Santa Monica Place

Santa Monica Place, the two-block mall getting a makeover at the center of downtown Santa Monica, announced its first major new tenant Tuesday with word that Nordstrom Inc. is coming in 2010. The Seattle-based retailer has agreed to join Macy's as the anchor tenants. The mall in the city's business district is undergoing a major renovation to convert it from a traditional enclosed shopping center to an outdoor venue linking to the Third Street Promenade.

Tacos that aren't tacos, cheese that isn't cheese, but somehow it kind of works. LOCATION 395 Santa Monica Place, Santa Monica, (310) 394-7046, matthewkenneycuisine.com/restaurants/santa-monica PRICES Share plates, $14-$16; starters, $10-$13; main dishes, $15-$18; desserts, $10-$11. DETAILS Open 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily. Credit cards accepted. Wine. Mall lot parking. RECOMMENDED DISHES Cauliflower with walnuts and harissa, rainbow carrot salad with cumin, king oyster with asparagus and sea beans.

Since designing Santa Monica Place mall more than three decades ago, Frank Gehry has become a world-renowned architect and Santa Monica has become one of the most lively and thriving beach cities. The suburban-style mall, however, languished in time, walled off from the increasingly vibrant street life. Now a developer is betting it can become hip again. Macerich Co. spent $265 million to rip the mall at Third Street and Broadway down to its steel foundations and rebuild it as a three-story outdoor shopping venue.

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Location: 395 Santa Monica Place, Santa Monica. From the 10 Freeway, take the 4th Street exit north and turn left on Colorado Avenue. Hours: 10 a.m.-9 p.m. Mon.-Thurs.; 10 a.m.-10 p.m. Fri. and Sat.; 11 a.m.-8 p.m. Sun. Known for: Santa Monica Place, a $265-million remodel of a Frank Gehry-designed structure, reopened in August 2010. Shoppers waited for hours the first day to find parking spaces, browse luxury stores and give thanks that they no longer had to make the grueling drive to Beverly Hills or Century City to shop Coach or Tiffany or Louis Vuitton.

Macerich Co., a Santa Monica-based operator and owner of shopping malls, has acquired Santa Monica Place for about $130 million, and has sold a half-stake in three of its Southland malls collectively valued at about $550 million to a Canadian pension fund. Both transactions reflect Macerich's emphasis on "clustering" nearby centers to take advantage of buying efficiencies and marketing synergies.

Santa Monica Place is identified as the shopping mall by the sea--by its stores and by the number of beach-going visitors that pass through its doors. The mall has followed the trend toward specialty stores, adding a Pacific Sunwear outlet (hip surf garb). It also boasts two environmentally sensitive retail outlets in the Heal the Bay Museum and Nature's Own. The great outdoors theme is also reflected in its Eddie Bauer store. Developed and operated by the Rouse Co. of Columbia, Md.

Andrea Bowers makes an art of people-watching in a wonderfully subversive video-installation in the Food Court at Santa Monica Place, a nondescript mall whose parking garage is one of the first structures on which architect Frank Gehry used chain-link fence as a decorative element.

The new incarnation of Santa Monica Place, the Frank Gehry-designed shopping center that is getting a major makeover in downtown Santa Monica, will feature a broad plaza surrounded by curving walls that open both to the street and toward the beach. With flourishes of curved shining material unwinding from a third-story plaza, the $155-million renovation will allow patrons to see the nearby ocean from its rooftop dining level, according to architectural drawings released Wednesday.

"Listen," say the signs that are printed in five languages and suspended amid pastel streamers at the Santa Monica Place mall. The instructions don't refer to the usual din of shrieking children and rushing fountains. Instead, the white placards ask shoppers to tune in to "Santa Monica Sound Portrait." The work by audio artist Bill Fontana broadcasts live sounds from the Santa Monica Pier throughout the airy, three-story shopping center.

First printed July 31, 2011, Updated March 13, 2012. Hotel Erwin, 1697 Pacific Ave., Venice; (310) 452-1111, www.hotelerwin.com . $$-$$$ Mao's Kitchen, 1512 Pacific Ave., Venice; (310) 581-8305, www.maoskitchen.com . $ Annenberg Community Beach House, 415 Pacific Coast Highway, Santa Monica; (310) 458-4904, www.annenbergbeachhouse.com . Memorial Park Fitness Room, 1401 Olympic Blvd., Santa Monica; (310) 450-4939, www.smgov.net/comm_progs/community_sports/Gymnasium.htm . Open noon-9 p.m. Mondays-Fridays; noon-7 weekends.

