Rodeo Drive used to set the rhythm. This summer the block that actually reorganizes a resident's week is Canon Drive, where three of the year's most-watched restaurants have taken over legacy addresses and the city's free Thursday concert series pulls the crowd two blocks east of the flagship boutiques.
The shift is worth noticing because it changes small things. Where you park. Which side of the Golden Triangle you walk when you have an hour before dinner. Whether "a quick drink at the Maybourne" now means the rooftop or the ground floor. The 2026 wave of openings is heavy on New York and European operators choosing Beverly Hills as their first West Coast address, and most of them have landed within a five-minute walk of one another.
Canon Drive is the new operational center
Three arrivals tell the story. Bad Roman, the theatrical red-sauce room from Quality Branded of New York, took over the former Palm space and brought with it wild boar statues, negroni shots on toy cars, and the crispy pepperoni cups the New York original made famous. Two doors of activity down, Azur opened as a French-Mediterranean lounge, trading the stuffiness common to Canon for a warmer, later-running room. Avra Beverly Hills, the West Coast outpost of the celebrated New York Greek house, occupies an 11,000-square-foot space designed like an open-air villa, with whole fish flown in from around the world and grilled with the kind of restraint most Canon kitchens can no longer afford to attempt.
Add the reappearance of Nate N' Al's, relocating from its longtime Beverly Drive home, and Canon becomes the one street where you can eat Roman-American, Riviera-French, Aegean-Greek, and old-school deli within a single block.
A Thursday evening, as the geography now runs
The seasonal spine is Concerts on Cañon, free Thursday performances from 6 to 8 p.m. through August 20 at Beverly Cañon Gardens, 241 N. Cañon Drive, adjacent to the Maybourne. That single detail rearranges the week. A resident's Thursday now looks like this:
- Arrive at Beverly Cañon Gardens by 6 for the concert.
- Walk one block for aperitivo at Dante Beverly Hills, the rooftop import from Linden Pride and Nathalie Hudson at The Maybourne, built for leisurely drinking poolside.
- Dinner at Bad Roman, Avra, or Azur, all within three minutes on foot.
- Coffee or gelato afterward at Bacio di Latte's new U.S. flagship, or a six-ounce cookie from Levain Bakery.
None of that requires a car. That is the point.
The New York-to-Beverly Hills class of 2026
The list of first-West-Coast landings is longer than any single year in recent memory. Read it as a market signal: outside operators are choosing Beverly Hills over Century City, West Hollywood, and Downtown as their entry point.
| Restaurant | Origin | Where | What to order |
|---|---|---|---|
| Marea | New York | Beverly Hills | The Michael White pasta canon |
| Bad Roman | New York (Quality Branded) | Canon Drive, former Palm space | Crispy pepperoni cups, flambéed lobster |
| Avra | New York | Golden Triangle, 11,000 sq ft | Whole grilled fish |
| Dante | New York | Rooftop of The Maybourne | Award-winning aperitivo cocktails |
| Sushi Nakazawa | New York (Michelin-starred) | 145 S. Robertson Blvd, former Cuvee space | The 13-course chef's menu at $295 |
| Levain Bakery | New York | Beverly Hills | The six-ounce chocolate chip walnut cookie |
| 88 Club | Los Angeles (Mei Lin, Top Chef) | Beverly Hills | Supper-club menu |
| All'Antico Vinaio | Florence | Beverly Hills | Schiacciata sandwiches |
| Pura Vida | Miami | Former Tocaya Organica space | Beef empanadas, matcha latte |
| Hi Bake | Asia (first U.S. location) | Beverly Hills | French and Asian-inspired sweets |
| Bacio di Latte | Brazil / global | Beverly Hills flagship | Straciatella gelato |
| Baldi | New | Waldorf Astoria, 9850 Wilshire | Sweet corn tortellini, Sher wagyu Tomahawk |
| Gemma | New (replaces Rooftop by JG) | Waldorf Astoria rooftop | Filet mignon stir-fry, curry-noodle lobster |
| Azur | New | Canon Drive | French-Mediterranean, late |
For a resident who has watched Beverly Hills dining plateau for a decade, the density of openings within a single calendar year is the item to hold onto.
