Hermosa Beach

A breakfast and lunch place sitting directly on the Strand at the foot of Pier Avenue, with a patio facing the sand. You order at the register and carry a number to a table. Pancakes, breakfast quesadillas and burgers, at beach prices rather than oceanfront ones, and it has been feeding the same walk-up trade for decades.

Mon to Thu, 7am to 3pm. Fri to Sun, 7am to 4pm

Paul Hennessey opened this on the corner of Pier and Hermosa in 1976 and it is still the anchor of that corner. Dark wood, a long bar, booths, and a kitchen that runs the whole time the bar does. It opens at eight in the morning and closes at two on weekend nights, which is a wider window than anything else on the block.

Mon to Thu, 8am to midnight. Fri to Sun, 8am to 2am

A 1929 beach cottage halfway up Pier Avenue holds this coffee house, with a porch, mismatched tables and a case of sandwiches and cakes made in the back. It opens at six in the morning, earlier than anything else on the street. People bring laptops and nobody moves them along.

Every day from 6am. Closing between 3pm and 6pm depending on the day

A pizza counter on Hermosa Avenue that has been cutting slices for more than fifty years. You order at the register, it comes out on paper, and there are a few tables if you want one. It stays open to two in the morning on Friday and Saturday, which makes it the thing you eat on the walk back to the car.

Sun to Thu, noon to midnight. Fri and Sat, noon to 2am