Martha's, the Hermosa Beach breakfast-and-dinner staple that has served the same stretch of the Strand since 1984, announced in late May that it was preparing to open its second location ever just up the coast in Riviera Village, with a target opening the following month. It is a short move in distance and a long one in company history, and the address it is taking over has a story of its own, one that matters more to anyone who lives up the hill in Hollywood Riviera than another list of new menu items.

Eight Years, Then Twenty-One Before That

Before Martha's, that address belonged to Gabi James, the Spanish and coastal French restaurant that closed for good on April 23 after an eight-year run under the Gabriele family. Before Gabi James, the same four walls housed Zazou, the same family's original restaurant, for 21 years. In nearly three decades, that single storefront has changed hands exactly once, and it is about to change again.

That pattern matters more than it looks. A restaurant address that only turns over every couple of decades is not a place where operators experiment and fail quickly. It is a place where an operator commits, builds a following, and eventually hands the keys to someone else who is also planning to stay a while. Gabi James closing after eight years, following a slower stretch of business, is a break in a much longer rhythm, and the question locals should be asking is not "what happened to Gabi James" but "who thinks this corner is still worth a long-term bet."

The answer says something about how the wider hospitality industry currently reads Riviera Village's future, not just its present.

Why Redondo Kept the Outdoor Tables When Other Beach Cities Took Them In

Here is the part of the story that rarely makes it into a restaurant-opening writeup. During the pandemic, cities across the South Bay let restaurants build temporary streetside dining decks to keep tables open while indoor capacity was restricted. Most of those cities have since removed those spaces and given the curb back to parking. Redondo Beach did the opposite. The City Council voted this past May to extend the outdoor dining deck program in Riviera Village for another five years.

Hilary Condren, co-owner of Martha's, pointed to that decision directly when explaining why his team chose this stretch of Catalina Avenue over other coastal options. He was drawn to the location in part because of its proximity to the original Hermosa Beach restaurant and the energy of the district itself.

"Redondo has a vibrant village. Their downtown, their heartbeat is on fire."

Condren also credited the outdoor dining commitment specifically, noting that the decision to keep those spaces in place is part of what keeps the district active in a way other beach downtowns have not managed to sustain.

A five-year commitment sounds like a small municipal detail, but it changes the math for anyone signing a lease on a 5,000-square-foot, two-floor buildout. Restaurant groups do not sink real money into permanent outdoor seating infrastructure on a month-to-month permit. A five-year horizon is long enough to plan a patio build, price it into the lease, and expect to recover the cost before the program comes up for another vote. That is the kind of certainty that turns a restaurant lease into a real estate decision, and it is likely a bigger factor in Martha's arrival than any single dish on the menu.

A Two-Floor Buildout With a Bigger Playbook Behind It

Martha's is not a single owner-operator taking a leap on a new concept. It is a 42-year-old brand making its second location ever, and the team has already said it plans three more along the coast in the next three years, from as far north as Santa Barbara to as far south as San Diego. Riviera Village is the test case for that expansion, which is a different kind of vote of confidence than a first-time restaurateur signing a lease.

The staffing choices back that up. Martha's has brought on Johnny De Vivo, formerly the executive chef at Rolling Hills Country Club, and the menu will pull some dishes from The Bottle Inn, the family's Hermosa Beach Italian restaurant, alongside the classic American grille lineup of smashburgers, chicken dishes, baby back ribs, and short ribs. That is a hospitality group moving pieces across its own roster of brands, not a first-time operator betting everything on one address. When a company with that kind of bench decides Riviera Village is worth its second location, it is reading something about the district's durability that a single new restaurant opening would not tell you on its own.

The Village Doesn't Wait for Any One Restaurant

None of this changes what already works about living near Riviera Village. The weekly rhythm that residents of Hollywood Riviera already build their Sundays around keeps running regardless of who is cooking at 1810 South Catalina:

• The Riviera Village Certified Farmers Market runs every Sunday from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the triangle lot at 1801 South Elena Avenue, across from Trader Joe's.
• The annual Riviera Village Sidewalk Sale returns August 22 and 23, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., along Catalina Avenue.

Those two fixtures, one weekly and one seasonal, are the actual texture of daily life in the Village. A restaurant closing and reopening under new ownership is a headline. A farmers market that has run every Sunday for years without interruption is the reason people bought within walking distance of the Village in the first place. If you want the fuller weekend picture of how residents actually use this stretch of the South Bay, the locals' guide to Redondo Beach living covers more of that ground.

What This Means If You Live Up the Hill

Hollywood Riviera's whole identity rests on being close enough to walk down to this exact stretch of shops and restaurants, a fact the neighborhood's own character has always leaned on. That proximity is only worth something if the Village itself keeps attracting operators who plan to stay. An address that cycled through only two tenants in 29 years, now landing a brand with a three-location expansion plan and a five-year municipal commitment behind it, is a stronger signal about the neighborhood's staying power than any single new menu could provide.

The next time someone asks what's happening in the Village, the honest answer isn't just "a new restaurant is opening." It's that an outside operator looked at the numbers, the infrastructure, and the neighborhood's habits, and decided this was the place worth their second bet in four decades. That's worth knowing whether you're headed there for dinner this weekend or you've called this hill home for years.

If you're curious how any of this shapes the value or character of a specific address in Hollywood Riviera, Kristin Warrick would be glad to talk it through. Schedule an appointment anytime.