The stretch of Coast Highway between Marguerite and Poppy is roughly half a mile long. Walk it slowly on a warm evening and you pass a British gastropub, an Italian pizzeria certified in Naples, a French bakery, a gelato counter, a jewelry gallery, a floral studio, and a public library, all before you have finished a coffee from Grounded. This is the working geography of Corona del Mar Village, and if you already live in CdM, the interesting fact about your neighborhood this fall is not that it exists. It is that it operates on a calendar most residents only half-track.
Here is what is actually happening between now and the holiday walk in December, and how to use it.
The night the village turns into a street party
The single most important date on the local calendar this quarter is Thursday, October 15. That is the third and final 3rd Thursdays of 2026, a seasonal event held three times a year in April, July, and October, running 5 to 8 p.m. along PCH through the village district. It is not a farmers market and not a festival. It is the entire business row keeping its doors open past normal hours, with live music under the Marguerite Clock Tower, pop-ups spilling onto the sidewalk, restaurant happy hours extended, and a passport program that rewards you for actually walking the length of it.
The scale is worth understanding. The event coordinates more than seventy local businesses through The File Group, Visit Newport Beach, the Corona del Mar Chamber of Commerce, and Greet Corona del Mar Magazine. Participants at recent events have included Sherman Library & Gardens, Gelato Del Mar, Grounded Coffee, SCAPE Gallery, Avila's El Ranchito, The Quiet Woman, CdM Restaurant, Zinc Cafe & Market, Rothschild's, Five Crowns, Bungalow, Rose Bakery Cafe, Gina's Pizza, Botanica Floral, Mark Patterson Fine Jewelry, and the Corona del Mar Public Library. Almost everything you would recognize on your normal weekly loop opens its doors at once.
If you have lived in CdM for more than a year and have not yet done a 3rd Thursday, the reason to go is not the music. It is that the village becomes legible in a way it isn't the rest of the year. You will find yourself walking into three storefronts you have driven past for a decade.
On the April 16 edition earlier this year, Pinch Me! Band played under the Clock Tower, The Balcony Salon hosted a pop-up, Cozy Earth teamed with the Tennis & Pickleball Club for a live-DJ pickleball activation, and SCAPE Gallery ran a group show called The Language of Trees in the main gallery with an accompanying pop-up titled Adornments in the Annex. October 15 will follow the same template with different collaborations.
What else the fall calendar holds
Beyond 3rd Thursdays, the season has a handful of anchors worth putting on the fridge.
| Date | Event | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Sun, Aug 23, 2026 | Candlelight: Coldplay vs. Imagine Dragons, 8:15 p.m. | The Resort at Pelican Hill |
| Thu, Oct 15, 2026 | 3rd Thursdays, 5–8 p.m. | Village Business District along PCH |
| Sat, Dec 6, 2026 | Corona del Mar Christmas Walk, 11 a.m.–5 p.m. | Village Business District |
Sherman Library & Gardens at 2647 East Coast Highway continues to run programming that most CdM residents forget is a five-minute walk from the village. Recent exhibits have included A Hummingbird Summer and The Art of John Cosby, both worth an unhurried morning if you have out-of-town guests staying with you. The gardens read differently in October light than they do in July.
The 45th annual CdM Scenic 5K & 2-Mile Fun Walk ran on June 6 this year, starting at the bluffs above Corona del Mar State Beach at 3001 Ocean Boulevard. Mark next June if you missed it. It is one of the few local events where you can start on Ocean Boulevard, finish on Ocean Boulevard, and eat breakfast in restaurant row the same morning without moving your car.
The dining bench is deeper than it looks
If you rotate through three restaurants in CdM, you are not seeing the village. The bench of long-tenured operators along Coast Highway is unusually deep for a district this small, and each has a distinct identity that is worth knowing on nights when the usual choice is booked.
Five Crowns at 3801 East Coast Highway remains the anchor, a replica of one of England's oldest country inns and the sort of restaurant where the Yorkshire pudding is the answer to a question you did not know you were asking. Attached to it, entered off Poppy Street under the red key, is SideDoor, the gastropub the Frank family opened in 2009 as Corona del Mar's first English-style gastropub. The kitchen there is portioned for small plates and sharing, with a rotating charcuterie station and a wine and beer list that turns over often enough to reward regulars.
Foretti's CDM at 3520 East Coast Highway, under new ownership from Thaddeus Foret and preserving the original 2013 recipes, holds Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana certification and runs its wood-fired oven at 900 degrees. If you have not eaten a Neapolitan pizza cooked to that spec in the village, that is the one to try. CdM Restaurant at 2325 East Coast Highway runs Executive Chef Elvis Morales's creative American menu upstairs and a walk-in speakeasy called Under CDM downstairs, no password needed. Rothschild's covers the classic Italian side, and on 3rd Thursdays it typically adds a DJ to its extended happy hour.
For the casual rotation there is Bungalow at 2441 East Coast Highway, Avila's El Ranchito at 2515, The Quiet Woman at 3224, Bandera at 3201, and Bamboo Bistro at 2600, which celebrated a full restaurant expansion with the CdM Chamber and is worth revisiting if your last visit predated the build-out. Morning and daytime, Rose Bakery Cafe, Zinc Cafe & Market, Rendez Vous French Bakery, Grounded Coffee, and Gelato Del Mar cover the coffee-to-dessert arc without ever leaving the sidewalk.
The point is not that CdM has a lot of restaurants. It is that a resident can build a weekly circuit inside four blocks that never repeats.
How to actually use the village
Here is the honest observation from watching the district run through a year of 3rd Thursdays and everything in between. The village works best treated as a single connected room rather than a collection of destinations.
Park once, near the Marguerite Clock Tower or in the structure behind Bamboo Bistro. Walk the north side of PCH going toward Poppy, cross at the light, walk the south side back. That loop covers Sherman Library & Gardens, SCAPE Gallery, Foretti's, Five Crowns and SideDoor, Rothschild's, CdM Restaurant, Bungalow, Rose Bakery Cafe, Zinc Cafe & Market, Avila's El Ranchito, Bamboo Bistro, the Corona del Mar Public Library, and Gelato Del Mar. It is roughly a mile round trip. On a normal weeknight it takes about forty-five minutes at a browsing pace. On October 15, it will take three hours, and that is the entire point.
For guests visiting from out of town, the itinerary that consistently plays well is a morning at Sherman Library & Gardens, lunch at Zinc Cafe, an afternoon at Little Corona or the tidepools below Ocean Boulevard, and dinner at SideDoor. If the visit lands on a 3rd Thursday, cancel the last part of that plan and let the street take over.
Corona del Mar rewards residents who treat it as a village and not a set of parking destinations. The calendar this fall gives you three good excuses to make that shift, and one very good one on October 15.
If you are thinking about how your own home fits into this village, from the walk to the Clock Tower to the light off Little Corona at dusk, Golding Realty Inc. is happy to talk through what the market is doing on your block specifically. Schedule a Private Consultation.
