K Bakery Went Down the Hill. Cafe Vida Came Up to Take Its Place.

At the northern end of Highlands Plaza, 548 Palisades Drive now has a pergola over a patio with heaters set along it, built so the space works in any weather. For most of the past decade the storefront was K Bakery. It is now Cafe Vida, the restaurant that opened in 2002 in the Business Block building and lost that location in the Palisades Fire.

The two businesses swapped neighborhoods, and the swap tells you more than either opening does alone. One moved toward a smaller, takeout-focused shop in the Village. The other took a long-term lease up the hill to get more seats. Between them sits a short strip of storefronts, numbered 514 to 548, that now holds a dry cleaner, a postal counter, a wine shop, coffee, sushi and a general store. For the ordinary errands of a Palisades week, Highlands Plaza now offers more than its size suggests.

One Storefront, Two Bets on the Recovery

K Bakery came to 548 Palisades Drive in 2014 after outgrowing its first storefront on Sunset Boulevard. In the Highlands it became K Bakery Eatery + Bakeshop and added restaurant service. After the fire closed it, owner Kim Kedeshian planned a single-location relaunch at 1061 Swarthmore Avenue for Palisades Village's August 15 reopening, with a smaller menu and a mostly takeout format. In the Palisadian-Post, she described the smaller format as a return to the bakery's roots, chosen while the community's recovery was still uncertain. The Village's reopening coverage lists K Bakery among the businesses that joined the development.

Cafe Vida went the other way. Co-owners Luis Castaneda, Marcelo Marolla and Francisco Cornejo first planned to reopen in October. On October 26 they told the Palisadian-Post that final inspections were pending and that they were aiming for the first week of November. The new space has more seating than the old one. The year-round patio does most of the work, since the dining room inside holds only a few tables.

"We got a long-term lease. We're confident that the Palisades will be back. We do know that it's been challenging and still a lot of development needs to happen. So it'll be a slow build but we are confident in that long term."

Castaneda gave that quote to the Palisadian-Post. The plan is breakfast and lunch first, with the full familiar menu. Dinner, longer hours, and beer and wine are meant to come once the restaurant settles in. The owners also run Cafe Vida locations in Culver City and El Segundo.

K Bakery cut its footprint to fit the Village's foot traffic. Cafe Vida added patio seats because the Highlands had the room. Both are bets on the same recovery at two different scales.

From 514 to 548 Palisades Drive

Cafe Vida's patio is the newest piece of a plaza that had been filling in for more than a year. Starbucks reopened at 514 Palisades Drive on July 28, 2025. That same month the Palisadian-Post reported that Moku Sushi, Spruzzo and Highland Postal Center were operating in the center. The Palisadian business directory, verified on September 8, 2026, lists the full set:

The most telling entry is Murre Cleaners. The directory lists it as the only dry cleaner operating in the 90272 ZIP code, so any garment that needs pressing anywhere in the Palisades currently goes to 534 Palisades Drive. The plaza does have a limit. For a full grocery run, the closest supermarket the directory lists as open is Vons at 17380 W. Sunset Boulevard. The General Store stocks pantry items but isn't a grocery store.

What the Newer Tenants Brought

Several of the plaza's 2026 arrivals are businesses that came back larger, or in a new format, than the ones they replaced.

Gerry Blanck held the grand opening of his martial arts studio at 542 Palisades Drive on June 1. Next door, Amy Russo soft-opened the Palisades General Store at 542½ in mid-August and held a grand opening on Saturday, September 19. Russo previously co-owned Obsessed, the jewelry boutique on Via de la Paz. She told the Palisadian-Post that the store is "filled with everything I love." The shelves carry Loonen Water, specialty tea blends, home décor, jewelry, kitchenware, clothing and candles handmade in West Hollywood. A frozen yogurt machine was handing out samples at the opening, and Russo said frozen yogurt will become a permanent part of the store.

That opening also showed how the plaza works together. Russo had the party catered by Cafe Vida, then still weeks from its own opening, and by Spruzzo, a few doors down.

At the south end, Racquel and Jeffrey Jacobs set Thursday, October 29 as the reopening date for Sanctuary Spa. They first opened it in the Highlands complex in December 2024, one month before the fire. Local architect Michael Kovac designed the rebuilt interior, with wood floors, high ceilings and arched hallways. The couple also planned to open Nails by Sanctuary Spa in the adjoining suite about a week later, connected through the lobby. It's laid out as a quiet spa room rather than a salon, with soft lighting, a ventilation system meant to cut the smell of nail polish, and two private treatment rooms. Jeffrey Jacobs explained the decision to the Palisadian-Post:

"There was a nail salon here previously, and they decided not to come back, on top of the fact that most of the other nail salons in town in the Palisades had burned down. So we felt the community needed it and that the community would love it."

That reasoning runs through the whole plaza. A business fills a gap the fire left, and a neighboring tenant's customers help support it.

Mid-November Adds to the Plaza's Load

The plaza's role grows over the coming weeks because of changes down the hill. Reconstruction at the Palisades Recreation Center began on October 26 with utility work and site clearing. The Palisadian-Post reported that wider closures are scheduled for mid-November:

• Both parking lots close
• The playground closes
• The basketball courts close
• The ball fields close
• The tennis and bocce courts stay open as long as possible

Park officials have projected that the ball fields and lower parking lot could reopen for baseball season in March 2027, and they have called that timeline fluid.

So for most of the winter, the town's main recreation campus will be largely fenced off. Meanwhile the Highlands strip holds a martial arts studio, a spa, coffee, two restaurants and now a heated patio built for year-round use.

At the top of Palisades Drive, Cafe Vida's plan is breakfast and lunch at 548 Palisades Drive in the old K Bakery space, with dinner, beer and wine to follow.

The Highlands Plaza story is the kind of on-the-ground detail I watch closely across the Palisades: which businesses signed long leases, which ones scaled down, and where everyday life is picking back up. If you'd like to talk about how the rebuild is changing the neighborhood around your own address, Aaron Kirman is glad to compare notes. Let's Connect.