SANTA MONICA, Calif. [October 2, 2019] – Fall is a delightful time to visit the beach city of Santa Monica. While the sun continues to shine in Los Angeles throughout the autumn months, the subtle season changes make Santa Monica all the more inviting to enjoy the harvest season. Featuring fewer crowds and more temperate weather to explore the beauty and attractions of the city, visitors can take advantage of incredible new eats, hotel offerings, and cultural events and festivals celebrating the season.
HOTELS
Fairmont Miramar Hotel & Bungalows (Wilshire Blvd.) – New at Fairmont Miramar Hotel & Bungalows is the much-anticipated second location of Dogtown Coffee, a local coffee shop honoring the Z-Boys’ skateboard and surf culture. Joining Santa Monica’s historically rich landmark, Dogtown Coffee has opened a small new café space inside the hotel. The Fairmont Miramar serves as a fitting place for Dogtown’s exclusive new outpost thanks to its location. Just like the original Dogtown Coffee on Main Street, the beach is just a short distance away, and this influence can be seen on Dogtown’s menu. Hand-held wraps, sandwiches, and breakfast burritos are the stars here, all foods that can be taken down to and eaten at the beach. In addition to breakfast and lunch foods, the menu features drip coffee and espresso drinks.
Fairmont-miramar.com
FOOD & BEVERAGE
Chez Jay Backyard (Pier/Ocean Ave.) – Santa Monica’s iconic restaurant, Chez Jay, celebrates its 60th anniversary this fall with the grand opening of The Backyard at Chez Jay. The Backyard is a new patio hangout featuring more seating, ocean breezes, and an entirely new food and drink menu. The Backyard was designed by Chris Anderson and Nataly Lopez with the thoughtful mission to create a comfortable and welcoming gathering space for family, friends and longtime guests of Chez Jay. The Backyard features an outdoor lounge vibe complete with picnic tables, couches, Adirondack chairs, a fire pit, and string lights. On the Backyard’s menu, you’ll find dishes like kimchi guacamole, shrimp ceviche, truffle fries, fried chicken sandwich, and more traditional beach fare like fish and chips and a burger. There will also be all-new cocktails, including plenty of classics like margaritas and an old fashioned.
Chezjays.com
Colapasta (Downtown Santa Monica) – Colapasta is Santa Monica’s new creative trattoria, specializing in fresh house-made pasta near Third Street Promenade. Colapasta is a concept from Michelin-starred chef Stefano De Lorenzo, formerly of La Botte and Piccolo. A seasoned Italian chef, De Lorenzo finds inspiration at the local Santa Monica Farmers Market. Featuring a casual, beachy vibe, the affordable dining spot offers a simplistic menu with one soup, two salads and eight kinds of pasta, one of which is gluten-free with a choice of three different sauces.
Colapasta.restaurant
Erin McKenna’s Bakery (Montana Ave.) – Erin McKenna has opened a gluten-free, vegan bakery in Santa Monica. The new Montana Avenue bakery is the second Los Angeles location of Erin McKenna’s Bakery and features a significant expansion with eight tables and chairs and banquette seating in a cozy dining area. Also new is a breakfast menu featuring waffles, pancakes, and French toast as well as a lunch and dinner menu that includes pizza, salads, roasted vegetables, mac and cheese, and avocado toast. The shop offers beer and an organic vegan wine selection as well.
Erinmckennasbakery.com
Fia Restaurant (Wilshire Blvd.) – Fia is a landmark culinary collaboration between seasoned restaurateur Michael Greco and Michelin-starred chef Brendan Collins. Opening in the former Wilshire Restaurant space, Fia taps coastal Californian and coastal Italian influences, in a stunning indoor-outdoor space located in the heart of Santa Monica. The lengthy menu hops the globe around six categories, featuring everything from a vegan lasagna made with Beyond Meat Bolognese, a seven-day beef shank to share and Calabrian tuna atop crispy risotto. Fia is open for dinner, with a cocktail hour, late-night patio hangouts, and weekend brunch to come.
Fiarestaurant.com
Lanea (Downtown Santa Monica) – A bright and cheery addition to Santa Monica’s downtown scene is Lanea, a new cocktail bar bringing the spirit of Mexico to Santa Monica with a hand-selection of Tequilas, Mezcals, and authentic cuisine from East LA family-run Barba Kush. Located in the former Copa d’Oro space, Lanea offers a way to retreat from one’s day to day life and relax with a chilled cocktail, tacos, and barbacoa in hand. Lanea has partnered with the Zavaleta family to bring traditional Mexican cuisine from Barba Kush to Santa Monica. Along with their classics, the Zavaleta family will serve five different styles of tacos on their handmade to order corn tortillas, chips and guacamole, and breakfast tacos on the weekend. The cocktail program, curated by Beverage Director, Bethany Ham (previously of Clifton’s Cafeteria) is straightforward and incorporates wellness driven ingredients, taking advantage of having the Santa Monica Farmers Market in the backyard.
