Pico Blvd. may not have been the obvious street in Santa Monica to high light (we will get to them all, don’t worry!), but it is definitely sweet. Another street to spend a beautiful afternoon and end up at the beach! Any street with an ocean at the end is OK by me.

The main draw of these few blocks near the coastline has to be the Sunday Santa Monica’s Farmers’ Market. It is hands down the best market I’ve been to in L.A. And feel free to disagree just DO NOT say The Grove’s farmers’ market is better. I might have to hurt you. Ok so technically the official address of the market is on Main St., but let’s pretend that’s not true for a moment! Unlike the dreaded Grove, this market has a really large selection of locally grown produce, with tons of family-friendly activities to boot. One can easily drop a handful of cash at any on of the booths. It’s really the one thing in SM that could convince me to move there, I would cook every day with ingredients purchased here! The difference between this market and the others in the area is that the local businesses in the area take part as well. It really is a community event. You can also buy crepes, tamales, sandwiches, and more at the food stands here, and then make a little picnic on the grass surrounding the stalls. It can get crowded here, so try to arrive early. That way, you’ll get the best selection AND you won’t have to wait in any lines for it!

A few blocks away is a little place called Vidiots. This is where you go to find pretty much any movie you need. And yes, they have things Netflix doesn’t! Obscure foreign films, classic oldies, art films, you name it, they will have it or help you locate it! Blockbuster has nothing on Vidiots. A lot of these kind of places in L.A. can come off as pretentious, but not here. The employees are friendly and helpful (at least when I’ve been there!). They even offer a Staff Picks’ section of their website to give you some ideas of their particular tastes. You can spend an entire afternoon looking through their material, especially some of those bizarre sci-fi flicks from the 50’s.

One of my favorite places to eat in Santa Monica is also on this street: Cha Cha Chicken. This Caribbean restaurant is located just off the beach in a tiny little hut that’s packed with color. You can come for breakfast and order the Chicken Hash or the Sweet Spicy Eggs ala Jerk. Then of course their pride and joy has to be the Cha Cha Chicken 1/4, 1/2 or if you want to get crazy, Whole. It really is tender, flavorful, and delicious! I still need to try their Coconut Fried Chicken with the sweet mango sauce on the side. They also serve agua frescas like mango-guava, watermelon, and cantaloupe. I tried their fresh squeeze lemonade which is fabulous! But if you are going to go, try anything with their jerk sauce because they’re pretty into it, and you should be too!

You could always end the day on Pico Blvd. with some black light bowling at the AMF Bay Shore Lanes down the street, a play at the Memorial Open Air Theatre, or catch a beautiful sunset, if it’s not too foggy, on the beach! This sweet street is the ideal place to spend a relaxing Sunday with a few friends!

Want to suggest a sweet street? E-mail us!

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 12th, 2009 at 9:44 am and is filed under Sweet Streets. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.