The Zuma Story
Why are we called Zuma Cars & Coffee if it’s in Redondo Beach
As a short piece of history, during Covid (2021) with the Malibu Civic Center car event suspended, I, along with Adrian de Pamphilis, put on a Cars and Coffee event at his restaurant, Calamigos Beach Club at the ocean in Malibu. It was very successful, we filled up the lot. After a few of these meets, the City of Malibu closed it down (no logical reason given).
A large Cars and Coffee event had been happening each Sunday at the Marmalade parking lot at the Malibu Civic Center. It was very successful and very peaceful. It was perfect. After numerous attempts, the City of Malibu finally closed it down as well.
In August 2022 on a Sunday morning, I went driving up Pacific Coast Highway, “pissed off” that the Malibu Civic Center Sunday car event was now finally closed down. Our entire car community had nowhere to go near the coast to meet and socialize. Realizing that no one else was doing anything about it so I took matters in my own hands. I spotted the Zuma Beach parking lot A and pulled in. This location was fantastic. It could hold 350 cars. Thus, Zuma Cars and Coffee was born.
I, along with a few friends, reached out to our exotic car contacts and ended up holding our first event on September 4. Over 150 exotic and hyper cars showed up. We held another 2 events there and about 350 cars showed up. Big success!
Upon our arrival at the December event, there were a bunch of County Parks Dept. employees (very big and formidable) at the entrance. They denied us entry to the lot, thus it appeared that the Zuma Beach Cars event was over. I took up the challenge and found a beautiful new restaurant across from the pier in Malibu – “Dreamland.” The owners were very welcoming. Our next event was born. It was to be our new home. About 200 cars came to this location, had breakfast, coffee and just hung out. The City of Malibu asked the Sheriff’s Dept. to keep watch over us. They did! 6 Sheriffs cars parked outside the venue and that was the end of the Dreamland event.
Now, another challenge to find a new location! I researched and found Killer Shrimp Restaurant in Marina Del Rey. This was the perfect location for cars coming from Orange County as well as all over Los Angeles. I spoke to the owners and found out they were “Car People” and have held many car events in the past. We had found a new home! The only problem was we had become well-known and were now branded as Zuma Cars and Coffee. I wasn’t able to change the name, after all we couldn’t rename our event “Zuma Cars and Shrimp”.
Since then, we held many exotic Cars and Coffee events there, always filled (the lot held 250 hyper, exotic and unusual cars), with room next door for another 500 cars in public parking. As always, the public was always welcome.
April 7, 2024, was our last event at Killer. Kicked out again! The County of Los Angeles in their infinite wisdom, became aware of an idiot showing off and crashing his McLaren at a different cars and coffee event in Pacific Palisades and ordered Killer Shrimp to cease giving any car events. Talk about a wrong target!
Time for another challenge. Where to put on the ideal cars and coffee event. It had to be close to the ocean, room for plenty of exotic (and other types of show cars), be in the greater Los Angeles area, permission of local government, nearby restaurants, yachts, visible to the public and more. It’s not just about having a big parking lot at a warehouse or shopping center. That gets really boring. It needs to have other attractions. It has to be different from the others. Well, this was a tall order since it appeared that we ran out of potential locations in Los Angeles. After being closed down 4 times, I think you know by now that the staff at Zuma are fighters and don’t easily give up.
We have finally found our ideal location! It has all the elements that made us who we are. It’s only 10 minutes from Killer Shrimp. It’s the Redondo Beach Marina! Not only is this location the official finish line of the Legendary Cannonball Run, but it has yachts, many great restaurants in our parking area, it’s oceanfront, there is actually a “Yellow Submarine” – which was just painted black, massive parking for our display cars, it’s visible to the public, and best of all, we have permission of the City to hold our event! We may just have to call it “Zudondo Beach Cars & Coffee.” At least we are not in Tijuana yet.
Our first event was on June 23, 2024. 500 cars showed up!!
Our new location is at Redondo Beach Marina 245 No. Harbor Drive, Redondo Beach. Come join us for the next one.
Our only purpose for this event is for like-minded car enthusiasts and the public to get together and enjoy themselves for a couple of hours. In these times of negative news, don’t you all think we need a break and to have some fun?
We are still here. They haven’t killed us off yet. It’s all of you that make this event a success.
Thank you.
The purpose of this event is for like-minded car enthusiasts to get together and enjoy themselves for a couple of hours
It’s all of you that made this event a success. Thank you.