Two miles apart, both San Vicente Boulevard and the Third Street Promenade spent the last few years watching tenants pack up and leave. Both are Westside streets. Both had the kind of dead storefronts that make you slow down while driving past and wonder what used to be there. And both have spent 2026 filling back in. What's actually gone into those spaces tells two very different stories about what each street is for.
If you live in Brentwood, you've probably already noticed the difference without naming it. San Vicente didn't get louder this year. It got more specific.
The same vacancy problem, answered two different ways
Down on the Third Street Promenade, the numbers got bad enough that Santa Monica officials had to say something about it publicly. The corridor has been running roughly a 30 percent vacancy rate, with Doc Martens and It's Sugar closing their doors and Anthropologie announcing it would relocate to Marina del Rey. The city responded with real money: a $3 million revitalization package that eliminated the old wastewater capacity fee (previously up to $70,000 for a 50-seat restaurant before it even opened), expanded the Promenade's entertainment zone, and accepted $750,000 in Metro grants to fund activations tied to the 2026 World Cup.
What moved into the resulting vacancies were national chains. Taco Bell Cantina filed permits to convert 1,510 square feet of former office space into a restaurant and bar. Raising Cane's announced plans for its first Santa Monica location. A Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles-themed pizzeria and an immersive art experience called the Arte Museum are also on the way. The Entertainment Zone itself, which lets adults 21 and older carry drinks outdoors between Wilshire and Broadway on Friday through Sunday, was built around exactly this kind of high-volume, high-traffic tenant.
San Vicente had its own version of the same problem, just without a press release attached to it. The stretch around 11754 and 11758 San Vicente had burned through three restaurant concepts in a row: Planta, Kreation, and Pizzicotto all tried and failed at that address before anyone else was willing to sign a lease there.
What finally took the space wasn't a national chain. It was Neighborly, a chef-curated food hall that opened its doors on April 2, 2026, with a full public opening on April 11.
What actually filled San Vicente
Neighborly's answer to a stretch of boulevard that had rejected three concepts in a row was to stop betting on just one. The Brentwood location houses four separate chef-driven menus under a single roof: What's Gaby Cooking from cookbook author Gaby Dalkin, Mini Kabob from Armen Martirosyan and family (the Glendale Armenian grill that spent a decade drawing lines before it ever reached the Westside), Mixtape from Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson, and Frank Pinello's Palermo Pizza Club, serving the Sicilian-style pies he built his reputation on at Best Pizza in Williamsburg. A curated marketplace alongside the kitchen sells prepared meals and pantry items for anyone picking up dinner instead of sitting down to it.
A hundred yards east, Matū Kai has quietly become part of the boulevard's regular rotation since opening at 11777 San Vicente in April 2025, a full year before Neighborly. It's a Brentwood outpost of Beverly Hills' Matū, built entirely around 100 percent grass-fed Wagyu from New Zealand's First Light Farms, with a tasting menu for two running $87 per person. The original Beverly Hills location has earned Michelin recognition, and Matū Kai sits right next to Katsuya, giving that block of San Vicente two serious reservation-only kitchens within a few doors of each other.
Upstairs at Brentwood Gardens, the transformation has been just as deliberate. The second-floor space that spent years empty after California Pizza Kitchen closed now belongs to Cafe Landwer, a coffee brand that started as a Berlin coffee bar in 1919. It joins Ospi and Sweetgreen on the ground floor, with Pérse announced as the next tenant to fill in the building. And a few blocks up, the h.wood Group, the team behind Delilah, The Nice Guy, the Bird Streets Club, and Harriet's, is developing a new restaurant and lounge called Montana's at 11920 San Vicente, slated for an early 2027 opening. That block has historically been quiet retail, so a group with that kind of nightlife pedigree choosing to plant a flag there is its own small piece of news, independent of whatever the menu ends up being.
None of this is what filled the Promenade's vacancies two miles away.
The small openings that matter more on a Tuesday
Destination dinners get the attention, but the openings that actually change a resident's week tend to be smaller. GGiata, the East Coast-style Italian deli with five other Los Angeles locations, is moving into the old New York Bagel spot in the Town & Country center at 11640 San Vicente. A second location of La La Land Kind Cafe, the chain known for its lines on Montana Avenue and its work supporting foster youth, is taking over the former Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf at 11698. According to the neighborhood publication 90049.com, the boulevard's growth this year has also included Great White and Flour Pizzeria and Cafe, alongside several new bagel shops, all filling storefronts that had sat quiet.
None of these are headline openings. They matter because they solve the daytime gap between destination dinners: a morning coffee, an afternoon sandwich, a Saturday lunch that doesn't require a reservation. Coral Tree Cafe, at 11645 San Vicente, has been doing this for years with its tuna salad on ciabatta and a patio that doubles as the best people-watching spot on the strip. The newer additions are competing for that same daily routine, not for the once-a-month dinner slot Matū Kai and the incoming Montana's are chasing.
Two boulevards, side by side
| Third Street Promenade (Santa Monica) | San Vicente Boulevard (Brentwood) | |
|---|---|---|
| Recent departures | Doc Martens, It's Sugar, Anthropologie (relocating to Marina del Rey) | Planta, Kreation, Pizzicotto (all cycled through one address) |
| What's filling in | Taco Bell Cantina, Raising Cane's, a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles pizzeria | Neighborly's four-chef food hall, Matū Kai's Wagyu tasting menu, Cafe Landwer |
| Vacancy signal | Roughly 30 percent vacancy as of this year | No published rate, but one storefront alone rejected three concepts before Neighborly |
| City involvement | $3 million revitalization package, fee eliminations, expanded entertainment zone | None cited, private leasing only |
| Entertainment zone | Adults 21+ can drink outdoors Friday through Sunday, Wilshire to Broadway | No entertainment zone on the boulevard |
What never needed fixing
While the boulevard sorts out its restaurant lineup, the rituals that actually anchor a Brentwood week haven't budged. The Brentwood Farmers Market still runs every Sunday from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Gretna Green Way, next to the Brentwood Country Club, the same corner it's occupied for years. The Brentwood Country Mart's free Friday movie nights are running through the end of September, with Luca on the courtyard screen this Friday, September 25.
Neither of those needed a chef, a lease, or a press release. They're the part of the neighborhood that the restaurant wave is happening around, not through.
What it says about the boulevard
Put the two corridors side by side and the difference isn't subtle. Santa Monica solved its vacancy problem with volume and recognizable names. Brentwood solved the same problem with specificity: four chefs sharing one address instead of each betting on a storefront alone, a steakhouse built around a single ingredient, a coffee brand that's been roasting since 1919. San Vicente isn't trying to draw the crowd the Promenade draws. It's building a boulevard for people who already live within walking distance of it.
That's worth knowing whether you're heading to Neighborly this weekend or just trying to figure out why the block suddenly feels different. And if you're the kind of Brentwood resident who pays this much attention to what's happening on your own street, you're exactly the kind of person Emily Rose and the NewMarket Homes LA team love hearing from, whether you're curious about a neighbor's sale price or simply want to know what your own home might be worth in this market. Request a Free Home Valuation whenever you're ready to talk it through.
