your hand past about 1:15 a.m.), and this and other anti-nightlife talk and actions have caused people to simply turn away from Hermosa for other cities in the South Bay and elsewhere.
The pier area is also in need of something new and exciting to draw in people. That’s actually coming in January when the beach lounge Tower 12 opens in the former Fat Face Fenner’s location.
It’s not as if nobody goes out in Hermosa anymore. In addition to American Junkie, Molloy’s and Sharkeez, the Mermaid has become somewhat of a hotspot for locals, mostly during its daily Happy Hours when you can get the Drink of the Week for 5 bucks.
When The Deck – right on The Strand – has a band on weekends, the place is jamming. So, too, is the live music venue Standing Room. Most weekend nights, anyway. And locals love Barnacles on 8th & Hermosa Ave., four blocks from the pier.
Plus, there’s Saturday afternoons when transplanted alumni go to the bars to watch their college football team and Sunday mornings into the afternoons when transplanted Midwesterners and East Coasters fill the “Big 3” bars to watch their NFL team and take advantage of breakfast-mimosa specials.
Plus there’s the lively times during special events such as Smackfest and the Summer Concert Series.
But on an overall, night-to-night basis, the pier and surrounding area is quiet. So quiet, it’s almost eerie. And that’s a frightening reality for the bars and restaurants at and around the pier.
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