Walk the block between Dahlia and Poppy on a Tuesday morning this July and the village feels like a set piece mid-strike. Construction fencing wraps the north half of Sherman Library & Gardens. The entrance has moved to the Dahlia corner. The Christmas Walk banners haven't gone up yet, but the sponsor forms are already circulating at the Chamber office on East Coast Highway.
This is the year to pay attention. Corona del Mar in 2026 is running on a temporary calendar, wedged between a garden that isn't quite finished and a restaurant that hasn't opened yet, and the village rhythm you know is only going to be this specific for a few more months.
The Sherman year most people are missing
2026 is Sherman Library and Gardens' 60th anniversary year, and a large portion of the garden is currently fenced off for a reimagining, with the entrance door moved to the corner of Dahlia. If you visited in 2023 and think you know what to expect, you don't. The paths on the north side are closed. The koi pond is accessible. The succulent and cactus collection is intact. The rest is under wraps.
What most residents don't realize is the timeline attached to the construction. Sherman announced its new restaurant partner in a fully reimagined farm-to-table restaurant that will open in Fall 2027, and several Hazeltine's Afternoon Tea experiences are scheduled in 2026 as a preview of the incoming hospitality program. The old 608 Dahlia lunch service is winding down as an era, not just a season. If you have a standing reservation habit at that patio, this is the last stretch of it in its current form.
The reimagining is not a refresh. It is a rebuild of the anchor.
That reframes a lot of decisions. Membership renewals this year are effectively an option on the 2027 opening. The Hazeltine's tea slots on the current calendar are the only way to sample the incoming operator before the doors close for full buildout. Residents treating Sherman as a background amenity are missing the point of the moment.
Dog Days, and why six sculptures land differently this summer
The summer installation is the reason to walk the accessible half of the garden right now. Sherman's annual Summer Art Installation this year features larger-than-life sculptures by internationally renowned mixed-media artist Elizabeth Laul Healey, who hails from Laguna Beach and Corona del Mar and has fabricated more than 250 of these sculptures; Sherman is showing six of her most popular pieces.
Six is a small number. In a garden operating at roughly half its normal footprint, six specimen sculptures placed against a limited path system means every one of them anchors a view. The show reads differently than it would in a fully open garden. Standing next to the pieces, the compressed footprint becomes an accidental asset.
A few things to know before you go:
- Entry is through the Dahlia corner, not the main PCH gate residents remember
- Admission is $5 for anyone over 4, with children 3 and under free
- Garden hours run 10:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily
- 608 Dahlia currently serves lunch Wednesday through Sunday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., indoors or on the central patio
- The $5 garden fee applies even if you are only dining at the restaurant
For members bringing a photographer for a portrait session, the compressed path system actually simplifies the shoot. Fewer competing sightlines. Cleaner backgrounds against Healey's pieces.
Where the village eats while Sherman rebuilds
With 608 Dahlia in its final chapters and Hazeltine's still on tasting-menu mode, the anchor lunch spot in the district is functionally out of rotation for regular use. That has pushed weekday village foot traffic back toward the PCH corridor between Marguerite and Poppy. A quick map of what's actually there, and what each place is genuinely for:
| Room | Where | What it is really for |
|---|---|---|
| Five Crowns | 3801 E. Coast Hwy | A replica of one of England's oldest country inns and a dining fixture in Corona del Mar since 1965. Sunday roast, out-of-town guests, quiet anniversaries. |
| SideDoor | Poppy Street entrance under the big red key | Corona del Mar's first and only English-style gastropub, a separate operation within Five Crowns, focused on seasonal small plates portioned for sharing plus a charcuterie station and world-class spirits. Walk-in on a Thursday. |
| Bandera | 3201 E. Coast Hwy | A neighborhood restaurant with kitchen-in-the-round theater, slow-roasting rotisserie chickens over a hardwood fire in a custom stone oven. Standing weeknight order. |
| CDM Restaurant | 2325 E. Coast Hwy | Chef-driven creative American under Executive Chef Elvis Morales, with a downstairs speakeasy called Under CDM where no password or reservation is required. Later-night option. |
| Foretti's CDM | East Coast Hwy | A 2013-vintage Newport dining fixture now under Level 1 Sommelier Thaddeus Foret, still preparing the original chef's signature recipes. Pasta night. |
Two things this table quietly says. First, the village is not short on dining while Sherman rebuilds. Second, the operators anchoring the district are multi-decade tenants, not pop-ups. Five Crowns has been on that corner for six decades. Bandera is a Hillstone room with its own quiet gravity. The 2026 turnover risk on the PCH side of the village is close to zero.
December 6 is the real village day
Circle it now. The 47th Annual Corona del Mar Christmas Walk is scheduled for Saturday, December 6, 2026, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Two things worth knowing if you've lived here less than a couple of cycles:
The walk is free to the public with no specific starting point; the format is to stroll the sidewalks of PCH throughout the village and enjoy it as you go. That means the day rewards residents who live inside the walking radius and treat it as a rolling open house across the district, not visitors who show up looking for a stage.
The rhythm, based on prior years and the current program:
- Late morning, the Coast Highway sidewalks fill in around Marguerite and work outward
- Local favorite Pinch Me plays in the parking lot at Bandera's, strolling carolers perform at Sherman Library & Gardens, the NBFD Fireman's Grill serves hot dogs, and CdM Carolers, stilt walkers and a magician stroll the PCH sidewalks
- Live entertainment stages more than 17 local bands across the district
- A Beer & Wine Garden operates in Bandera's lower parking lot with Pinch Me on the signature bill, at $10 entry with $10 pours
- Merchant windows and restaurant tastings run in parallel until close
- The event benefits the U.S. Marines Toys for Tots Program and is presented by the Corona del Mar Chamber of Commerce
For homeowners on Iris, Jasmine, Marigold, Narcissus, Orchid, and the flower blocks below PCH, the walk is one of the two days a year when your street is the front row for something regionally covered. The other is the CdM Scenic 5K in June. If you've been putting off the exterior touch-up on the entry or the front-yard planting, the pre-Walk window in mid-November is the honest deadline.
What this bridge year is actually telling you
Corona del Mar spent the last decade as a district where the anchors were stable and the churn was quiet. In 2026, the anchor is moving. Sherman at 60 is not the same institution it was at 55, and it will not be the same at 62. The Hazeltine's tea calendar is a soft launch of what the Dahlia block will feel like starting in Fall 2027. The Christmas Walk in December is the last one where the garden's northern half is behind construction fencing.
For residents, three practical takeaways sit inside that:
Membership at Sherman for the 2026–2027 cycle is the cheapest access you will get to the reopening, and to Hazeltine's while it is running at limited capacity. The 60th anniversary programming is compressed into a shorter path system, which paradoxically makes the Elizabeth Laul Healey installation land harder than it would in a fully open garden. And the Christmas Walk on December 6 is the year's clearest snapshot of the village foot traffic pattern, useful data whether you are thinking about your own front-of-house or just planning a Saturday.
The village is not in transition in the sense of decline. It is in transition in the sense of a scheduled rebuild that residents who read the calendar get to enjoy on the inside track.
If you own on the flower streets or on the bluff-side blocks above PCH and want a conversation about how the 2026 to 2027 village timeline reads against your own plans, the team at Michael Balliet advises Corona del Mar homeowners on that reading with the same discretion the village itself has always run on. Request Private Client Access to start the conversation.
