At 3200 Airport Avenue, a restored 1940s administrative building at Santa Monica Airport now holds two things. One is a bakery that opens at 7 a.m. and sells more than 3,000 pastries a week. The other is a live-fire dining room with 100 seats and a 38-seat marble bar. The rest of the street is close by. Airport Park is at 3201, the Museum of Flying is at 3100, and The Cloverfield is at 3300.
Until this fall, Airport Avenue offered a park, an aviation museum and one restaurant. Then Matilda's opened in early October and Stiletto opened on October 21. Now the street can carry a whole day, from a morning croissant to a late martini, without anyone moving the car. Each business keeps its own schedule, though, and the bakery, The Cloverfield and the museum are only all open together from Thursday through Sunday.
Six Years, Three Rooms, One Owner
The new cluster started with an older restaurant. Spitfire Grill served the airport for 30 years and closed in December 2019, according to the Santa Monica Mirror. The Cloverfield took over the space at 3300 Airport Avenue. Eater LA reported that its first outdoor service was planned for August 20, 2020. The menu runs to fresh pasta, wood-fired pizza and steak frites, and the restaurant also books private dinners and full buyouts.
Restaurateur Sean Martin, who owns The Cloverfield, took over the 1940s building next door in 2022, Eater LA reported. It took four years to open the two businesses inside it, and they arrived about three weeks apart this October. The three places also share food. Stiletto's menu opens with a Matilda's baguette and butter, so the bakery's bread ends up on the dinner table.
The airport can also draw a crowd for other reasons. Last weekend, November 7 and 8, Renegade Craft Fair's winter edition brought more than 275 artists and independent makers to Santa Monica Airport. The new restaurants give people a reason to come on weekends with no fair.
The Morning Starts at Matilda's
Matilda's is the most demanding of the three. Founding baker Francois Pied and lead baker Abel Pulsifer, who came from Brooklyn's Radio Bakery, use flour from Hayden Flour Mills. They ferment the pastry dough for at least 18 hours. The butter, ham and cheese, almond, and pain au chocolat croissants take four days from start to finish. The case also holds sausage rolls, brioche, seasonal Danishes such as a shakshuka version with jammy eggs, and ham-and-Comté sandwiches. Coffee and matcha come from Caffè Luxxe.
The most unusual item is the butter tasting. It has eight varieties, served with your choice of bread. They include Paysan Breton with hand-harvested salt from Guérande, Échiré from the Loire Valley, Pepe Saya, a goat butter and a plant-based option made with fermented cashew. The 1,800-square-foot dining room opens onto a 1,000-square-foot terrace.
Opening hours brought long lines. In its October 13 story, Eater LA described 45-minute waits and reported that the shop had posted an apology on Instagram on October 12 thanking people who stood in line. By October 18, Yo! Venice was reporting two-hour waits. Those numbers come from mid-October. Still, they explain why the 7 a.m. opening matters more than anything else on the schedule.
Where the Hours Line Up
Here are the posted daytime schedules for Matilda's, The Cloverfield, the Museum of Flying and the Airport Park dog areas, day by day. Stiletto takes bookings through Resy, linked from its own site, so check its open nights there before you plan dinner.
| Day | Matilda's | The Cloverfield | Museum of Flying | Airport Park dog areas |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monday | Closed | Closed | Closed | 7:30 a.m.–8:30 p.m., closed 9:30–11:30 a.m. |
| Tuesday | Closed | Closed | Closed | 7:30 a.m.–8:30 p.m. |
| Wednesday | 7 a.m.–3 p.m. | Noon–10 p.m. | Closed | 7:30 a.m.–8:30 p.m., closed 9:30–11:30 a.m. |
| Thursday | 7 a.m.–3 p.m. | Noon–10 p.m. | 10 a.m.–5 p.m. | 7:30 a.m.–8:30 p.m. |
| Friday | 7 a.m.–3 p.m. | Noon–10 p.m. | 10 a.m.–5 p.m. | 7:30 a.m.–8:30 p.m. |
| Saturday | 7 a.m.–3 p.m. | 10 a.m.–10 p.m. | 10 a.m.–5 p.m. | 8:30 a.m.–8:30 p.m. |
| Sunday | 7 a.m.–3 p.m. | 10 a.m.–9 p.m. | 10 a.m.–5 p.m. | 8:30 a.m.–8:30 p.m. |
Thursday through Sunday is the only stretch when all four in the table are open. Wednesday has everything except the museum. Monday and Tuesday leave only the park. On Mondays and Wednesdays, the dog areas also close from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. for maintenance, so a weekday dog walk before a pastry run should finish before 9:30.
