Landmark Hermosa: Loreto Plaza

This small shopping center houses Fat Face Fenners, is known as the "Newport Pier Plaza" to "The OC" fans, and was a popular nightlife destination in the 1950s and early 1960s.

Loreto Plaza, which former City Councilman Jack Wise helped to establish in 1975, sits on Pier Plaza as a popular tourist attraction.

But years ago, the building used to be the Insomniac Coffeehouse. Poet Bob Hare opened the cafe at the age of 24 in November 1958, creating a modish gathering place for the Beatnik generation at that time.

The Insomniac was a folk music and beat poetry mecca. Open seven days a week, the shop included a separate bookstore, taking half a block on Pier Avenue.

Hosting the latest blues, jazz, and world music, and nightly screenings of silent films, a 1959 issue of Playboy featured the coffeehouse in an article, "The Coffee Houses of America."

The Insomniac closed its doors four years later, and then Loreto Plaza emerged, named after Hermosa's sister city .

The pathway that divides the two-building shopping center was later bought by the city to allow access to public parking lots, according to an amendment in 1999.

Soon after, the Plaza, once again, became a hip destination. The drama series "The OC" even used the area as an occasional filming location.

The small shopping strip is now home to Fat Face Fenners, Froyo Life, Il Boccaccio, Cafe Bonaparte, Beach Shop, Skin Savvy Medical Spa, and Paradise Sushi.

Congratulations to Monica Horton-Frey for winning today's Landmark Hermosa. A memorial stone named after her grandfather Joe Diaz, who founded the student exchange program between Hermosa and Loreto in 1974, sits in the center of the Plaza. We'll have a new landmark to guess next Friday.