"I really almost was going to throw in the towel," Nando Silvestri told the Palisadian-Post this September, talking about keeping Prima Cantina open after the fire. His restaurant at 15246 Sunset Boulevard reopened in May 2025, one of the first to come back. Business was slow for months because fewer residents were living in the area. With Palisades Village open again, he said, Prima is now "very close to prefire numbers."
He also gave his dining room a second job. Since September 27, a coffee shop has run inside Prima every morning before lunch service begins. That setup says a lot about the Palisades outside the Village this fall. Shared rooms, temporary buildings and new schedules are carrying much of daily life. So when something is open matters as much as where it is.
Coffee Until 11:30, Then Lunch
The coffee shop is called Pali Drip. Its owner, Eddie Navarro, opened Estate Coffee on Via de la Paz in 2018. Silvestri offered him the space because Prima sits empty in the morning, and because, in his words, "there was a need for a small, local coffee shop since so many had burned down."
Pali Drip is open daily from 6 to 11:30 a.m. At 11:30, Prima opens for lunch. The menu has espresso drinks, drip coffee, pastries and breakfast items. Navarro makes his own vanilla syrup and a house pumpkin spice latte. Two drinks are named for the arrangement. The Pali Quattro is four shots of espresso with milk, dark chocolate, organic raw sugar and ice. The Prima Quattro is the same drink without the chocolate.
Prima's neighbors on this stretch of Sunset are mostly recent arrivals:
- Pali Trading Post, 15248 Sunset, opened July 1. It's a general store with Palisades-themed goods, homewares, games and candy.
- Ludus, 15229 Sunset, started classes August 17. It offers Brazilian jiu-jitsu, kickboxing, children's classes and self-defense.
- Elizabeth Lamont, 15231 Sunset, a home-decor shop and design studio that reopened October 30, 2025.
- Palisades Garden Café, around the corner at 15231 La Cruz Drive. It was back early after the fire and hosted a gathering on the Pali Post calendar for October 2.
Each of these is a single storefront. The large sites nearby are still on hold. In its September 4 update on commercial rebuilding, the Palisadian-Post reported no construction on the former Business Block at Swarthmore and Sunset. That building once held Bank of America, Café Vida and Casa Nostra. The same update found no significant construction at the former Gelson's at Sunset and Via de la Paz, which the paper said was reportedly the chain's highest-producing store before the fire. The small shops are open while the big lots wait.
The Highlands Has the Fullest Block
That same update named the shopping center on Palisades Drive at Sunset as the one district that "seems to be thriving." It called the Highlands "much further along" than the other commercial areas. One reason is that the Highlands businesses reopened on a staggered schedule over more than a year:
- Spruzzo Restaurant & Bar, 538 Palisades Drive, reopened May 1, 2025.
- Starbucks, 514 Palisades Drive, reopened July 28, 2025.
- Palisades Wine & Spirits, 544 Palisades Drive, reopened in September 2025 and sells wine, liquor and beer.
- Moku Sushi, 524 Palisades Drive, and Gerry Blanck's Martial Arts Center, 542 Palisades Drive, were both listed as operating in September 2026.
- Palisades General Store, 542½ Palisades Drive, soft-opened in mid-August and held its grand opening September 19. It sells homewares, tea, jewelry, kitchen goods and clothing, and plans to add frozen yogurt. Reported hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily.
The next addition is coming back from the Village footprint. Café Vida anchored Palisades Village for 23 years until the January 2025 fire destroyed its original location. Its new home will be 548 Palisades Drive, the former K Bakery Eatery + Bakeshop space, and it has filed for a liquor license there. The owners said they planned an October reopening. As of today, the restaurant's own site still lists the Highlands location as "Coming Soon Fall 2026" with no date. When it opens, the Palisades News reports the menu will include buttermilk pancakes, chilaquiles, huevos rancheros and breakfast bowls. The pending license would add mimosas, Bloody Marys, sangria and local craft beer.
The Highlands plaza has no supermarket. For a full grocery run, Vons at Sunset and Pacific Coast Highway survived the fire and was the first major Palisades grocery store to reopen.