The weekend has its own small differences. On Saturdays and Sundays, The Cloverfield opens at 10 a.m. rather than noon. It closes an hour earlier on Sunday, at 9 p.m. The dog areas open an hour later on weekends, at 8:30 a.m., which is after Matilda's has already been open for 90 minutes.
A Saturday Built Around the Avenue
Put together, a Saturday can look like this:
- 7 a.m., Matilda's. Get there when the doors open, before the line builds. Croissants and the butter tasting are the reasons to be early.
- 8:30 a.m., Airport Park. The large- and small-dog areas open, and the rest of the park, including the synthetic-turf field, playground and picnic and barbecue areas, has been open since 6 a.m.
- 10 a.m., Museum of Flying. Doors open at 3100 Airport Avenue. Admission is $14 for adults, $12 for seniors and students, and $10 for ages 3 to 12. Children two and under get in free. The museum takes cards only, and parking is free.
- Midday, The Cloverfield. Weekend service starts at 10 a.m., so lunch fits right after the museum.
- Evening, Stiletto. Dinner or a drink at the bar in the same building where the day started, booked ahead on Resy.
Most of this can happen without moving the car. Matilda's and Stiletto share one address, Airport Park is at 3201, and the museum and The Cloverfield are at 3100 and 3300. On a weekday, start with step two, since the dog areas open at 7:30 a.m.
Dinner Named for a Douglas Jet
Stiletto is the newest piece. Chef Patrick Powell was born in Ireland and previously cooked at Allegra, Chiltern Firehouse and One Club Row in London. The restaurant is named after the Douglas X-3 Stiletto jet. Yo! Venice reported that the name refers to the Douglas Aircraft factory that built the jet. The restaurant describes it as a tribute "to the spirit of making something unexpected in a place built for experimentation." That history connects it to the Museum of Flying two doors down.
Powell calls it a "modern steakhouse," but he told Eater LA that the label might be "underselling it." Eater reported that 70 percent of the produce comes from local farmers markets, delivered twice a week. That produce shows up in bluefin tuna with melon, cucumber and mint, barbecued leek with crab, and grilled hispi cabbage with Cantabrian chile butter. The beef comes from Rosewood Ranch in Texas, which raises a cross of Black Angus and wagyu, and it's served as a New York strip and a bone-in rib-eye. Other mains include steak au poivre, prime rib, peri peri chicken and a pork schnitzel topped with gorgonzola. The bar has a dedicated martini menu and pints of Guinness.
The bar is what makes Stiletto useful to people who live nearby. Eater reported that Powell wants neighbors to drop in regularly for a martini and a burger served only at the bar, as well as for full dinners. "The most important thing is a room full of people having a good time," he told the publication. Barbara O'Rourke of Bells and Whistles, who also worked on Providence, designed the tall-ceilinged room. An outdoor terrace with 80 more seats is planned for summer 2027. When the terrace opens, the building will have outdoor seating for both breakfast and dinner, since Matilda's already has its 1,000-square-foot terrace.
For now, plan the full day for Thursday through Sunday, confirm Stiletto's nights on Resy, and plan a Monday or Tuesday visit around Airport Park, which is open daily from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m.
Airport Avenue has changed more in one month than in the previous six years, and the streets around the airport are changing with it. If you want a local read on how this part of Santa Monica is shifting, The Alligood Group is glad to talk it through. Schedule a Private Consultation.
