Rocket riches could be fueling a sleepy Los Angeles area city’s sudden interest in the finer things.
El Segundo, the unassuming South Bay enclave best known for its proximity to LAX and a booming aerospace industry, is quickly emerging as one of Southern California’s hottest dining destinations — just months after area employer SpaceX’s blockbuster IPO famously minted thousands of overnight millionaires.
While restaurants across struggling LA are dropping like flies, this sleepy coastal burg of roughly 17,000 residents is experiencing a culinary renaissance — with trendy natural wine bars, upscale eateries and buzzy pizza joints popping up around town.
SpaceX’s historic June stock market debut reportedly created an estimated 4,000 new millionaires among current and former employees, many of them with local ties. The company maintains a large presence just next door in Hawthorne, even after moving headquarters to Texas in 2024.
El Segundo is also home to approximately 100 smaller aerospace firms, according to local officials — which have drawn a whopping $6 billion in venture capital, the California Post earlier reported.
Add it all up, and restaurateurs in El Segundo say business is soaring — straight into the stratosphere.
Among the newest arrivals is EZPZ, a trendy Brooklyn-inspired pizza joint that opened in June, serving up pies made with premium California ingredients and organic soft-serve ice cream. The restaurant comes from Hollywood producer Beau Flynn and his wife, actress Marley Shelton Flynn.
“We’ve discovered that El Segundo is LA’s best-kept secret,” Flynn told SFGATE after opening EZPZ.
Part of the appeal is the city’s welcoming attitude towards small business, according to Mayor Chris Pimentel.
“We try to reduce friction,” Pimentel earlier told the California Post. “It’s a whole city effort; this is a city that likes business.”
And El Segundo clearly likes to support local, too, once a business is open: “We already have so many regulars, which is cool to see in such a short period of time,” Flynn said.
El Segundo’s growing appetite for more sophisticated dining has helped inspire Vinoteca, a new natural wine bar tucked inside Blum, a wine and floral shop located along Pacific Coast Highway. The intimate spot serves thoughtfully selected wines alongside elevated bites like crudités and charcuterie.
“Natural wine was a little foreign for the South Bay, so we knew we needed a space for people to try all these interesting wines,” sommelier and Blum co-founder Julia Blyum told SFGATE.
LA favorites smelling success in El Segundo are also rushing to stake their claim. Wine bar Barsha and Japanese pasta purveyor Unico are now there, while beloved breakfast taco mini-chain HomeState opened a location in September at the open-air retail destination The Point.
Chef Jackson Kalb, who opened Italian restaurant Jame Enoteca in 2018, has watched the city’s culinary cred grow, and his own business along with it. Kalb also opened Jaime Taqueria last year, cementing the investment in the city.
“The way I see things, the more great food we have in town, everyone wins,” Kalb told SFGATE. “We’re doing better every year, too. We’ve expanded our first restaurant three times since we moved in.”