Dinner, Drinks and a Show on El Centro Street: Planning a Night at South Pasadena's Sid The Cat Auditorium

Tonight, Thursday, October 29, the farmers market at Meridian and El Centro runs until 8 p.m., and so does dinner at Neighbors & Friends: The Kitchen. Doors for Theo Katzman's show across the street at Sid The Cat Auditorium open an hour before that, at 7 p.m.

That overlap is what you plan around on this block now. In under a year, El Centro Street has picked up a 500-capacity music hall, a cocktail bar next door to it, and a sit-down restaurant across the street. You can park once and spend the whole evening there. You just have to do things in the right order. The restaurant serves early, the bar stays open late, and the doors open at a time that decides which of the two you can fit in.

The clock that runs the block

Here is how the evening lines up on a typical week, based on each business's own posted schedule.

What the table shows is that the kitchen and the stage are open at different times of night. Neighbors & Friends serves dinner only, starting at 5 p.m. On weeknights it stops at 8, right around when most shows have opened their doors. On Fridays and Saturdays the kitchen stays open until 9, which leaves more room before an 8 p.m. show. Sid's Bar opens at 5 p.m. and stays open until 10:30 p.m. Sunday through Wednesday, 11:30 p.m. on Thursday and midnight on Friday and Saturday. That makes the bar the one spot on the block that's open before and after the music.

An old schoolhouse with a sound system

Sid The Cat Auditorium is at 1022 El Centro St., in a building with more history than most music venues get. It started out as an elementary school. Accounts of its age differ: LAist gives 1931 as the construction date, and Live Design and the South Pasadena Review both trace the school back to 1885, and Live Design adds that it was rebuilt in 1928. Historical documents tied to South Pasadena are displayed around the venue, and four murals by the 20th-century decorative artist Lucile Lloyd hang in the main room. According to the South Pasadena Review, the school later housed the school district's headquarters. The paper described the new hall as a 500-capacity, all-ages room.

The first show was Peel Dream Magazine and Goon on December 4, 2025, so this December marks one year of shows. The Los Angeles Times called it a new independent venue. Live Design described a lineup that runs from quiet singer-songwriter sets to loud shoegaze bands. Sid the Cat had spent about ten years putting on live music around Los Angeles before landing here, as the South Pasadena Chamber of Commerce noted when it held the venue's ribbon cutting.

A few house rules from the venue's FAQ page affect how you plan the night:

• Every show sells tickets online. If a show hasn't sold out, you can also buy tickets at the door with cash or card, and the box office opens at the posted door time.
• Tickets bought on unauthorized resale sites may be canceled. For sold-out shows, DICE runs a waitlist.
• Most shows are general admission and standing room. When a show has seats, the ticketing page says so, and seating is first-come, first-served.
• Set times go up on the venue's Instagram stories at or around door time. The time on your ticket is the door time, not when the headliner plays.

That last rule takes some pressure off dinner. A ticket that says 8 p.m. means the room opens at 8, and the acts usually come on later.

Dinner comes first, across the street

Neighbors & Friends: The Kitchen is at 1009 El Centro St., in the space that used to be Communal Food and Drink. Eater LA reported in June that Kaiy Smith-Biesman opened it in May 2026. The Chamber's ribbon-cutting post says that before the restaurant, she founded Stems, which has catered community events in town for years. It also says she first visited the spot with her grandmother back when it was Nick's.

The menu on OpenTable, last updated October 1, 2026, includes hushpuppies, honey whip ricotta, oxtail ragu bianco, pickle-brined chicken and a French dip burger. Eater also mentioned citrus-pepper wings, a brisket meatball, and a drinks list with beer, cider, seltzer and cocktails.

The restaurant takes reservations through OpenTable and seats walk-ins when it has room. It recommends booking ahead on weekends and for larger groups. On a show night, the most useful detail on its website is the schedule. Dinner runs Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday from 5 to 8 p.m., and Friday and Saturday from 5 to 9 p.m. Monday and Tuesday aren't on the list. Wednesday is Community Night, with trivia at 8 p.m.

Matching the door time to the dinner window

With the venue's door times and the kitchen's hours side by side, here is how this season's calendar plays out. Door times and prices below are from each show's DICE listing at the time of writing. Every listed show is all ages, and prices can change.

1. Thursday, October 29: Theo Katzman. Doors at 7 p.m., $51.99. Dinner ends at 8 on Thursdays, so this is an early-table night. A 5 p.m. reservation gets you to the door around when it opens.
2. Saturday, October 31: Surprise Chef. Doors at 8 p.m., $32.75. With the kitchen open until 9 on Saturdays, a 6 p.m. dinner fits.
3. Saturday, November 14: Kate Nash. Doors at 8 p.m., $32.75. Same easy Saturday timing.
4. Saturday, November 21: Pedro the Lion. Doors at 8 p.m., $39.25.
5. Friday, November 27: Tom Kenny & The Hi-Seas. Doors at 8 p.m., $36.49. It's the day after Thanksgiving, and Friday dinner hours run until 9.
6. Thursday, December 17: Willi Carlisle. Doors at 7 p.m., $28.75. It's another Thursday with a 7 p.m. door, so book an early table again.

Several shows land on nights when the kitchen doesn't list dinner. Mdou Moctar plays a solo show on Tuesday, October 27. Mary in the junkyard plays Monday, November 2, Squirrel Flower plays Tuesday, November 3, and Craig Finn plays Tuesday, November 17. Neighbors & Friends lists no Monday or Tuesday service, but Sid's Bar opens at 5 p.m. and serves signature cocktails, classic cocktails, beer and wine. On those nights the bar is where you'll wait for doors on this block.

Wednesday shows run into trivia. Dummy plays November 4, Whitmer Thomas November 11 and Haley Heynderickx November 18. Trivia starts at 8 p.m. at Neighbors & Friends, so if you have tickets, plan to finish dinner before the questions start.

Other dates on the calendar include Juana Molina on October 24 and 25, Kate Nash's fellow Saturday headliner Ian Sweet on November 7, Spanish Love Songs on November 28, and More! Wrestling on December 10. Check the venue's site for door times before you book a table.

Thursdays start at the market

On Thursdays the evening can start an hour before the restaurant opens. The South Pasadena Farmers Market sets up at 913 Meridian Ave. at El Centro. It runs 4 to 8 p.m. in spring, summer and fall and 4 to 7 p.m. in winter, and it's closed on Thanksgiving and other major holidays. That means no market on November 26. The next night, doors open at 8 p.m. for Tom Kenny & The Hi-Seas at Sid The Cat.

On Thursday show nights the timing is tight. The market opens at 4, dinner starts at 5, and doors open at 7 for both Theo Katzman tonight and Willi Carlisle on December 17. You'd walk the market, sit down for an early dinner across the street, and get in line by 7. All three are within a block of each other, so a Thursday is the one night you can fit in all of it.

If you'd like to talk about the streets around El Centro, or anywhere else in South Pasadena, the Mardelli family is glad to help. Contact Us.