Off The Hook Seafood Festival Returns To Santa Monica Pier For Route 66 Centennial

SANTA MONICA, CA — Seafood, yacht rock and a little Route 66 nostalgia are headed to the Santa Monica Pier Sunday as the Off The Hook Seafood Festival returns for its eighth year.

The Oct. 11 festival will bring together more than 25 restaurants and chefs, offering more than 25 seafood tastings ranging from oysters and lobster to shrimp, tuna, caviar and sushi, according to the festival's official website.

This year's event coincides with National Seafood Month and the 100th anniversary of Route 66. The Pier is home to the familiar "End of the Trail" sign marking the highway's symbolic western endpoint, while the historic route's official terminus is at Lincoln and Olympic boulevards, according to Santa Monica Travel & Tourism.

Participating restaurants include Santa Monica Seafood, Water Grill, Rustic Canyon, Sushi Roku, The Lobster, Mastro's Ocean Club, Milo & Olive, Pacific Catch, Huckleberry and The Albright, among others.

Beer and wine tastings and curated cocktails will accompany the food, while The Windbreakers will play 1970s and '80s yacht rock. KTLA's Wendy Burch is scheduled to host the event and its oyster shucking and slurping competitions.

Seafood With A Sustainability Side

Off The Hook will raise money and awareness for Heal the Bay, the Santa Monica-based environmental nonprofit that works to protect coastal waters and watersheds.

This year's event will also support the Santa Monica Pier Corporation, the nonprofit public benefit corporation that helps preserve and operate the Pier and provides free community programming.

Organizers say the festival is free of single-use plastics and will also feature programs focused on sustainable seafood and ocean conservation.

The Santa Monica College Life Sciences Department will be on hand to highlight its aquaculture program, while Orange County Coastkeeper will collect discarded oyster shells through its Shells for Shorelines program.

Instead of going to a landfill, the shells are cured and reused in projects designed to restore native oyster populations and coastal habitat in Southern California. Coastkeeper says the program has recycled more than 32,000 pounds of oyster shells since 2024.

Route 66 Turns 100

The festival comes during a year of celebrations marking a century since Route 66 was established.

Santa Monica kicked off its centennial events in January with a vintage-car caravan that departed the Pier for Chicago, retracing the historic highway in reverse. Other events have continued throughout 2026 as the city marks its place at the western end of one of America's best-known roads.

Off The Hook will add the anniversary to an event already centered on Santa Monica's coastal identity, while benefiting organizations connected to both the ocean and the Pier.

The festival runs from 4 to 7:30 p.m. Sunday at the Santa Monica Pier and is limited to guests 21 and older, according to the official Eventbrite listing.

Tickets And VIP Access

Little Fish general admission tickets are currently $115 in advance and include seafood and beverage tastings, games and live music, with admission beginning at 4 p.m.

Big Fish VIP tickets are currently $175 in advance and include admission beginning at 3 p.m. and access to the Santa Monica Seafood Sustainable Seafood VIP Lounge, with additional tastings, full beverage pours and a Santa Monica Seafood gift bag.

VIP guests also receive an unlimited amusement ride voucher for Pacific Park valued at $50 and valid through the end of the year, according to the festival's ticket page.