Third Street Promenade

Third Street in Santa Monica was an unremarkable downtown commercial street through most of the 20th century — a typical mix of small retail stores, restaurants, and offices serving the surrounding residential neighborhoods. By the mid-1980s the downtown area had declined significantly: vacancy rates were high, the customer base had shifted to suburban malls (notably the nearby Santa Monica Place enclosed mall that had opened in 1980), and the city was actively looking for revitalization strategies.

The 1989 pedestrian conversion was the centerpiece of the revival strategy. Three blocks of Third Street between Wilshire and Broadway were closed to vehicular traffic, the street surface was redesigned with decorative paving and landscaping, public seating was installed, and the street became a fully pedestrian environment. The conversion was paired with subsidized rents and incentives for new restaurants and retail to fill the formerly vacant storefronts.

Within five years of the conversion the Promenade had become one of the most economically successful pedestrian shopping districts in the western United States. Property values along the three-block stretch tripled, vacancy rates dropped to near zero, and the area attracted both national chain retailers and local independent operators. The model became influential for similar downtown revitalization projects throughout coastal California — including Pasadena's Old Town district along Colorado Boulevard (the original Route 66 alignment), which underwent a similar though less dramatic transformation in the same era.

The retail mix along the Promenade is dominated by national chains — Apple, Sephora, Anthropologie, Lululemon, Madewell, and most of the standard upmarket-mall lineup. The chain presence reflects the Promenade's commercial success: the foot traffic levels and the affluent surrounding demographics make this prime retail real estate, and national chains can afford the resulting rents that smaller independents often cannot.

Genuinely independent retailers do still operate among the chains. A small concentration of locally-owned bookstores, gift shops, surf-and-skate shops, and specialty food stores can be found particularly on the side streets just off the main Promenade. For Route 66 travelers looking for souvenirs that are not generic mall merchandise, the side streets are more interesting than the main pedestrian stretch.

The Promenade's most photographed feature is probably the trio of topiary dinosaur fountains installed along the central pedestrian zone. The dinosaurs — abstract green ivy-covered sculptures shaped roughly like Brontosaurus heads emerging from circular fountain basins — have become an unofficial Santa Monica icon and are a near-mandatory photograph for first-time visitors. The dinosaurs date from the original 1989 conversion and have been maintained continuously since.

The Promenade has roughly 40 restaurants and cafes spanning a wide range from quick-service to upscale casual. The dominant format is the sidewalk-cafe model — restaurants with extensive outdoor seating directly on the pedestrian zone, allowing diners to people-watch while eating. Per-person spend at most lunch spots runs $15 to $25; dinner runs $25 to $50 depending on the restaurant.

Notable Promenade lunch options include the Cheesecake Factory (the chain's flagship Santa Monica location, with substantial portions and tourist-friendly menus), Tender Greens (high-quality fast-casual salads and proteins), Mendocino Farms (the popular Southern California sandwich chain), and various pizza, sushi, and pan-Asian fast-casual options. For a more substantive lunch, the Lobster restaurant at the pier entrance and several Promenade-side seafood restaurants offer fresher and more substantial Pacific seafood options.

Dinner options scale up considerably. Several substantial restaurants along the Promenade and the immediate surrounding blocks operate at the upscale-casual level — $40-60 per person with cocktails. The neighborhood as a whole becomes a serious dinner destination once you extend the search beyond the Promenade itself to Ocean Avenue (where Chez Jay and several upscale ocean-view restaurants operate) and the side streets between the Promenade and the pier.

The Promenade's street-performer scene is among the most active in coastal California. Musicians, magicians, painters, mime artists, balloon artists, and various other street performers regularly work the pedestrian zone, particularly on weekends and during summer evenings. The performers operate under a city permit system that allows registered performers to use designated spaces along the Promenade in rotating slots. Quality varies — some performers are genuinely talented professionals; others are aspiring entertainers building portfolios — but the cumulative effect is a lively street-entertainment atmosphere.

Three movie theaters operate along or immediately adjacent to the Promenade — the AMC Santa Monica 7, the AMC Broadway 4, and the Laemmle Monica Film Center. The combination of theaters, restaurants, and pedestrian environment makes the Promenade a popular dinner-and-a-movie destination for Santa Monica residents and Los Angeles-area visitors.

Evening atmosphere on the Promenade is typically livelier than midday. Weekend evenings (Friday and Saturday from about 7pm to 11pm) see the highest foot traffic and the most active street-performer scene. Summer evenings extend the active hours further into the night. For Route 66 travelers, an early-evening dinner on the Promenade followed by a sunset walk back to the pier produces one of the most satisfying Santa Monica day-end sequences available.

The natural Santa Monica day combines the Promenade with the pier and the beach for a full day. The classic sequence: morning at the pier for End of the Trail photos and Pacific Park (10am-1pm), walk inland for a Promenade lunch (1pm-2:30pm), afternoon shopping or beach time depending on weather (2:30pm-5pm), and either an early-evening Promenade dinner or a walk back to the pier for sunset photography (5pm-7pm). The total walking distance is modest — roughly half a mile between the pier and the Promenade — and the layout makes the pier-Promenade-beach circuit easily walkable.

For Route 66 travelers extending the trip into a multi-day Los Angeles-area visit, the Promenade pairs with several broader-LA destinations as a single coastal-LA day. Venice Beach (3 miles south, accessible via the beach bike path or a short drive) provides a counterpoint to Santa Monica's polished commercial atmosphere — Venice is grittier, more bohemian, and home to the famous Venice Boardwalk street scene. The Getty Villa in Pacific Palisades (10 minutes north) offers a substantial museum experience focused on ancient Greek and Roman art. Malibu (30 minutes north along the Pacific Coast Highway) extends the coastal experience further west.

For a one-night Route 66 endpoint celebration, the Promenade is a useful dinner-and-pre-dinner location even if your primary destination is the pier. Walking the Promenade for an hour before dinner provides a sense of Santa Monica's contemporary commercial character that complements the pier's more tourist-oriented historical character. Both experiences together produce a more complete picture of the city that anchors the western end of the Mother Road.