Shuttered Venice Staple Hal's Bar & Grill Transitions Over to Playa Vista

After shuttering their three-decade-old space along Abbot Kinney in Venice — the result, like many other restaurants along the bougie strip, of exploding rental prices — it looks like Hal’s Bar & Grill has not only found a new home, they're hard at work on a second.

The first is coming by the end of the year to Playa Vista, inside the brand new Runway Playa Vista complex. Co-owners Hal Frederick and Don and Linda Novack say the location is ideal for the 30-year old Venice institution, despite being a 10 minute drive from their longtime local clientele. Still, it’s a brand new 4,700 square foot facility that’s being built to spec from the ground up on a soon-to-be bustling plot of land that will eventually hold 13,000 mixed-use residents and already includes a Whole Foods, a Cinemark movie theater, and parking for nearly 1,500 cars.

A December arrival in Playa Vista is likely for Hal's, and in the meantime they’re keeping the core team in place — including chef Manuel Mares — until the opening.

There are still more plans for Hal’s as well, which has hopes to land back along Abbot Kinney somewhere. If they can pull it off, perhaps in a smaller space with a leaner lease agreement, the dual Hal’s outposts could prove to be perfect for the longtime eatery; they’ll have their Venice location for the walking locals, and a bigger, shinier outlet right in the heart of Playa Vista’s attempted mixed-use re-creation of The Grove.