Don Your Monocle for ‘Mainopoly' in Santa Monica

Get thee to Main Street for top-hatted high jinks and tasty bites.

What to Know

  • Sunday, May 26, 1-6 p.m.
  • General admission: $25 advance, $30 at event
  • 20 tastings and "game board" included with general admission, as well as "food and beverage discounts at participating locations"

Opportunities to swan about town in a top hat and monocle are of the few and far between variety, it grieves us to report.

But on the Sunday of Memorial Day Weekend? At least around a particular and particularly flavorful stretch of Santa Monica?

The Monopoly-inspired looks will be out in fanciful force, ye olde top-hatters of Southern California.

That's delightfully due to the return of Mainopoly: A Taste of Main Street, a food-oriented walk-around that's swanning into its sixth year on Sunday, May 26.

For sure, this is a taste-lots-of-things event, the kind of to-do that invites attendees to get better acquainted with local restaurants.

But rather than just setting up tasting stations and dutifully crossing out another line on a guest's restaurant list card, Mainopoly is all about weaving its bites through the high jinks of a board game.

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Call it gourmet gamesmanship if you will. 

You'll receive a "game board" once you buy your general admission, which will also give you 20 tastings along Main Street.

Can you also enjoy a number of food and drink discounts at participating spots That's part of the delish deal, hoo and rah.

Eateries ready to "Pass Go" and welcome players include Sweet Rose Creamery, Poke Ceviche, and several others.

There's a "Go to Jail" VIP lounge for the 21+ set, oh yes.

And will non-food businesses along the thoroughfare also get into the swing? Yep: Look for deals and special happenings at some of the area's retailers.

Do some players go the full monocle-rocking route? And dress in the spirit of the iconic board game?

For sure, though we've yet to see anyone wearing an outfit that recalls the old-school Monopoly thimble or wheelbarrow.

That dog, though, is always a cute costume choice. Woof.

If you choose not to go with Monopoly wear, organizers of Mainopoly suggest a patriotic look, in theme with the holiday weekend.

However you choose to festively dress for the afternoon-long event, best alight on a ticket faster than you can roll a pair of dice.

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