Two things are true in Laguna Beach right now, and they are pulling in opposite directions. On Coast Highway, long-tenure dining rooms are handing their keys to faster, lighter concepts. Up in the canyon, the town is throwing its most institution-heavy summer in a generation, with two 60th anniversaries and a Pageant in its 93rd year.
If you live here, that split is the story of your July. What used to be a stable map of "where we go" is being redrawn block by block, even as the festivals dig deeper into their own history. Here is where the ground has shifted and where to plant yourself for the next eight weeks.
The Coast Highway turnover
The most talked-about closure this spring was Dizz's As Is, which closed on March 13 after being owned and operated by the Pitz family for more than 40 years since Marcel Pitz founded it in 1977. The building did not sit idle. Small's Smash Club, a Southern California burger-focused restaurant, is opening at 2794 S Pacific Coast Hwy in the former Dizz's As Is space, which closed permanently on March 13, 2026. Small's opened on a Friday in June with a long fan line stretching through the weekend; pro snowboarder Jordan Small had set his sights on the former Dizz's As Is for his second location after a blow-up success in San Clemente that began as a backyard idea during COVID.
A few blocks north, another anchor changed hands in a different way. Amorelia opened in soft-open form in the old San Shi Go space at 858 S. Coast Highway, taking a long-standing Costa Mesa Mexican restaurant into its first expansion under owner Gloria Seretti and her son Daniel Paniagua, this time with a Mexico City–centric finer-dining focus. It is a 185-seat room, and the shift from Japanese to Mexico City fine dining in that particular stilt building is the kind of substitution that only registers if you have been driving past it for years.
Then there is El Matatan, which arrived from the City of Orange under owner Oscar Garcia, opening for dinner soft openings before rolling into lunch with a menu that blends Cuban, Dominican and authentic Mexico City fare. Garcia brought on Omar from Carmelita's as the residing GM, which is the sort of detail that tells locals more than any press release.
Read the pattern together and it is not random. What is emerging in Laguna Beach is a recalibration of risk, one that increasingly favors shorter daytime stays, faster turns and lower operational exposure. In 2025 alone, Best of Laguna Beach announced 15 new food and beverage openings and four coming-soon announcements, while the town lost seven concepts. Long dinner service is being replaced, in some corners, with counter and daytime traffic. That is the quiet rewrite happening under the summer noise.
The canyon's anniversary summer
Now walk inland. If Coast Highway is churning, Laguna Canyon Road is doing the opposite. Three festivals are running simultaneously through Labor Day, and two of them are marking the same milestone.
| Festival | 2026 Dates | Location | Admission |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sawdust Art Festival (60th) | June 26 – Sept. 6 | 935 Laguna Canyon Rd | $5.50–$12.50 |
| Festival of Arts | July 7 – Sept. 3 | 650 Laguna Canyon Rd | $5–$15 |
| Pageant of the Masters | July 9 – Sept. 24 | Irvine Bowl | From $42 |
| Laguna Art-A-Fair (60th) | June 26 – Sept. 6 | 777 Laguna Canyon Rd | $8–$15 |
The Sawdust Art Festival is celebrating its landmark 60th anniversary this year, set in a eucalyptus-lined village in the canyon showcasing hand-crafted works exclusively from over 180 local Laguna Beach artisans, with sawdust-covered paths, ceramics, jewelry, glass art, live music and interactive workshops. If you live in town, the practical detail is this: Laguna Beach locals receive free admission every Monday and Thursday after 3pm with valid ID. That is a resident subsidy most guides skip.
Down the road, the Festival of Arts Fine Art Show opens Tuesday, July 7 and runs through Sept. 3, showcasing over 100 visual artists in a juried exhibition of paintings, sculpture, photography, ceramics, glass and jewelry. Watch the calendar for the shoulder programming, not just the main gates: Family Art Day is on July 12, Cultural Arts Day on July 19, the Festival Runway Fashion Show on Aug. 9 and Battle of the Arts on Aug. 23.
The Pageant sits on top of both. This year's theme is worth understanding before you buy tickets. The Festival of Arts of Laguna Beach announced the 2026 Pageant theme as "The Greatest of All Time" (G.O.A.T.), celebrating the artists and masterpieces that have defined the history of art, running nightly from July 9 through Sept. 4. Now in its 93rd year, the Pageant is presented under the stars in the 2,600-seat Irvine Bowl amphitheater, where real people step into the spotlight posing as their counterparts in larger-than-life works of art. The 2026 production features works from Michelangelo, Diego Velázquez, Claude Monet, Vincent van Gogh, Pablo Picasso, Frida Kahlo and Norman Rockwell. Tickets start at $42 for Pageant performances, increasing for premium seating.
