Get ready to bring an appetite — and your passion for San Pedro’s rich history — to the port town’s historic waterfront.
Trani’s Dockside Station, San Pedro’s newest and much-anticipated restaurant, 311 E. 22nd St., is getting ready to throw open its doors to the public by month’s end, after hosting an invitation-only grand opening celebration Tuesday night, May 16.
“This is probably one of the most anticipated restaurant openings in San Pedro in the last 50 years,” said Dustin Trani, the acclaimed fourth-generation family chef who came up with the idea way back before the pandemic.
He probably isn’t exaggerating.
The restaurant, in a port town that cherishes its past, will adorn its walls with framed black-and-white history — the families, the people and the landmarks that so many have called home.
The grand opening party was thrown on what was the 98th anniversary of the opening of the original Trani’s Majestic Cafe that opened in 1925 in downtown San Pedro.
The new restaurant, near 22nd and Miner streets, is slated to open to the public sometime before the end of May. Watch the eatery’s Instagram account — tranisdocksidestation — for updates.
In an age when the port town is witnessing unprecedented change — from mid-rise buildings going up in the historic downtown to a new waterfront development on its way — Trani’s Dockside Station sits in a slice of the town that looks much the same as it has for the past century.
The gritty surroundings whisper of San Pedro’s past:
The port’s oldest warehouses and commercial fishing slips, along with the area’s wholesale fresh fish market, are steps away from the restaurant site. The 1918 building itself was once L.A.’s immigration station, where Japanese and other Pacific Rim newcomers arrived by boat to the United States.
The structure more recently housed another eclectic hometown diner, Canetti’s Seafood Grotto, which closed in 2010 after 70 years serving as a…
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