‘Burgers, Bacon & Beer’ To Be By The Pier
Known for years as the dark booth restaurant and bar on the beach with fantastic food (in particular those sensational sauteed mushrooms) and then as a killer place for the best cocktails in town (including the remarkable $5 “Drink of the Week”), the Mermaid is now going to be a burger joint.
Specifically, Slaters 50/50 burgers, which is slated to move into the prime space on The Strand at the Hermosa Beach Pier in April.
Slaters 50/50, which originally opened in Anaheim and has now expanded to a chain operated by Michael Nakleh’s Elite Restaurant Group of Los Angeles, has signed a five-year lease with the property.
Its slogan is “burgers, bacon and beer.” Its burgers are made with 50 percent ground beef and 50 percent bacon. Expect a lot of craft beers, too, in order to wash down those juicy “guess I had better play about 10 games of volleyball tomorrow” burgers.
There is, of course, a big hotel project in the works that includes this property, so it’s unclear what might become of Slaters if and when that happens but for now, this is what will be at this iconic and prized South Bay location.
Nakleh told the Beach Reporter the company wants to keep the Mermaid’s “old-school vibe,” while adding, “there’s a back dining area. We’re going to have a tribute room to the old Mermaid because we know it was very popular in the area and it’s been around for a very long time.
“We kind of want to give that room something, and that’s what we’ve asked the designers to give an homage to the Mermaid.”
If he really wants to give an homage to the Mermaid, he should re-hire those bartenders and bring back the Drink of the Week.
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