For eight Sundays this summer, the drive to Polliwog Park passed three restaurants that either did not exist yet or had not opened their doors. That changes for the final two. Concerts in the Park closes its 2026 season on August 30 and September 6, and for the first time in its 49-year run, the walk to and from the amphitheater passes a stretch of Manhattan Beach that finally feeds itself.
That is the thing worth knowing before you pack the cooler this weekend. The restaurants that opened between July and August did not land downtown, where the pier crowds already eat. They landed closer to the park, on the Sepulveda corridor and at Metlox, which means the old routine of driving toward the sand for dinner and then doubling back east for the concert is no longer the only option. If you live anywhere east of Sepulveda, your Sunday just got shorter.
Two Sundays Left, Then A 49th Season Closes
Concerts in the Park runs every Sunday from 5 to 7 p.m. at the Polliwog Park Amphitheater, 1601 Manhattan Beach Boulevard, presented by Manhattan Beach Parks and Recreation with Chevron as sponsor. The season opened early this year with a special Juneteenth performance on June 21, then ran its regular ten-show schedule starting July 5.
Two dates remain:
- August 30 — Stone Soul
- September 6 — ABBA LA, the season finale
Admission has never cost anything, and it still doesn't. The lawn fills in fast, and the unwritten rules matter more than the band list once you're there. Bring a low chair or a blanket, since tall chairs draw complaints from the people behind you. No pets, no barbecues, no skateboards or scooters inside the park. Staff will clear unattended blankets and chairs, so someone needs to stay with your spot if you step away.
Where The New Restaurants Actually Sit
Here is the part that got lost while everyone was talking about the food itself: geography split this summer's openings into two camps, and only one of them changes your Sunday.
| Opening | Address | Side of town |
|---|---|---|
| Coucou | 1131 Manhattan Ave | Downtown, one block from the pier |
| Bread Head | 1116 Manhattan Ave | Downtown, one block from the pier |
| Great White | 401 Manhattan Beach Blvd, Metlox | Lower Manhattan Beach Blvd, walkable from streets east of Sepulveda |
| New gelato counter | 451 Manhattan Beach Blvd, Metlox | Same Metlox courtyard as Great White |
| Saint & Second | 3160 N Sepulveda Blvd, Manhattan Village | Sepulveda corridor, outside the downtown footprint entirely |
Coucou and Bread Head are worth the drive if you're already headed toward the sand, but they don't do anything for a Polliwog Sunday. Coucou took over the old Nando Trattoria space and is now open, with a live-fire grill turning out steak frites, bone marrow, and a lobster spaghetti built off the same Venice and West Hollywood menu the Feldman family has run since 2023. It's a downtown destination, not a stop on the way to the park.
Great White and the gelato counter next to it are the ones that matter for this weekend. Great White opened its sixth location, and its first in Manhattan Beach, on July 31, moving into the former Pitfire Pizza space at Metlox. Breakfast runs until 3 p.m. with smoothie bowls and ricotta hotcakes, and the kitchen shifts to wood-fired pizzas, fish tacos, and kale-pesto pasta for the rest of the day. It's open daily from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m., which covers a pre-concert dinner and a post-show gelato run at the same address without needing to move the car.
Saint & Second is the bigger structural shift. It opened July 21 in Manhattan Village at 3160 N Sepulveda Boulevard, the first South Bay location for Hofman Hospitality Group after Long Beach and Topanga. It's open until midnight most nights, with weekend brunch from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. and a weekday social hour from 3 to 6 p.m. For a household living east of Sepulveda, that's a full Sunday, brunch at Saint & Second, an afternoon at Polliwog, without a single trip toward downtown or the pier.
None of this means downtown is quiet. It means the choice is real now. A year ago, skipping the drive to the beach for dinner meant skipping out entirely. Now it means picking a different kitchen four minutes from the park instead.
Getting There Without Losing Your Spot On The Lawn
Parking around Polliwog gets tight fast once the lawn starts filling, and the city says so plainly on its own event page. ADA parking is directed to the Begg Pool lot, and there's a rideshare pickup and drop-off zone on Manhattan Beach Boulevard for anyone who would rather not hunt for a spot at all.
The newer option is Wave Rider, the city's on-demand microtransit program that launched full service in June. It runs through the Circuit app, costs $5 a ride and $2.50 for riders 55 and older, and covers anywhere in the city with no fixed stops or schedule. For a Sunday when you're trying to grab dinner at Metlox and still get a spot on the grass before the amphitheater fills, that's a more reliable plan than circling for street parking twice in one afternoon.
The Sundays That Are Left Are Worth Building Around
Two Sundays isn't a long runway, but it's enough to notice something that will matter again next summer. The east side of Manhattan Beach spent years borrowing its evenings from downtown, driving toward the pier for a real dinner and treating everything east of Sepulveda as the place you slept, not the place you ate. That's no longer accurate. Whether that holds past Labor Day, once Great White and Saint & Second settle into their regular rhythm, is worth watching. For now, if you're deciding where to eat before Stone Soul or before the ABBA LA finale, the closer kitchen is also the newer one.
If you're the kind of resident who tracks these shifts because you're curious about where Manhattan Beach is headed, not because you're planning a move, that instinct is worth keeping. Neighborhoods that add real dining infrastructure east of their original downtown tend to hold their value differently than ones that don't, and that's the kind of pattern Corisandra Downing watches closely for clients thinking about South Bay real estate long after the last concert of the season wraps.
