Where do you actually go on a Tuesday in West Hollywood if you don't have a reservation and don't work in the industry?
That question has been getting harder to answer from the headlines alone, because West Hollywood has spent the first half of 2026 collecting a genuinely impressive run of restaurant press. Nearly all of it points to the Sunset Strip. Meanwhile, two blocks south on Santa Monica Boulevard, in a building most residents only knew as an old furniture showroom that later sat empty as office space, something opened that adds a grocery option to the city's mix.
The Building Laurel Supply Took Over
The address is 8445 Santa Monica Boulevard. The building went up in 1942 for Ritts Company Furniture, a business run by the parents of photographer Herb Ritts. It later spent the dot-com years as the home of the Hollywood Stock Exchange, then sat for roughly a decade as creative office space, the kind of building you walk past without registering what's inside.
On May 8, that changed. Dean McKillen and Phil Howard, the team behind Laurel Hardware at 7984 Santa Monica Boulevard and Ysabel a few blocks south, opened Laurel Supply in the space. It's the first time in more than eighty years the building has had groceries in it rather than furniture, stock tickers, or desks.
That detail matters more than it sounds like it should. McKillen and Howard already have two restaurants anchoring this stretch of the boulevard. Adding a market to the same corridor isn't a bet on a one-night crowd. It's a bet that enough people already walk this stretch on a normal Tuesday to make a grocery concept work between two restaurants they already run.
Other Recent Openings Around West Hollywood
Compare that with other openings around West Hollywood this year. SUSHISAMBA debuted March 16 at 639 N. La Peer Drive in the Design District, its first U.S. opening in over a decade for a brand that otherwise runs in London, Amsterdam, and Barcelona. The space runs 11,000 square feet with a retractable roof, a long marble bar, and private dining reached by its own dedicated elevator.
A few weeks later, the h.wood Group announced Little Luck, an elevated Japanese concept slated for the former Bootsy Bellows space at 9229 Sunset Boulevard, with a target opening that had been set for late July. And Round1, the Japanese company better known in the U.S. for bowling alleys and arcades, signed on for a food hall called Sora at the Sunset and La Cienega corner, close to 20,000 square feet across two floors, built to house Tokyo restaurants like Tempura Takiya making their first American appearance.
These openings offer different experiences from a neighborhood market. SUSHISAMBA features a retractable roof and private dining, while Little Luck is a Japanese concept and Sora is a food hall.
| Address | What opened or is opening | Distinguishing details |
|---|---|---|
| 8445 Santa Monica Blvd | Laurel Supply, opened May 8 | A grocery market on Santa Monica Boulevard |
| 639 N. La Peer Dr | SUSHISAMBA, opened March 16 | An 11,000-square-foot restaurant with a retractable roof |
| 9229 Sunset Blvd | Little Luck, which had a late-July target opening | A Japanese concept in the former Bootsy Bellows space |
| Sunset & La Cienega | Sora food hall, opening date not yet announced | A food hall planned for two floors, with Tokyo restaurants |
What Changes on an Actual Tuesday
For someone who lives closer to Santa Monica Boulevard than to the Strip, the practical shift is small but real. Laurel Supply completes a run of three addresses under one ownership group along a stretch residents use for errands, dinner, and coffee. It adds a market to the corridor.
The rest of a West Hollywood resident's actual month doesn't come from either wave of openings. It comes from the recurring calendar the city and its smaller venues keep running underneath the restaurant news.
- Every Monday: the Helen Albert Certified Farmers' Market, a fixture on West Hollywood's event calendar that predates every restaurant listed above.
- September 12 to 13, 19 to 20, and 26 to 27: Free Theatre in the Parks brings Impro Theatre's Jane Austen UnScripted to Kings Road Park, presented by the city's Arts Division. Performances start at 4 p.m., admission is free, and RSVP is requested rather than required.
- Live music: smaller rooms like Live at The Sun Rose and the Peppermint Club, as well as longtime stages like the Troubadour and Whisky a Go Go, book acts in West Hollywood.
The city's recurring calendar continues alongside the restaurant news.
A Range of Openings and Activities
This year's openings reflect a range of uses in West Hollywood: destination restaurants and a food hall, alongside a grocery concept on Santa Monica Boulevard.
Laurel Supply adds a grocery concept to the Santa Monica Boulevard corridor. The restaurant and food-hall projects described above add other dining options in West Hollywood. The city's events and music venues round out the range of things residents can do across the city.
If you're weighing how a specific stretch of West Hollywood actually functions day to day, not just how it photographs on a Saturday night, Country Queen Real Estate knows these corridors block by block. Schedule a free consultation when you're ready to talk about what living here really looks like.
