Sherman Gardens Is Turning to Face Coast Highway, and This Fall Shows the In-Between
For now, you enter Sherman Library & Gardens from Dahlia Avenue. Signs on the side street point you to a temporary entrance. Inside, some areas are fenced off, and the garden's own notice says you may hear construction during your visit. The garden is partway through changing which way it faces.
Under the Grow the Gardens plan, Sherman's front door and its restaurant both move out to Pacific Coast Highway. A Bell Tower entrance and visitor center will open onto the street, and a new two-story restaurant will have its own door on the highway. The project costs $17 million, and Sherman describes it as the first major overhaul of a campus built in 1966 and last remodeled in 1970. It's already changing a visit this fall. You come in from the back, lunch comes from up the highway, and the events calendar does most of what the old café-and-stroll afternoon used to do.
The ceremonial groundbreaking was February 26, 2026. The Newport Beach Independent reported that Slater Construction and architects from Gensler joined Sherman leadership and city and county officials for the first shovels. Through March 20, crews laid underground pipe and closed the path to the Central Garden. Admission was free while the grounds were that restricted, and the Adobe Courtyard, orchid display, Pepper Tree and train display, Succulent Garden and Garden Shop stayed open.
The free period is over. Seasonal admission started May 15, 2026, alongside the Dog Days of Sherman exhibition. It's $12 for adults, $5 for ages 4 to 17, and free for children 3 and under. Blue Star Families and Museums for All visitors with an EBT card still get in free. The Gardens are open daily from 10:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. and close on New Year's Day, July 4, Thanksgiving and Christmas. Sherman hasn't published a list of which sections are closed this month. Its notice just says "some areas" and sends visitors to the garden map for current routing.
The library deserves a quick check before you go. A Daily Pilot report in May described it as temporarily closed during construction. Sherman's Visit page now lists the library gallery as open daily from 10:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., though it may close for classes or events. To confirm on the day, call (949) 673-2261, ext. 304.
The old lunch room is the clearest sign of the shift. Café Jardin served lunch inside the Gardens for years, and chef Jessica Roy's 608 Dahlia later took over the space. As the OC Register reported, its last lunch service was scheduled for Sunday, October 26, 2025. In June 2026, the Newport Beach Independent wrote that the restaurant "closed last October." Sherman's Visit page says plainly that regular dining isn't currently available on-site.
The replacement is Hazeltine's, named for Moses Hazeltine Sherman's daughter, Hazeltine. Damian Orozco, owner of The Tea House on Los Rios in San Juan Capistrano, will run it. The plan calls for brunch, lunch and dinner seven days a week, plus a full bar and catering for Sherman's events. The old place was a five-day-a-week lunch spot. Sherman describes the design concept as "a Victorian Tea House walks into a Spanish Bar." It will go into a rebuilt two-story building on the site of the former visitor center and garden shop, looking out over a refurbished Tea Garden.
"The fit between our two organizations feels incredibly natural."
That's Orozco in Sherman's own announcement.
Expect it sometime in the second half of 2027, and treat any specific date loosely. The Hazeltine's page and the May release say late summer 2027, Sherman's Visit page says fall 2027, and an October 9 Stu News Newport story says late 2027. Moving the restaurant also frees up space inside. With dining out on the highway, Sherman says the Central Garden can be used mainly for classes, lectures and field trips.
With no café and part of the grounds fenced, this fall's programming does much of the work the lunch room used to. The current listings:
| Date | Event | Details |
|---|---|---|
| Oct. 16, 5 to 7 p.m. | Yappy Hour: Howl-O-Ween Edition | $15 members, $25 nonmembers; music, a complimentary drink, snacks, costumed dogs |
| Oct. 18, 1 to 4 p.m. | Hazeltine's Afternoon Tea | Reservations required; $79 adults, $49 children, plus tax and gratuity |
| Oct. 31 and Nov. 1, 10:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. | Chrysanthemum Show | Free with garden admission; a talk at 11:30 a.m. each day |
| Dec. 3–6, 10–13 and 17–22, 5 to 9 p.m. | Merry & Bright Nights | $45 members, $65 nonmembers; public sales listed to open Oct. 19 |
| Dec. 6 and 7, 10:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. | A Very Sherman Holiday | First day members only, second day open to all; Santa, crafts, music, holiday shopping |
The October 18 tea has a scheduling wrinkle. Sherman has posted a notice that the Gardens are closed to the public on Sunday, October 18, the same day the tea is listed. Neither page explains how the two fit together. If you hold a tea reservation, check with Sherman before you go, and don't plan a general-admission visit that day. With regular dining unavailable, Sherman points visitors to these scheduled 2026 teas as the way to experience Hazeltine's hospitality before the restaurant opens.
For the lights, use the current ticket page. An older "Nights of 1000 Lights" page is still online with outdated 2024 dates. The Corona del Mar Chamber of Commerce lists the 47th annual Christmas Walk for December 6, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., along Pacific Coast Highway through the village. That's the same date as the first day of the holiday event and one of the Merry & Bright evenings, which makes for a full day on the highway.
If you go often, Sherman says membership usually pays for itself in about three visits, and it's promoting a limited-time "Superbloom" membership offer this season.
Sherman's campus map lists 14 projects:
The Independent reported that the new Central Garden Walkway will be lined with an aloe allée. A finished project will also include an Ancient Plant House for ferns, cycads and magnolias. That's where a butterfly-wing mosaic by artist Irena Charney, honoring campaign co-chairs Janet and Walkie Ray, will be installed.
The fundraising is close to done. The campaign started in September 2022, and by the March groundbreaking it had raised $16.6 million of its $17 million goal. The second Botanical Ball on October 3 raised more than $450,000 for Sherman's Living Classroom program and what organizers called a final push for the campaign. Stu News Newport reported that next year's ball is set for October 2027, "when The Gardens are expected to be fully reopened."
Until Hazeltine's opens, eating near the Gardens means walking up East Coast Highway. Sherman sits at 2647 E. Coast Highway, and these spots are a few blocks east:
On most afternoons this fall, a Sherman visit probably goes like this: in from Dahlia, a loop through whatever is open, and back out to Coast Highway to eat. Once the rebuild is finished, the highway becomes the front of the visit, with the Bell Tower entrance and visitor center welcoming people from Pacific Coast Highway and Hazeltine's opening directly onto the street.
Changes like a new garden entrance and a full-service restaurant on Coast Highway affect how Corona del Mar's commercial stretch works from block to block, and that's local knowledge Susie McKibben tracks closely. If you'd like to talk through what the Sherman project and the village corridor mean for your own plans, schedule a private consultation.
A Newport Beach resident and consummate professional, Susie McKibben represent clients seeking top-notch representation for the sale and purchase of residential properties throughout Coastal Orange County.