Wednesday Is Market Day Now
The biggest schedule change is the farmers market. The Pacific Palisades Farmers Market came back to Swarthmore Avenue on August 19. It now runs Wednesday afternoons from 1:30 to 5:30 p.m. instead of its old Sunday slot, with produce, prepared foods and artisanal goods. A July report described Wednesday as the starting schedule and a Sunday return as a possibility for later. No Sunday date has been announced.
At the ribbon cutting, Councilwoman Traci Park put the market's history in plain terms:
"For 25 years, the Pacific Palisades Farmers Market has been an institution in this community. It's part of the fabric of daily life for Palisadians."
The library runs on afternoons too. The temporary Palisades Branch Library is set up in the library parking lot at 861 Alma Real Drive and is open Tuesday through Saturday, 1 to 5 p.m. Its October calendar has a few morning and after-school exceptions. There's baby and toddler storytime on October 7 at 10:30 a.m. and an East West Players youth play on October 8 from 3 to 4 p.m. Día de los Muertos crafts are on October 30 from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m.
Palisades Towne Hall at 861 Via de la Paz is the newest gathering space. It held its launch party on September 25 with local food, music and a play area. As of the September 28 report, it was still waiting on permits for regular public hours, so for now it can host private parties and events.
A Palisades Week, by the Clock
Put together, the published hours make a weekly schedule:
- Daily, 6 to 11:30 a.m. Pali Drip, inside Prima Cantina at 15246 Sunset.
- Daily, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Palisades General Store, 542½ Palisades Drive.
- Tuesday through Saturday, 1 to 5 p.m. The temporary library at 861 Alma Real Drive.
- Wednesday, 1:30 to 5:30 p.m. The farmers market on Swarthmore.
- Daily, 8 a.m. to sunset. Day-use parking at Will Rogers State Historic Park, 1501 Will Rogers State Park Road.
- October weekdays and weekends. The Lowe Family YMCA pumpkin patch at Simon Meadow, 15551 Sunset. The listing gives no closing date.
All of these hours come from fall reports, and several of these places opened only weeks ago. Hours may change, so check before a special trip.
Trails Reopened, With One Exception
Temescal Gateway Park reopened in July, 18 months after the fire. The Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy and the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority announced it on July 13. The rebuilt Rivas Trail leads to two overlooks and continues to Will Rogers State Historic Park. The Sunset Trail is open and connects to Temescal Ridge Trail and Topanga State Park. The Sycamore Grove and Rubell picnic areas are open too.
The Temescal Canyon Trail to the waterfall is still closed until further notice. MRCA says fire damage left the trail unsafe. For a loop from Temescal, the Rivas route to Will Rogers is the one that's open. At Will Rogers, the State Parks page lists parking from 8 a.m. to sunset and links to its current recovery-planning information.
The Palisades Recreation Center hasn't caught up yet. The city parks page still says programming is closed until further notice because of the fire, even though it also shows standard facility hours. Go by the closure notice, not the posted hours.
What the Calendar Shows Next
Most of the upcoming dates are in 2027. Flour Pizzeria signed a lease for 15270 Antioch Street. Its owner said in July that permits had not started and that he's aiming for July 4, 2027. Flour's old building at 843 Via de la Paz is nearly finished. The Pacific Palisades Veterinary Center at 853 Via de la Paz, one of the buildings the fire spared, has reopened.
Erewhon is set to open at Palisades Village in January 2027. That will give the Palisades a second major grocery store alongside Vons. In the Marquez Knolls Commercial District, once home to Vittorio Ristorante, Ronny's Market and Knolls Pharmacy, three of the four property owners have announced plans to rebuild. Because the properties have several owners with different insurers, the Pali Post expects that process to be slower.
The same report notes that only part of the community's original 24,000 residents have returned, and some retailers are waiting before they rebuild. Until they do, everyday errands around town depend on the Highlands plaza, a few storefronts on Sunset, a Wednesday market on Swarthmore and a coffee bar that shares Prima Cantina's mornings.
At Team Stacy White, we keep a running list of what's reopening around the Palisades, from the Highlands to the Sunset storefronts, as new dates are confirmed. If you'd like the latest version, or want to talk through how the rebuild is changing your part of town, we're glad to hear from you. Let's Find Your Westside Home.