Rodeo is building for a longer horizon
None of the above is to say Rodeo Drive is quiet. It is building on a different timeline. Louis Vuitton is putting up a 45,000-square-foot architectural landmark designed by Frank Gehry. Cartier is unveiling a three-story boutique. Bvlgari is remodeling and expanding. These are anchor moves aimed at the international traffic the FIFA World Cup and the Route 66 centennial are expected to bring in 2026, which Beverly Hills Conference & Visitors Bureau CEO Julie Wagner described as the city's milestone year.
Beverly Drive, running parallel one block east of Rodeo, has been quietly absorbing the flagships that Rodeo can no longer make room for: L'Agence, Tory Burch, and Veronica Beard, with Zadig & Voltaire relocating, Maje remodeling, and G/FORE and Wilson bringing athleisure into a corridor that has historically resisted it. H&M is joining the same block. The Beverly Drive lineup is broader in price point than Rodeo has ever been, and for a resident it is the more useful of the two streets to know.
The hotels are quietly becoming resident amenities
The interesting move at the top of the hotel market is inward-facing. Refreshes are being built for locals as much as for guests.
- The Beverly Wilshire, A Four Seasons Hotel, has debuted a next-generation spa combining modern wellness with older ritual.
- The Beverly Hills Hotel is adding a chic veranda bar, a private screening room, a stylish meeting venue, a lobby café, and an elegant supper club with fine dining and live entertainment.
- L'Ermitage Beverly Hills has redesigned its lobby level, refreshed the restaurant and lounge, and revitalized the rooftop.
- The Beverly Hilton is undertaking a property-wide revitalization as the anchor to the forthcoming One Beverly Hills, which will bring the first West Coast Aman Hotel, Residences and Private Club.
The screening room and the supper club at the Beverly Hills Hotel are the two most under-discussed additions of the summer for someone who lives here. Both are built for a Thursday or a Sunday, not a stay.
The Sunday and the Wednesday
Two smaller anchors deserve equal weight.
The Beverly Hills Farmers' Market runs every Sunday, 8 a.m. to 1 p.m., rain or shine, at 9300 Civic Center Drive. For a household that treats Sunday morning as the week's reset, it is worth pairing with a walk-up at Pura Vida, whose Wilshire location took over the former Tocaya Organica space and reads bright and Miami-airy from the sidewalk in.
The second date to hold: Greystone in the Movies on Wednesdays, August 19 and 26, at 6:30 p.m. at the Greystone Theatre, 905 Loma Vista Drive. Greystone Mansion and Gardens is one of the few civic venues in the city where an evening feels genuinely private rather than performed, and the two August film nights close out the summer programming.
Layered onto that, an Inside the Mansion tour runs Saturday, August 1, from 11 to 3, and Play Readings with Theatre 40 continue through the season inside Greystone Theatre.
Two small city notes worth knowing
Captain Max Subin, a 27-year veteran of the Beverly Hills Police Department, was promoted to Chief of Police effective June 27, 2026. Fire Chief Greg Barton has announced his retirement later this fall once a successor is selected. Neither changes anything about a Thursday on Canon, but both are the kind of quiet institutional continuity that owners in this city tend to track.
The through line
If a resident took a summer off from the Golden Triangle and returned in August, they would find the geography of their weeknight has quietly rotated. The center of gravity has moved one block east from Rodeo to Canon. Three New York rooms and a French-Mediterranean lounge now share that block. A Thursday concert lives across the street from a rooftop aperitivo, which lives across a lobby from the city's most walkable dinner cluster. Sunday still belongs to the Farmers' Market, and the last two Wednesdays of August belong to Greystone.
For owners and long-term residents, the practical question is smaller than it looks. The summer's reprogramming is the kind of neighborhood change that quietly changes how a home is used, which streets its household walks, and what a Thursday evening five minutes from the front door is now capable of being.
If you own a residence in Beverly Hills and would like a single accountable partner overseeing the stewardship of your property while the neighborhood around it continues to shift, McGhie Allan is available for a confidential conversation. Become a Client.
