If you love mexican you can walk right down to the pier and eat at Catina Real.Great food and margueritas. You can also sit at tables outside here. Another restaurant that we enjoyed on the pier is Hermosa Fish Market Cafe.

Okay,First let me help Karen VK, I'll try to answer some of your reminiscing questions (I probably played VB with you in Hermosa around the same time -22nd or 8th St?)

Good Stuff actually has a webcam, so you can check out the Strand in real time www.eatgoodstuff.com

Fat Face Fenner's Falloon is no longer there, there's a place called Barnacles. However, they did open a FFF Fishshack in an upstairs location on Pier Ave. Even though it is now a seafood restaurant, they still have that signature burger on the menu.

The Bijou movie theater building has been converted to office space and a large art gallery. The Fiesta Hermosa still runs every Mem. Day and Labor Day weekend.

Louise's is gone. LaBrea bakery went into that space and also failed.

Now for denij7: 1st thing to know, pretty much every restaurant in HB is "casual attire" I second the recommendations for Bottle Inn on 22nd, also Martha's across the St. I also like the Fish Market Cafe (not FFFF)- very casual on Pier Ave. Hennessey's has pub food. The Beach Hut on the corner of 14th & Hermosa is a fun Hawaiin surfer-style place.

Here's the bottle inn website: http://www.thebottleinn.com

Yes, Martha's is good. Amusing story though...I had never eaten a turkey burger until I ordered one there. My friend doesn't eat red meat, so I humored her and ordered a turkey burger. I bit into it and it was great! She bit into hers and said "Mina, they took the order wrong...these are meat." Well, duh...no wonder! So I did never get to try their turkey burgers....

mina, I live in N. VA now (about 40 minutes from DC). Still think about Hermosa often but glad I'm not raising kids there. Sorry to hear Fenner's is now gone. Sushi Sei was the best as was California Sushi. LVK, mostlyl played volleyball at 2nd (are the nets still there? My now hubby used to get sandwiches at Mickie's after a morning of playing). Also, what was the name of the british type pub (it was a girls name)...pub with darts in the back and upstairs...that was fun...
Wings of the West had great buffalo wings...i'm guessing that's no longer there. And I shouldn't even admit to hanging out at the Pitcher House on PCH...they only served beer, with sawdust on the floor but I lived around the corner and became a pool shark there...friends are still amazed!

You guys are great! Thanks so much. I just printed it out for my husband to read & he says he can't believe that people will take the time to be so helpful (he never surfs message boards).

Well denij7, you sure have lots of options to choose from eh?

Pitcher House? I just went there two weeks ago for the first time! They have a full bar now, and someone joked the other day that it might be safer to drink spirits because they haven't cleaned the taps in who knows how long.

Funny how I'm still discovering old haunts, and I've lived here nearly all my life. I guess I don't get out much. I think Hermosa would be a great place to raise kids...if one could afford it!

The pitcher house is still there? Scary thought. Too many memories (and some i can't even remember). Still remember taking a volleyball clinic at the high school where the Smothers brothers went...
Is Penguin's frozen yogurt still in the Vons shopping center?

One of the dubious virtues of advancing age is the ability to affect a Pa Kettle accent (ye-up) and talk about the days when...

I imagine a decreasing number of visitors to downtown Hermosa have much of an idea of how hip the place once was. The Lighthouse was the Birdland of the west coast - the place for jazz - Mingus, Parker, you name it. Throughout the 50s it drew talent from all over the world and put Hermosa forever on the world music map.

Across the street was a 24-hour coffee house/bookstore/music venue/beatnik hangout called the Insomniac where the likes of Linda Ronstadt and the Chambers Brothers spent their late adolescence. During highschool we would ride our bikes down there and watch the hep cats with their bongos (really) - and watch the seriously groovy crowd file into the Lighthouse around midnight for the jams. The Insomniac was SoCal's answer to the City Lights bookstore in SF, and in some ways Hermosa was LA's tiny version of the Village, except that the street people were layabout surfers, some of them friends. Ye-up.

The Pitcher House, Cue-n-Brew and Hermosa Saloon always kind of blend together in my memory. As long as we're doing a dive bar retrospective, how about the Poop Deck, Critters and the HBYC (not a yacht in sight!)

The English Pub was Bestie's, named after English Soccer Player George Best, now renamed and under new ownership.

If you cross Hermosa Ave and head east on Pier, there are more interesting places, such as Fritto Misto (casual Italian) a Crepe Place, Ragin Cajun. Right off Pier on Manhattan Ave is another interesting place-- Union Cattle Co. It's a steak house with a mechanical bull. Haven't tried it yet, but friends say the the steaks are good and the bull is a hoot!