The number that puts this summer in perspective is 60. Two of the four canyon festivals began in 1965 or 1966 and are marking their sixtieth cycle this year. Laguna Art-A-Fair is also celebrating its landmark 60th anniversary this season, and what sets it apart from its neighbors is its lack of residency restrictions, meaning it draws a vibrant international cohort of master artists alongside domestic talent. Sawdust, by contrast, is a one-of-a-kind experience because all artists exhibiting during the summer festival are Laguna Beach residents. Same anniversary, opposite mandates, three-quarters of a mile apart.
A locals' playbook for the First Thursday
The other rhythm to know is monthly, not seasonal. First Thursdays Art Walk is held on the first Thursday of every month between 6 pm and 9 pm, is free to the public, and is funded by member galleries, local art institutions, lodging establishments, and the City of Laguna Beach. Free trolley rides run around the area for Art Walk visitors, the Laguna Art Museum is open complimentary from 5 pm to 9 pm, and Hotel Laguna starts at 5 pm featuring three selected artists.
A short list of stops that reward repeat visits:
- Laguna Art Museum at 307 Cliff Drive, free during Art Walk hours
- Dawson Cole Fine Art at 326 Glenneyre Street, featuring Jazz in the Garden
- Studio 7 Gallery at 384 North Coast Highway, Suite B
- Laguna Plein Air Painters Association Gallery at 414 N. Coast Highway
- Sandstone Gallery at 384A N Coast Highway
- Quorum Gallery at 374 North Coast Highway
- Artist Eye Gallery at 1294 South Coast Highway, Suite A
One Thursday to work the map: park once at Act V, ride the free trolley to Cliff Drive for the museum, walk south to Dawson Cole for the jazz set, then let the trolley run you up North Coast Highway to Studio 7, Sandstone and Quorum before dinner. That is roughly two hours, entirely on foot and free rides.
What is still coming before Labor Day
A few more concepts are queued up between now and September, and they will change how the map reads by the time school starts.
The historic Heisler Building, vacant since Bodega closed in early 2025, will teem with new life after Noble Ace announced its upcoming opening. The restaurant describes itself as a Golden Age Hollywood-inspired speakeasy restaurant and bar, is the brainchild of Chef Magellan Moore of Mastro's Ocean Club and Elizabeth and Tom Schreiber, and is due to open Summer 2026 at the historic Heisler Building at 400 S. Coast Highway. The Heisler is one of the more recognizable buildings in the village, and turning it into a speakeasy concept is a swing worth watching.
North and south, the Truly brand is bracketing the town. Truly Pizza will open in North Laguna at 320 N. Coast Highway in the former "3" space, and Truly Bagels will open in South Laguna at 31727 Coast Highway in the long-shuttered Ti Amo this summer, with the concept first opening in Dana Point in June 2023. A daytime bagel counter in the old Ti Amo is exactly the substitution the broader turnover pattern predicts.
For a smaller, quieter arrival, Nalu Poke, Tea & Boba is filling the vacated Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory space at 248 S Coast Highway, next to Better Buzz Coffee. Rocky Mountain Chocolate first landed in Laguna Beach in 1984 as one of the company's first outliers from the mother ship in Durango, Colorado, so that address has a forty-year history worth remembering when you next walk past it.
The picture from here
The takeaway for anyone who lives in town: this is not a normal summer. The canyon is celebrating in a way it will not repeat for another decade, and the highway is turning over in a way it has not moved in twenty years. If you have been meaning to see the Pageant, or you have been putting off Sawdust for the last few Julys, this is the season where the anniversary weight and the local-admission math tilt in your favor. And the restaurant you took visitors to last summer may not be there next summer, but three of the rooms replacing them are already open and worth a Tuesday reservation.
For clients who own here and are thinking about how a changing village mix reads to future buyers, or who want a considered take on where the market is finding its footing this year, Julie Grenz offers a private consultation grounded in the same local attention this summer rewards. Schedule a Private Consultation to talk through what the season has revealed and what it may mean for your home.
