10 Of The Iconic Food Stops You Should Make Along The Santa Monica Pier

Vacationers to the Los Angeles space are nearly sure to make a go to to the well-known Santa Monica Pier, with its improbable ocean views, rides and leisure, and a great deal of locations to eat.

Again within the early twentieth century, the municipal pier at Santa Monica was a spot primarily for fishermen, who would drop their strains into the water hoping to catch a black sea bass or another tasty fish. However an entrepreneur named Charles Looff quickly determined it was the proper spot to construct an amusement park, and so he did. Locals loved stay music, a carousel, and a curler coaster, and later, within the Nineteen Twenties, a brand new proprietor added a ballroom.

Different enhancements adopted, and right now, as LA travel guides note, the pier is a significant vacation spot in Southern California that pulls thousands and thousands of tourists to its scenic location. Top-of-the-line issues about it’s the diversity of cuisine and boardwalk-style treats. Listed here are a number of the iconic eateries that await vacationers exploring the pier.

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10 Bubba Gump Shrimp

Impressed by the traditional film “Forrest Gump,” the pier’s Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. serves made-from-scratch, southern-style consolation meals, and all-things shrimp, like sautéed shrimp, fried shrimp, coconut shrimp, and extra. Guests can play Forrest Gump trivia video games at their tables and take house some Gump memorabilia from the eatery, reminiscent of t-shirts, sweet, and even cookbooks containing the venue’s traditional recipes.

9 Pier Burger

What’s an amusement park and not using a juicy hamburger and fries? Guests to the energetic Santa Monica Pier will discover almost each doable type of burger with toppings at Pier Burger, which can also be well-known for its shakes, floats, sundaes, and waffle cones. Veggie burgers are served, too, together with rooster and fish sandwiches and sizzling canines. Vacationers can benefit from the water views from this landmark venue.

8 Soda Jerks

Step again a number of a long time in time at Soda Jerks, an old school ice cream parlor with fountain service and a slew of creations such because the Charles Looff Banana Royale, the Will Rogers Scorching Fudge Brownie, and the Route 66 Banana Break up. Every little thing right here is hand-made with Fosselman’s ice cream. The store is embellished with fixtures from the Nineteen Thirties and 40s, and based on Soda Jerks, even the lights are authentically historic, from a saloon in Kansas Metropolis.

7 Massive Dean’s Ocean Entrance Cafe

Massive Dean’s is large on sports activities and has 23 TVs broadcasting main sporting occasions day-after-day. The cafe is a pier landmark previously referred to as Laring’s Lunch Room and has indoor and out of doors seating. Beer and wine are served, and there’s usually stay music. Burgers, wings, soups, salads, fish sandwiches, and sizzling canines are all on the cafe’s menu, plus tacos and nachos. Diners right here can sit again, take within the views, and funky off with a frosty beer.

6 Scorching Canine On A Stick

One other landmark eatery on the Santa Monica Pier is Scorching Canine on a Stick. All of it started in 1946 when Dave Barham opened a meals stand in Santa Monica referred to as Celebration Puffs, promoting ice cream and lemonade. However he quickly used his mom’s cornbread recipe to create the well-known corn canine and put it on a stick.

He modified his enterprise identify to Scorching Canine on a Stick and ultimately opened a everlasting store on the pier. It nonetheless sells lemonade, too. In 2022 the constructing housing Hot Dog on a Stick was torn down to make way for a new, much larger venue that stored the allure of the outdated one. So diners in what was referred to as the weiner shack can nonetheless get pleasure from a corn canine on a stick.

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5 Rusty’s Surf Ranch

Browsing fanatics will certainly get pleasure from a meals cease at Rusty’s Surf Ranch, which is embellished with classic surfboards, a few of them relationship again to the Nineteen Sixties. The venue’s informal, beach-bum environment attracts diners searching for a spot to sit back and calm down with dishes that embrace burgers, seafood, tacos, and naturally, chilly beer. Reside bands usually carry out on the weekends.

4 Mariasol Cocina Mexicana

Situated on the far west finish of the Santa Monica Pier, Mariasol Cocina Mexicana provides diners great ocean vistas and conventional Mexican delicacies. The eatery says its dishes are impressed by meals sometimes served in Mexican seashore cities like Cabo San Lucas and Puerto Vallarta, with particular sauces, contemporary peppers, and freshly caught fish. It provides a colourful patio for out of doors eating on the long-lasting pier, which is likely one of the high attractions California is famous for.

3 Pacific Wheel Pizza Firm

A day on the boardwalk at Santa Monica Pier wouldn’t be full and not using a slice or two of a freshly made pizza, and Pacific Wheel Pizza Firm has diners lined with made-to-order pies. Serving 9-inch personal-size pizzas, the eatery is thought for its wonderful Margherita Pizza however, after all, everybody can construct their very own with their favourite toppings. The venue additionally serves rooster wings and breadsticks.

2 Popcornopolis

Popcorn lovers gained’t need to miss the pier’s Popcornopolis, which sells extra sorts of popcorn than one can think about, like cheese popcorn, chocolate popcorn, caramel popcorn, kettle popcorn, spicy popcorn, candy popcorn, and extra. Housed in an Airstream trailer, Popcornopolis provides guests a novel expertise as they wander across the pier. The eatery additionally sells varied popcorn varieties within the form of ice cream cones, good for nibbling whereas having fun with the people-watching on the well-known pier.

1 Wetzel’s Pretzels

Think about strolling alongside the Santa Monica Pier with a chilly drink in a single hand and a heat, contemporary pretzel within the different whereas pondering whether or not to journey the curler coaster. That’s the type of carefree environment one can discover on the pier, and a number of pretzels comprised of scratch provides to the enjoyable. There are lots to select from, reminiscent of Wetzel’s Authentic, Sinful Cinnamon, and Almond Crunch, or maybe attempt a Pepperoni Twist or a Cheese Meltdown.