Gotolanea.com
EVENTS
Farmers Market Halloween (Santa Monica) – For an idyllic Santa Monica Halloween tradition, head over to the Downtown Santa Monica Farmers Market for its annual “all-you-can-carry” pumpkin patch shopping event on October 30. Grab as many pumpkins as you can carry and pay one price ($5). Walk the red carpet to show off your haul. Costumes are encouraged. After you’ve wrangled your pumpkins, head over to the kid-favorite no-carve decorating event at Main Street and Pico Boulevard Farmers Market- this is something not to be missed!
SantaMonica.com
IndieCade Festival 2019 (Mid-City) – IndieCade Festival, the premier event dedicated to celebrating independent games, returns to Santa Monica from October 10 through October 12. Held at Santa Monica College Center for Media and Design, IndieCade offers the unique opportunity to play and preview hundreds of the latest indie games and innovations, many of which are seen first or can only be played at IndieCade. The festival is filled with the opportunity to play a multitude of games from around the world, attend talks and events, interact with creators of new titles, as well as legends from across the industry, enjoy music, and so much more. IndieCade also hosts an in-depth game developer summit, conference sessions, educational workshops, business networking, social activities, tournaments, and entertainment.
Indiecade.com
Pier del Sol (Pier/Ocean Ave.) – Pier del Sol is an exciting and unique day of fun on the historic Santa Monica Pier and Pacific Park. Held on October 6, Pier del Sol is a culinary festival fused with a backyard private Amusement Park experience. Attendees can enjoy an exclusive VIP brunch featuring mouthwatering tastings from over 35 of L.A.’s top Chefs and restaurants, entertainment, music, arts & crafts, games, and unlimited rides at Pacific Park. The annual event is hosted by Special Olympics Southern California, with proceeds from the event going to programs providing year-round sports training and competition for children and adults with intellectual disabilities. The Special Olympics Southern California enriches the lives of athletes with intellectual disabilities and their communities through sports, education, and athlete health.
Sosc.org
The BFF: Binge Free Festival of Theatre (Downtown Santa Monica) – This October, Santa Monica Playhouse presents The BFF aka The Binge Free Festival of Theatre. Running October 12 through October 27, The BFF is the fourth annual Santa Monica fringe festival featuring at least three dozen Los Angeles and Santa Monica based artists. Productions and workshops from the festival touch on a diverse range of subjects from political to personal, love to loss, sensuality to spiritual, hierarchy to hope. The BFF also includes an overflowing toy-box of family-friendly events and productions, to bring all generations together on and off the stage. Inclusive theatre arts workshops for youth and adults are also on offer throughout the fest. All tickets and admissions to every single BFF event are free to the public.
Santamonicaplayhouse.com
Rated R (Santa Monica Pier) – New for Halloween 2019! Rated R at the Santa Monica Pier Carousel House will feature all the macabre madness, titillating terrors and scintillating cinema that guests have come to know and love from this Los Angeles speakeasy. Adding to the program this year is a Halloween Costume Contest, special guests, exciting surprises and horror giveaways. Ticekts are $20 and available or purchase online. This event is for guests 21 and over.
Ratedrspeakeasy.com
HEALTH & WELLNESS
Ritual Gym (Wilshire Blvd.) – The Singapore-born Ritual Gym has opened its first U.S. location in Santa Monica. The “30-minute” gym located on Wilshire Boulevard, serves as a solution for one of the most common excuses for not exercising – time. Ritual packs in a warm-up, high-intensity interval training workout, and shower in spa-grade facilities in a half hour. Ritual features four levels of progression so anyone from an elite athlete to a complete beginner can have a challenging yet individualized session. Coaches are trained to adjust daily programs according to the specific needs of each member, and class size is capped at ten, so everyone gets plenty of personal attention. Training sessions run every 30 minutes, from morning until evening, with over 150 sessions every week.
Ritualgym.com
Santa Monica Travel & Tourism (SMTT) is a non-profit organization designed to increase visitor expenditures, tourism revenues and local employment opportunities through the promotion of Santa Monica as a travel destination. For travel and accommodation information or a free copy of the official Visitors Guide, the public can write to the Santa Monica Visitor Center, 2427 Main Street, Santa Monica, CA 90405; call (310) 319-6263; visit www.santamonica.com; or email info@santamonica.com. Follow SMTT on Instagram (@SeeSantaMonica), Twitter (@GoSantaMonica) or Facebook (@VisitSantaMonica).
Contact: Lauren Salisbury
Santa Monica Travel & Tourism
310-319-6263
lsalisbury@santamonica.com
