Main Street's Center of Gravity Is Moving From Saturday Night to Sunday Morning
"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 hospitality operators behind The Victorian, in the City of Santa Monica's Oct. 9 announcement. The change began with the operators, who approached the city in late 2025 with a proposal to move away from the late-night model.
That matters for anyone who uses Main Street, because The Victorian property at 2640 Main St. has always run on two schedules. On Saturday night it was a three-floor party house. On Sunday morning its parking lot holds the Main Street Farmers Market. After Halloween, the Saturday-night half shuts down. The Sunday half stays, and under the new lease it is set to grow onto the street itself.
The Victorian's final weekend as a restaurant and nightclub is its annual Halloween celebration. The event listing on Eventbrite bills it as "The Victorian's Final Halloween," on Saturday, Oct. 31, from 8 p.m. to 2 a.m. It promises a haunted-house setup and DJs, with costumes encouraged. Admission is 21 and over, tickets are limited, and there are no refunds.
A 2 a.m. finish is about to become rare on this stretch. The Los Angeles Times described a venue that served weekend brunch, dinner and happy hour, put DJs on the basement, main floor and upstairs on weekends, and ran weekly salsa and bachata lessons. The basement is Basement Tavern, the bar in the house's cellar. Nobody has announced a separate future for it, so it appears to close along with the rest of the building.
Adir Tal acknowledged what the place has meant. "People met their husbands and wives here and celebrated some of the best nights of their lives," he said in the city's announcement.
The same operators will reopen the house as The Santa Monican, a family-centered membership club. The plans include a pool, a spa and fitness center, a family and youth facility, a coffee bistro, a restaurant and bar, and gardens and gathering spaces on the grounds. Renovation is expected to start in late 2026, and the target opening is mid-2028.
Plan on about a year and a half of construction at the house between this Halloween and the reopening.
The city owns the building, so it wrote public commitments into the lease, which the City Council approved unanimously on March 24. In the city's release, Mayor Caroline Torosis listed them:
Membership details and pricing will come from the operators "in the coming months." Until then, anyone thinking about joining or applying for a scholarship membership doesn't have numbers to go on.
The market is the part of 2640 Main that matters to the most people week to week, and it is the part the lease protects. The city's Main Street Farmers Market page lists it every Sunday, year-round, from 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., rain or shine, with about 40 certified California farms. It started in 1995 as a joint effort of the Main Street Business Improvement Association, the Ocean Park Association, The Victorian and the California Heritage Museum. According to the Los Angeles Times, the new lease requires the operator to keep supporting the market, which uses the property's parking lot.
The lease goes further than keeping things as they are. The city says the market "will transition to a weekly, open street event on Main Street." There has been one trial so far. The Ocean Park Association's Aug. 13 update announced a test run for Sunday, Aug. 23. Main Street would close to traffic from 6 a.m. to 4 p.m., more than a dozen food trucks were expected, and the Entertainment Zone would be active for adult beverages. The city's listing for that day described the market in the morning, followed by an afternoon and evening street activation with seating and DJs.
The Main Street Business Improvement Association used the same Sunday format for its free, car-free Main Street Block Party + Day of the Dog. It was billed for Oct. 18, from noon to 6 p.m., with music, cars, a beer garden, kids' activities and the Farmers Market.
No start date, block list or regular hours have been published yet for the weekly open-street market. For now, it is still on the Victorian lot during its usual hours. When the street closure does become weekly, Sunday will be the longest stretch of foot traffic on Main Street all week, and The Santa Monican will open beside it.
Main Street still has nightlife. It is moving into smaller rooms that close earlier, and several of them are adding or planning daytime service. Going south along the street by address number:
Bar Fortuna is the clearest example of the new pattern. Westside Current reports a full menu from 5 to 10 p.m., Wednesday through Sunday, then late-night bites and the bar menu until midnight, with plans to add daytime hours. The front is terracotta and sage green. In place of a host stand, a 1917 Victrola holds the menus and plays Italian opera. Bar director Noah Castellanos runs the cocktail list, and wine director JD Plotnick built the wine program. The pasta uses locally stone-milled whole wheat flour, and local cheeses replace imported parmesan and pecorino. Bornemann told Westside Current he wants it to feel accessible to the neighborhood: "You can walk in in a bikini from the beach or fully dressed up, celebrating, and feel comfortable either way."
Bar Fortuna's bar closes at midnight, and The Victorian's final party ends at 2 a.m. Both are open on a Saturday night. The difference is how late the street's biggest rooms stay open.
The city's release acknowledges that Main Street has had closures this year, as every commercial corridor does. The Santa Monica Mirror reported in April that Holey Grail Donuts' Main Street location had closed, with La Diperie planned for the space. Samosa House had also closed its Main Street location, and it wasn't clear whether that closure was temporary. In late September, the Main Street Starbucks closed as part of a company-wide round of closures, according to the Santa Monica Daily Press and an Ocean Park Association update.
The city connects the new openings to steps the City Council took in March. The council removed a $1,000-per-seat charge on new restaurants and set up a $3 million economic development fund to attract and keep businesses. That same March 24 meeting approved The Santa Monican lease and adopted a Realignment Plan update that names Main Street among its priority corridors.
After Oct. 31, two things are still to come at 2640 Main: the start of renovation, which the city expects in late 2026, and the operators' membership announcement, which the city says is due in the coming months.
I've watched Main Street go through several eras since 1976, and changes in a corridor's daily rhythm tend to show up in how people value the blocks around it. If you own near Main Street and want to know how this shift might affect your property, Terry Ballentine can give you a steady, local read. Ask for a free home valuation whenever you're ready.
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