Drive past 4895 Las Virgenes Road and you will see the same thing residents have seen for years: a building with fresh signage promising a restaurant that has not yet opened. Now drive two miles into Old Town and order dinner at the diner that used to be The Mulholland. That one is open, full, and taking reservations on a Tuesday.
Both spaces changed hands around the same window this year. Only one of them is serving food. The gap between those two timelines says more about how restaurant real estate actually works in Calabasas than any list of new openings could on its own.
The Corner That Took Six Years
The former Coco's at 4895 Las Virgenes Road, right where the road meets the 101, has been Calabasas's longest-running restaurant cliffhanger. Salsa & Beer, the family-run Mexican grill known around the Valley for oversized plates and a self-serve salsa bar, first put up signage for this location back in 2020. Then the space sat empty through the pandemic and beyond.
Owner Gabriel Huerta told local reporters this past June that construction was nearly finished and an opening was close. As of that report, there was still no confirmed date. Before the buildout could even start, the project had to clear a public approval process, with neighbors raising concerns at hearings about traffic and parking on a parcel that sits directly against freeway on-ramp traffic. That is not a small thing for a lot wedged between Las Virgenes Road and the 101. It is also not unusual. Freeway-adjacent parcels in this part of the county tend to draw more scrutiny than storefronts tucked into a shopping center, because the traffic study has to account for cars merging on and off the highway, not just circling a parking lot.
Salsa & Beer already runs four locations, including one in Lake Balboa and three in North Hollywood, so the brand is not new to the region. What has been new is watching one address take longer to open than most restaurants take to build a following.
The Corner That Took Eight Months
Now compare that to 23538 Calabasas Road, the space that used to hold The Mulholland in Old Town. Jon & Vinny's, the California-Italian group founded by chefs Jon Shook and Vinny Dotolo, announced it was moving into that address in the fall of 2025. It opened on July 27, 2026, its ninth location and, by one local reviewer's account, possibly its cutest, with a full bar, a heated back patio, and an attached Helen's wine shop.
Reviewers who have been through since opening are recommending the spicy fusilli, the chicken parmesan, the garlic bread, and the bread pudding for dessert, with more than one comment noting the Calabasas location matches the consistency of the group's other outposts across the city. That is the kind of review a restaurant earns when it opens into a space that was already built for dining, in a corridor where the city already expects restaurant traffic. No traffic study needed to explain why cars stop on Calabasas Road. That is what the road is for.
Here is the pattern worth remembering if you are trying to guess what opens next and when: an Old Town or Commons-area storefront that was already a restaurant tends to turn over in months. A freeway-facing parcel that requires a use change, even a well-known chain with an established following, can take years, because the traffic and parking questions get resolved by the city calendar, not by the tenant's construction schedule.
What Is Actually Open Right Now
For anyone planning a night out this week, here is where that timeline math nets out:
- Jon & Vinny's, 23538 Calabasas Road: open now, serving breakfast, lunch, and dinner seven days a week, with a heated patio and an attached wine shop
- Sweet Lady Jane, 23653 Calabasas Road at Parkway Calabasas: reopened under new ownership and still turning out the Triple Berry cake the bakery has been known for since 1988
- Salsa & Beer, 4895 Las Virgenes Road: not open, buildout reported nearly finished as of this summer, no confirmed date
If you have been holding out hope for a Salsa & Beer opening date, the honest answer is that nobody local has one yet. If you have been meaning to try Jon & Vinny's, there is no reason left to wait.
Two Dates Worth Marking Before Halloween
Calabasas has a couple of fixed points on the fall calendar that do not depend on any construction schedule.
The Kevin Cordasco Foundation's Run-Walk for the Heroes of Childhood Cancer returns to the Calabasas Civic Center on Sunday, September 27, its third year running as a 5K benefiting pediatric cancer research. It is the kind of morning that fills the Civic Center parking areas early and empties out by midday, so plan around it rather than through it if you have errands in that part of town that Sunday.
The bigger calendar shift starts a day earlier. Night of the Jack, the mile-long jack-o'-lantern trail at King Gillette Ranch, opens September 26 and runs through November 1. Tickets went on sale back in early August and the event has a track record of selling out its time slots, so if you are the kind of household that goes every year, this is the week to lock in a date rather than assume you can walk up. The parking lot closes at 9 p.m. and the trail itself closes at 9:15, with everyone off the property by 10, which matters if you are trying to fit it around a school night.
Between the 5K on the 27th and Night of the Jack opening the day before it, the last weekend of September is effectively Calabasas's unofficial start of fall. Old Town restaurants tend to see the dinner rush shift earlier on Night of the Jack weekends, since a good number of the same families heading to King Gillette Ranch grab dinner in town first.
What This Means If You Are Watching the Calendar
None of this is really about restaurants. It is about how Calabasas actually turns over commercial space, and that pattern holds whether you are watching a taco spot or thinking about anything else changing hands in this town. The corridor with foot traffic and an existing restaurant use moves fast. The parcel that needs a fresh conversation with the city, especially anything touching the freeway interchange, moves on the city's schedule, not the tenant's.
If you already live here, that is a useful thing to file away next time you notice new signage going up somewhere in town. The sign tells you a tenant is coming. It does not tell you when.
If you are the kind of person who reads a post like this because you are quietly wondering what else is changing in Calabasas this year, from new construction to who is buying and selling around Old Town, that curiosity is worth a real conversation, not a guess. Truth Realty works this market every week and can walk you through what is actually happening on the ground, whether that means a home on your street or a storefront on your commute. Schedule a free consultation whenever you are ready to talk specifics.
