What to Know
- Saturday, Nov. 16
- 4 p.m. to closing
- Wear your best '50s style
Finding your way to Chez Jay, that classic Santa Monica hangout known for sand dabs and those overflowing baskets of in-shell peanuts, not to mention its quirky connection to space travel?
You simply need to get to Ocean Avenue, and then the snug and lively space that sits cheek-by-jowl with Tongva Park.
Finding your way to Chez Jay, back when it opened in 1959?
Hmm. That's rather harder, unless you have a magical portal dialed in to that particular year.
If you don't, fret not, for this seafooderie (and steakery) will spring back some six decades to celebrate its opening year, all to spotlight its 60th anniversary.
That time-traveling to-do will pop up from 4 p.m. to close on Saturday, Nov. 16.
The Scene
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What you'll need to do? Wear something from the era. Hit the local vintage store or call up a relative who still rocks a closet full of frocks and suits that shine with '50s chic.
Also? Prepare to not pay modern prices, for the menu is throwing back to what people paid to dine out in 1959. A New York Cut Steak will go for $5.95, while Shrimp Curry A L'indienne Rice Pilaf is yours for $3.95.
And a Surf 'N' Turf special, complete with lobster tail? Oh, hello, $6.95 is the low, low price.
As for this down-to-earth restaurant's connection to outer space? Astronaut Alan Shepard took a Chez Jay peanut, the hangout's best-known munchable, straight to the moon.
How many restaurants can claim such history, and so many regulars who have remained so devoted over so many decades?
It's a true Santa Monica star, this merry moonbase of stiff martinis, satisfying sand dabs, and peanut after peanut after we-can't-stop-eating-them peanuts.
Happy 60th, Chez Jay!
