The San Clemente Pier's Makeover for 100 Starts at the Far End and Works Back to the Street

At the far end of the San Clemente Pier, past the anglers and the railing posts worn down by salt, there is a stand selling food again. Its name is Hook & Cook, and it sits on the concession space that the city's Beaches, Parks and Recreation Director, Samantha Wylie, called "a special place for our community and an important part of the San Clemente experience."

Walk back toward town and you reach the part of the pier that hasn't changed yet. That's the Pier Bowl entrance on Avenida Victoria, with its trolley stop, its tracks, and the railroad underpass. It's the next piece of a plan built around one date. The pier turns 100 in 2028, and the work leading up to it focuses less on the pier's structure than on how you get from Avenida Del Mar to the last plank.

The far end went first

For roughly a year, the end of the pier had no food. The Orange County Register reported in late May that the previous operation, the Snack Shack, had left the space about a year earlier.

The City Council voted 5–0 on May 19, 2026, to award the concession to Hook and Cook SC LLC. The term is four years, with an option to extend two more. Ten proposals came in. According to the Register, staff called the winner "the most qualified proposer based on experience, business concept, operational readiness, and alignment with the city's goals for this iconic coastal amenity."

The winning proposal came from San Clemente residents Nick and Lauren Rivard. That matters for the bigger plan, because they already run Picnic Café at 174 Avenida Del Mar. The San Clemente Journal reports the café opened on April 17 of last year. Lauren Rivard started The Picnic Collective in 2018, setting up styled picnics along the Southern California coast, so this team has been building businesses around eating outdoors by the water for years. One couple now has a storefront at the top of Del Mar and a stand at the bottom of the pier, the same line the centennial plan is trying to reconnect.

The city's August 31 press release scheduled the ribbon cutting at the end of the pier for Friday, September 4, at 11 a.m., promising "an updated look and a fresh menu." Before opening, the Journal listed lobster rolls, tacos, shaved ice, beignets, breakfast items, coffee, and Hawaiian-style hot dogs as planned menu items, along with bait and tackle for people fishing off the rail. Those were plans, so check the menu at the window, and the hours, before you make the walk with breakfast in mind.

The street end is next, and it's built around the underpass

The bigger change is planned for the other end. The San Clemente Pier Conservancy, which spent its first decade as PierPride, is working with the City, RSM Design, and Community Catalyst on what it calls the Pier Entrance Project 2028. The project has three stated goals:

1. Get more people to use the railroad underpass, which the Conservancy calls a safe alternative for reaching the pier and beach, and draw them in with public art about San Clemente history and marine life.
2. Ease congestion on Avenida Victoria, where the Conservancy says 2 million visitors a year arrive by SC Trolley, Metrolink, e-bike, car, and on foot.
3. Reopen the view corridor to the pier, with a larger trolley waiting area, more seating, and drought-tolerant coastal landscaping.

The view corridor goal dates to 1928. In the Register's June story on the centennial push, the Conservancy's Kawas said the entrance should look the way it did in 1928, "when it was possible to stand on the street and see all the way to the end of the pier." The same story says city founder Ole Hanson pictured people walking down Del Mar and across to the pier as a welcoming entrance. Over the years, growing vegetation, the bus stop, and the train stop have blocked that view.

The underpass gets the most specific changes. The Register describes better lighting, murals, and a sound system meant to discourage people from staying there overnight, plus benches in an expanded plaza where people can watch the ocean while they wait for a ride.

A second project runs the full length of the pier. The Conservancy and the City tested a lower-maintenance composite to replace the worn wooden railings, and the Conservancy's project page says it will go in pier-wide after Labor Day this year. As of the Conservancy's October update, neither project had a posted finish date. In June, organizers hoped for an entrance ribbon cutting in October or November.

Why a nonprofit is paying for the parts you see

The split of who pays for what explains why the visible upgrades come in this order. The Register reports that after California phased out redevelopment agencies in 2012, the City kept responsibility for the pier's structure, including the pilings underneath. The nonprofit took on what Kawas calls the pier's "experience." When the two agree on a capital project, she said, the Conservancy usually pays 25% and the city covers the rest.

The group's earlier work on the pier includes marine-grade paint, the educational signs about views and marine life, fishing line recycling canisters, bird netting that helped improve water quality, and the holiday lights and Christmas tree. The Conservancy hopes to raise $2 million to $3 million for an endowment by 2028, the pier's 100th birthday.

There's another deadline. Trestles hosts surfing for the 2028 Summer Olympics, and the Conservancy calls the entrance project "especially crucial" for that reason. The Register reports the city is lobbying for viewing parties and a big screen near the pier, and it would like medal ceremonies held at the pier instead of at Trestles. That decision belongs to the U.S. Olympic Committee, not the city.

Local artists have until November 16

This is the one part of the entrance project residents can contribute to directly, and the window is short. The Conservancy and the City opened the third round of Art on the Pier with three commissions, all in the railroad underpass area east of the pier.

Applications go by email to [email protected] and are due by 5 p.m. on November 16, 2026. Artists can apply for one, two, or all three, with a separate application and concept for each. A jury of artists, art professionals, volunteers, and community members reviews the entries. The free application is on the San Clemente Pier Conservancy website. Artists hear back by December 11, and the selections are announced December 15. Honorariums are paid once the artwork is installed.

One December weekend covers the whole route

Two events back to back trace the same line from the end of the pier up Del Mar that the centennial plan is restoring.

• Friday, December 4, 4:30–5:30 p.m., end of the pier. The Conservancy and the City host the holiday tree lighting, with carols from the St. Margaret's Highlander Choir and free hot cocoa and candy canes.
• Saturday, December 5, 4–9 p.m., Avenida Del Mar. The San Clemente Downtown Business Association's Puttin' on the Glitz at Santa's Village by the Sea brings late shopping and dining hours, live music, carolers, vendor booths, and a silent disco. Santa arrives on Del Mar between 4 and 4:30 p.m.

On Friday, the pier's metered lots run from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m., and the City's pier page notes that the Pier Bowl lots are piloting the Passport Parking app. Dinner at the base after the tree lighting fits easily, since Fisherman's Restaurant lists Friday hours until 9:30 p.m. Going the other direction on Saturday, the walk up from the pier ends at the Glitz, with Picnic Café at 174 Avenida Del Mar along the way.

If the walk from Del Mar to the end of the pier is part of your week, I'd love to hear what you think as the entrance work takes shape, and I'm glad to share what I'm watching downtown as 2028 gets closer. Erica Lupori | Luxury Coastal Group is always happy to talk San Clemente. Let's Connect.