Main Street Is Being Rebuilt for Daylight, Starting at 2640 Main

"During our early conversations, they shared that their nightlife model had run its course at The Victorian, and that families were what Main Street needed next." City Manager Oliver Chi said that about Garner Gerson and Adir Tal, the operators behind The Victorian, in the City of Santa Monica's October 9 announcement.

The Victorian closed after its annual Halloween weekend, ending a 20-year run at 2640 Main St. The building was a restaurant, a wedding venue and a nightclub. The Santa Monica Daily Press described DJs and live music on the basement, main and upstairs floors, plus Salsa Thursdays. The operators approached the city in late 2025 with a plan to leave the late-night model behind. Their move lines up with a broader pattern on the street. The things arriving on Main Street this year open in the morning, close at a reasonable hour, and happen in smaller rooms or out on the pavement.

What the New Lease Keeps Public at 2640 Main

The property belongs to the city. The house was built in 1892 and moved to the site in 1973, Santa Monica Lookout reported. On March 24, the City Council voted 7-0 to transfer the lease from Ocean Park Restaurant Corporation, which had held it since 1978, to Santamonican Club LLC, with Gerson and Tal listed as managers. The building will reopen as The Santa Monican, a family membership club with a pool, a spa and fitness center, a family and youth facility, a coffee bistro, a restaurant and bar, and gardens. Renovation is expected to begin in late 2026, with an opening targeted for mid-2028.

"This building belongs to the city, so we wrote public benefits into its lease," Mayor Caroline Torosis told the Santa Monica Daily Press. The city staff report on the lease and the coverage around it list what the club owes the neighborhood:

• Up to 20% of memberships go free, as scholarship memberships, to qualifying Santa Monica residents, including families, educators and small business owners.
• The site's 25 public parking spaces stay available to the public.
• Public access to the Heritage Museum lawn will not shrink from what it is today.
• The operators must keep current Victorian employees, meet local hiring benchmarks, run a "first job" program for local youth, host free community events and an annual charity gala, and report each year on community benefits.
• The operators plan seasonal events with the city and community groups, including free summer barbecues, Santa Monica Snow Days and holiday celebrations.

The operators also run Calamigos Guest Ranch and Beach Club in Malibu, according to the Lookout. "We want families walking the neighborhood, visiting local shops, having dinner and making memories here," Gerson said in the city's release.

The Sunday Market Is Headed Onto the Pavement

That lot is also where the Main Street Farmers Market sets up. The city lists the market for Sundays from 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., year-round, at 2640 Main St. According to the staff report, vendors use the parking lot plus the driveway and lawn between The Victorian and the Heritage Museum. The new operator has to keep supplying restrooms, storage, power and water for the market.

The bigger change is where the market is going. Under the lease, the city says, "the Sunday Farmers Market will transition to a weekly, open street event on Main Street." A test was scheduled for Sunday, August 23, organized with the Ocean Park Association and the Main Street Business Improvement Association. The Ocean Park Association's preview called it the "First Ocean Park Farmer's Market on Main Street." It listed a 6 a.m. to 4 p.m. street closure, more than a dozen food trucks, and an activated Entertainment Zone. The Aug. 23 update added music and a kids' area to the plan.

The Entertainment Zone explains a lot about what a street market on Main can be. Main Street has its own zone, separate from the one on the Third Street Promenade, running from Pico Boulevard to Dewey Street. It only switches on for approved events. During an activation, drinks have to be bought from participating businesses and served in containers that aren't glass or metal, and they stay inside the activated area. Drinkers must be 21 or older and wear an official wristband. Under the city's May 2026 management plan, activations run from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. unless a special request is approved. The city's Entertainment Zones explainer covers how event-based zones work. The rules show the design. A drink on Main Street is tied to a permitted daytime event and a local business's counter, and the street becomes the gathering space.

The Fall Openings, Address by Address

The city's October release named the arrivals itself. "Main Street has seen a few businesses close this year, as every commercial corridor does. It has also seen a steady run of new openings." Going from north to south, most of the list keeps daytime hours:

Met Her at a Bar is the first Santa Monica location for Mindy and Vinny Kinne, and the city credited it with roughly 100 jobs. Visit Santa Monica describes breakfast, lunch and dinner menus. At Santa Monica Market, owner Amarilia Pivaral told the Santa Monica Daily Press that about 90% of the store has changed since her family bought the former Santa Monica Farms Jr. in summer 2024.

Retail fits the same pattern. Free People opened a Free-est boutique on Main Street with styling appointments. Wildling opened its first brick-and-mortar store in the Edgemar building, offering gua sha tutorials and skin consultations.

Bar Fortuna Brings the Farmers Market Indoors

Brian Bornemann grew up in Ocean Park. His new place at 2917 Main St., in the former Vamos Vamos space between Pier and Ashland avenues, is about a three-minute walk from his seafood restaurant, Crudo e Nudo. Eater LA reported that he built the roughly 40-seat room to make dining out in his neighborhood affordable. He told Eater: "I don't want to replicate a Roman street food dish and charge $34 for it."

The menu has eight pastas made on site with Sonora flour from the Tehachapi Grain Project. Many of the starters come from the Santa Monica Farmers Market: zucchini carpaccio, fennel salad and shrimp-stuffed squash blossoms. Noah Castellanos, owner of Santa Monica's One Cedar, runs the bar and is building a daytime coffee program. JD Plotnick put together the wine list.

The schedule matches the street's direction. Eater lists the full menu from 5 to 10 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday, and from noon to 10 p.m. Friday through Sunday. Late-night bites and cocktails run until midnight. On November 4 the Santa Monica Daily Press reported that bar service now runs to midnight on select nights. "I like walking to the beach so I can hop in the water, I like cooking what I like cooking, and I like doing it here," Bornemann told Eater.

Where Main Street's Evenings Go Now

The nights haven't gone away. They've moved into smaller rooms. Circle Bar has been on Main Street since 1949. It sat dark for nearly three years and reopened at 2926 Main St. in May under new local ownership. Bar Fortuna's late menu is just a few doors down. The Victorian's own operators plan to reopen Nameless at 2810 Main St., a bar that closed during the COVID-19 pandemic. The same people who decided a three-floor club had run its course on this block are putting their evening business into a smaller room nearby.

The Lookout noted that this change "bucks a trend that has seen Santa Monica attract new night-life venues for singles," including Southern California's first entertainment zone downtown. Downtown is building out its nights. Main Street is putting its bigger bets on the hours before dark.

A Sunday Walk From 2612 to 2917 Main

The current shape of the street fits into one late morning.

1. Start at the Sunday Farmers Market, listed from 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at 2640 Main St.
2. Walk next door to the California Heritage Museum at 2612 Main St., open Wednesday through Sunday from 11 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Admission is free on Fridays.
3. Cross to Met Her at a Bar at 2651 Main St. for its all-day menu.
4. Continue south past Edgemar to Bar Fortuna at 2917 Main St., which opens at noon on Sundays.

That route covers the market produce, the lawn the lease protects, the all-day café and the pasta built from the market's stalls, all within a few blocks. When the market moves onto Main Street as the city plans, the street becomes the gathering space.

At Marc Robinson, we follow how blocks like this one change, from the terms in a city lease to which storefronts fill next. If you own near Main Street and want to know how The Santa Monican and a weekly open-street market might affect your block over the next few years, schedule a confidential consultation.