Dear SOS: I just made the kale gratin from last week's edition, and it was luscious. Thanks. My 6-year-old daughter eats like a bird but absolutely loves the brisket from La Sandia at Santa Monica Place. It is one of the only meals she asks for. We actually splurge on the non-kid menu entree for her whenever we go there. I would like to replicate it as best I can at home. Can you please get the recipe? Thanks very much. Jill Donaty Encino Dear Jill: It's a perfect dish if you're entertaining.

Location: 395 Santa Monica Place, Santa Monica. From the 10 Freeway, take the 4th Street exit north and turn left on Colorado Avenue. Hours: 10 a.m.-9 p.m. Mon.-Thurs.; 10 a.m.-10 p.m. Fri. and Sat.; 11 a.m.-8 p.m. Sun. Known for: Santa Monica Place, a $265-million remodel of a Frank Gehry-designed structure, reopened in August 2010. Shoppers waited for hours the first day to find parking spaces, browse luxury stores and give thanks that they no longer had to make the grueling drive to Beverly Hills or Century City to shop Coach or Tiffany or Louis Vuitton.

Mace Siegel, a prominent owner of thoroughbred racehorses who was considered a godfather of Southern California horse racing for his role as an advocate for the sport, has died. He was 86. Siegel, who was also a leading developer of regional shopping centers, died Wednesday at his Beverly Hills home of complications related to old age, said his daughter, Samantha. "Mace was a pillar in our industry," George Haines, president of Santa Anita Park said in a statement. "His compassion for the horses, horseman and fans was second to none.

FRIDAY OMD Music Box, 6126 Hollywood Blvd. 9 p.m. $32.50 http://www.goldenvoice.com FRI.-SAT. Wine Riot LA Santa Monica Place, 315 Colorado Ave. Fri.-Sat. 7-11 p.m. Also, Sat. 1-5 p.m. $50-$60 secondglass.com/wineriot SATURDAY DJ Shiny Toy Guns and more The Belasco, 1050 S. Hill St. 9 p.m.-3:30 a.m. $20 (213) 746-5670 SATURDAY Men Echoplex, 1154 Glendale Blvd. 8:30 p.m. $12 (213)

When it comes to bars, Santa Monica is home to one of the best local scenes in Southern California. From the walkable watering holes of Main Street to the destination haunts such as Casa Del Mar's classic Veranda Bar or Santa Monica Place's busy Sonoma Wine Garden, Westside residents are not lacking in options for conversation over drinks. But finding an upscale lounge that has space for conversation, crafted cocktails and a DJ for dancing? There are fewer of those. The new 31Ten, in the space at 3110 Main St. that was previously Cache and before that Hidden, hopes to fill a void not being met by many of the city's 246 licensed venues that serve alcohol.

Santa Monica Place, the 28-year-old shopping center designed by Frank O. Gehry, is a ghost mall. The once-bustling shoppers' hub will close today for a multimillion-dollar renovation, slated to begin in March, that will lift the roof off the aging complex and turn it topsy-turvy, putting the food court on top and shops offering luxury and "fashion forward" goods on the two lower levels. When it reopens, possibly as early as the fall of 2009, the center will feature a California native oak tree on the third level, alfresco dining and ocean views, thanks to an open-air design by the Jerde Partnership.

At last, a smart parking garage. The Santa Monica Place mall has installed the nation's first camera-based "Find Your Car" technology in its garages to help shoppers who can't remember where they parked. Punch your license plate number into a kiosk touch screen and a photo of your car and its location will appear. (Unless you park on the roof, where there are no cameras.) It will no longer be necessary to leave bread crumbs to find your way back to your car. But could that abundance of camera data be abused by marketing companies, retailers, repo folks and divorce lawyers, all searching for more information on you than where you parked?

Anyone who has ever tramped through a dim, Escher-esque parking garage in search of a "lost" automobile might welcome an abracadabra technology that could help locate it. But what if that magic involved an array of 24/7 surveillance cameras and was also available to police and auto repossessers? What if it could be tapped by jilted lovers, or that angry guy you accidentally cut off in traffic? Would the convenience be worth the loss of privacy? Those are some of the questions civil libertarians and others are asking as technology capable of spying on motorists and pedestrians is converted to widespread commercial use. Santa Monica Place recently unveiled the nation's first camera-based "Find Your Car" system.