Sunday at Polliwog Park, the amphitheater bowl fills up by 4:30. Low chairs, blankets, a picnic tote from the new Saint & Second up the road, and by 5 the first downbeat lands. The crowd is not driving in from downtown. It walked over.
That is the change worth naming. For years, a Manhattan Beach summer meant the pier, the Strand, and a slow drift down Manhattan Avenue at dusk. It still can. But this year the east side of the city, anchored by Polliwog and the Sepulveda corridor, is holding its own weekly rhythm. If you live near Manhattan Heights or the streets around Meadows, you no longer need to cross the city for the good part of the evening.
The openings that shifted the center of gravity
Two arrivals did most of the work.
Saint & Second opened at 3160 N Sepulveda Blvd, Suite S100 in Manhattan Village, the Hofman Hospitality Group's first South Bay outpost after Long Beach and Topanga. The room runs late by MB standards, with Monday through Friday from 11 a.m. to midnight and Saturday through Sunday from 9 a.m. to midnight, a weekend brunch from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. and a social hour on weekdays from 3 to 6 p.m. The private dining room carries a ceiling fixture crafted by Ryan Hofman from antique decanters converted into lights, a detail that says something about how the operator thinks about the room.
Great White, the Australian all-day café from Venice, is finishing out the former Pitfire Pizza space at Metlox on Highland. It is the company's sixth location, moving into the former home of Pitfire Pizza according to a recent liquor license application. Metlox has needed a daytime tenant that runs past 11 a.m. for a while. Great White fits the courtyard the way Pitfire never quite did.
Downtown is not sitting still either. Coucou, the French bistro already working in Venice and West Hollywood, is taking the former Nando Trattoria room on Manhattan Avenue. Expect dishes like steak frites, oysters, and elevated French comfort classics in a lively, design-forward setting. Bread Head is at 1116 Manhattan Avenue in the former Tacolicious space, known for focaccia sandwiches layered with high-quality meats, cheeses, and flavor-packed spreads.
Here is the shortlist, with the addresses locals actually need:
| Concept | Address | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| Saint & Second | 3160 N Sepulveda Blvd, S100 | Late-night American, east side |
| Great White | 3515 Highland Avenue (Metlox) | All-day café, Metlox courtyard |
| Coucou | Former Nando Trattoria, Manhattan Ave | Downtown French bistro |
| Bread Head | 1116 Manhattan Avenue | Focaccia sandwich counter |
Four openings is not a wave. But the geography is the story. Two of the four sit east of Sepulveda or at Metlox, which historically has been treated as the seam between the two halves of the city rather than a destination in itself.
Polliwog is doing the work of a town square
Concerts in the Park is the anchor. The series returns to Polliwog Park for the 2026 season, bringing free live music every Sunday from July 5 through September 6, from 5 to 7 PM, presented by Manhattan Beach Parks and Recreation in partnership with the City of Manhattan Beach and sponsored by Chevron. Ten bands across the summer, and admission is always free.
The 2026 lineup, so you can plan the Sundays that matter:
- July 5 — The Satin Dollz, following a 5 p.m. Salute to the Troops at the same amphitheater
- July 12 — Las Chikas
- July 19 — The Amplified
- July 26 — Elton: The Early Years
- August 2 — Jimmy's Buffet
- August 9 — Cobra Cowboy
- August 16 — Gypsy Dreams
If you have never done it, the etiquette is worth knowing before you unpack the cooler. Bring a low chair or a blanket. High chairs get you side-eye. Show up earlier than you think you need to for a spot near the amphitheater bowl. Eat first, or bring the food with you. The picnic culture is the point.
The park does more than a Sunday, too. The lake loop is a legitimate short walk for anyone trying to avoid the Strand crowds in July, and the playground is one of the few in the South Bay large enough to absorb a birthday party without the whole thing feeling stacked on top of a stroller line.
The reference points downtown still owns
None of this displaces the pier end of the city. It just changes where a resident chooses to spend a Tuesday.
Fishing With Dynamite at 1148 Manhattan Avenue remains the room the city measures itself against. Chef David LeFevre's oyster bar and coastal seafood spot is listed in the 2025 Michelin Guide USA and has earned multiple appearances on OpenTable's 100 Best Restaurants in America. The Arthur J at 903 Manhattan Ave holds the special-occasion slot, with every steak cooked over a live wood fire grill using white oak embers, a selection of USDA Prime, True Japanese Wagyu, and Black Angus beef, plus the mid-century modern room, the martini program, and the Emmental popovers with strawberry butter. Love & Salt at 317 Manhattan Beach Blvd stays the reliable pizza-and-pasta anchor, and chef Chris Feldmeier, known from Nancy Silverton's Osteria Mozza in Hollywood, is back running the kitchen.
The pattern behind the newer arrivals matters. Manhattan Beach, traditionally known for more conservative upscale dining, is taking meaningful risks in the current cycle, with newer openings reflecting a demographic shift toward a crowd that is younger, more food-curious, and willing to support chef-driven concepts including Persian food, inventive tacos, Michelin-pedigreed sandwiches, and French aperitif culture. That is a different city than the one that existed five years ago.
The summer's marquee dates
Three fixtures sit on top of everything else.
The Charlie Saikley 6-Man Beach Volleyball Tournament near the pier is the two-day August ritual. The mix of serious competition and laid-back beach personality is what makes it work. Teams of six compete on the sand, and the tournament is also known for its costumes, team themes, and lively crowd atmosphere. The Jr. 6-Man runs August 2. The Manhattan Beach Open Tennis Tournament takes over Live Oak Park and Mira Costa courts July 16 through 19. The Manhattan Wine Auction landed at Manhattan Country Club on June 6, still the summer's most involved fundraiser calendar item.
A working Sunday, east side edition
If you want a template for one of the July or August Sundays, this is the pattern that has emerged this year:
- Late brunch at Saint & Second or a bowl at Great White, walkable from most streets east of Sepulveda.
- A mid-afternoon lake loop at Polliwog, timed so the kids are done before the amphitheater fills.
- Chair down by 4:30, close enough to the bowl to hear the horns without needing to lean in.
- Stay through set two. Walk home.
The point is that steps one through four never require a car and never require the pier. That is new.
The through-line
Restaurant lists come and go. What is worth paying attention to this summer is the geographic shift underneath them. East Manhattan Beach used to borrow its evening from downtown. It now generates its own. A Sepulveda corridor with a proper late-night operator, a Metlox courtyard with an all-day tenant that matches the site, and a park programming calendar that treats Sunday as a fixed appointment. Three things in place, at the same time.
Downtown will still own the special-occasion table and the sunset walk. Coucou will land, and it will pull downtown regulars back the way a well-run bistro always does. But the residents who have quietly been asking whether the east side would ever get a real evening rhythm have their answer. It arrived this season.
Walking your own block on a Sunday evening in July, chairs slung over one shoulder, is the clearest signal of a neighborhood that is working. Manhattan Beach has more of those blocks this summer than it did last summer.
When you are ready to talk about what that shift means for a home on this side of the city, Walters | Plaxen Estates is here to Step Into a New Standard.
