If you live inside the gates near The Lodge, you're already inside this year's version of Car Week, whether you meant to be or not. As of today, the 17th Hedgerow and the Casa Palmero garage are reservation-only for parking, the opening move in a schedule that tightens hard by Thursday and doesn't fully release until the following week.
If you were here for Car Week 2025, you know what the tightening used to mean for dinner. The Tap Room was running out of a temporary space at Fairway One. Stillwater was dark, mid-renovation. The Bench had only just reopened that June. This year none of that repeats. For the first time in two Car Weeks, Stillwater, The Tap Room, and The Bench are all open, in their own rooms, at the same time the road closures hit. That's the part of this week worth understanding before Thursday, because it changes where you actually eat.
The Restaurants Went Back to Where They Started
The Lodge closed for its first major renovation in more than a century in February 2025. Stillwater shut down for the full nine months, while The Bench and the Terrace Lounge closed temporarily and The Tap Room got relocated into the nearby Fairway One space to stay open through the work. Then Car Week arrived, and Ferrari had already booked Fairway One's banquet facility, so The Tap Room moved again, this time into the Terrace Lounge, before finally returning to its original room in October. Chef de cuisine Shane Cassidy, describing the sequence to Monterey County Now, put it plainly.
"This is the third opening we've had in the last nine months."
The Bench reopened first, in June 2025, overlooking the 18th hole of Pebble Beach Golf Links. The Tap Room came back in October, keeping its deep green booths and oak trim but with a new 24-person private room, the Champions Room, built around U.S. Open memorabilia, including the wedge Tom Watson used on 17 in 1982. Stillwater was last, reopening in November with a wraparound dining room, floor-to-ceiling windows, a central bar moved to the middle of the room, and a glass-enclosed wine room. Bryan Anthony, Pebble Beach's vice president of food and beverage, called the Stillwater reopening "monumental" for the team.
None of that is cosmetic trivia if you live three minutes from the front door. It means that for the first Car Week since the renovation began, you're not choosing between a scaled-back menu in a borrowed room and driving off the peninsula for dinner. The kitchens themselves changed too. The Tap Room went from six burners to 22, and its new Hestan cooking suite and programmable combi oven gave Cassidy's team, in his words, "all the power that we need." Reservations during Car Week are still worth making early. The rooms just aren't half-built anymore.
What Closes, By the Actual Dates
The dates that matter for a resident aren't the ones on the visitor sites advertising the ten-day event. They're the narrower window Pebble Beach Company posts for gate access and coastal use.
| Dates | What changes | Who's still allowed |
|---|---|---|
| Aug 10–12 | 17th Hedgerow and Casa Palmero garage parking shift to reservation-only | Call ahead to (831) 625-8536 to book |
| Aug 13–16 | 17-Mile Drive closed to non-Concours traffic; Stillwater Cove Coastal Access closed; Beach Club equipment drop-off unavailable | Residents, club members, and normal pass holders retain access |
| Aug 17 | 17th Hedgerow parking closed; Casa Palmero garage reservation-only | Coastal Access technically reopens, but parking stays restricted |
The 17-Mile Drive closure applies to non-Concours traffic specifically. Residents, club members, and anyone with a standard pass still get through the gates, and the hotels, retail outlets, and restaurants inside stay open to the public throughout, with reservations encouraged. What actually shuts down is the casual sightseeing loop, not resident movement.
The more useful read for anyone who paddles or kayaks out of Stillwater Cove: Coastal Access is closed outright August 13 through 16, and even the day after, parking at the 17th Hedgerow stays closed while Casa Palmero remains reservation-only. Practically, that means the water access residents rely on doesn't return to anything like normal until August 18, two days after the Concours itself wraps.
Two Free Views Actually Worth the Walk
Most of what draws paying crowds this week requires a ticket. Two things don't, and both sit close enough to walk to from most of the neighborhood.
- The Pebble Beach Tour d'Elegance, Thursday, August 13. More than 150 Concours entrants line up at Portola Road and Stevenson Drive before 7 a.m., tracing 17-Mile Drive and Highway One down to Big Sur before returning to finish in Pebble Beach. Viewing is free along the route.
- Concours Village, Thursday through Sunday, August 13–16, at Forest Lake Road and Stevenson Drive, across from the Pebble Beach Auctions. No admission charge. It includes the Pebble Beach Classic Car Forum and Pebble Beach RetroAuto, both open to walk-in visitors alongside the manufacturer displays and Ride and Drives.
Neither requires fighting the Sunday crowd at the Concours itself, and both are close enough that they read less like tourist detours and more like a Thursday-through-Saturday option for anyone who already lives inside the gates.
Why This Year Draws Bigger Crowds Than Usual
The event closing out the week is the 75th Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance, the diamond anniversary of a show that has set the global standard for concours judging since 1950. Ferrari is the featured marque for this edition, which historically pulls a heavier walk-up crowd than years built around less recognizable brands. None of that changes the closure dates above. It does mean earlier arrivals and a fuller village than a typical, non-anniversary August, which is worth factoring in if your normal Thursday coffee run usually threads through Forest Lake Road.
What Actually Changed Since Last August
The closures themselves are close to identical year over year, shifted by a day or two depending on the calendar. What's different this time is what's waiting on the other side of them. Last August, tightening gates also meant a construction zone at the center of the neighborhood's daily routine. This year, the gates tighten around a Lodge that finished its work months ago. Stillwater has its wine room. The Tap Room has its extra burners and its quiet room, thanks to new sound-deadening in the walls. The Bench has been open on the 18th since last June. The inconvenience of Car Week hasn't gone away. The thing it used to interrupt, dinner at the place three minutes from your door, finally isn't under a tarp.
If you're weighing what a home near The Lodge is worth beyond the week the cars show up, that's a longer conversation, and one Engel & Volkers Carmel is glad to have with you directly. Schedule a Consultation when you're ready to talk specifics.
