Helene Henderson’s business is down about $1 million in revenue so far this year.

The founder and chef of Malibu Farm at the Pier Inc., a pair of eponymous, waterside eateries that serve farm-to-table food on the Malibu Pier, has long enjoyed success with tourists and locals alike.

But like many others in the area, her usually bustling business is currently struggling amid the fallout from the Pacific Palisades fire in January – making it the toughest time Henderson has faced since opening in 2008.

“This is the most challenging time ever,” she said. “Covid was a breeze (compared to this).”

As a coastal retreat with famed ocean views, Malibu is usually seen as one of the most idyllic places on Earth. However, business owners including Henderson say it now feels like a ghost town as they reel from the months-long closure of a key stretch of the Pacific Coast Highway (PCH).

A lifeline for businesses

The thoroughfare has been shut off to most of the public since January, following the devastation of the Palisades Fire, which killed 12 people and destroyed more than 6,800 structures.

Currently, only residents of the fire’s burn area, members of essential businesses and repair crews, are allowed to use the highway, meaning civilians who wish to pop up from other parts of L.A. to Malibu for the odd lunch or bit of shopping would need to take a much longer, more complicated route. 

Barbara Bruderlin, chief executive of Malibu Pacific Palisades Chamber of Commerce, said the PCH was essential, calling it “the main artery feeding Malibu’s businesses and workers.”

“Ongoing repairs and relief efforts mean businesses must wait another five weeks before the public is allowed access,” she said in a late April statement. “Some of them may not survive.”

Last month, California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced the PCH would reopen by the end of May on a limited basis, in time for Malibu’s crucial summer tourism season. The announcement has been met with both optimism and derision, because it’s slated to first entail just “one lane in each direction” available to the public.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) has been racing to remove nearly 1,300 truckloads of debris linked to the fire each day, with all dump trucks currently using PCH as part of their “haul routes,” according to Newsom’s office.

“Crews will work around the clock – literally 24/7 – to demolish the damaged and collapsed homes, remove toxic ash and soot, repair the roadways, and install new utility equipment,” his team said in a statement.

Quieter times

The time couldn’t come soon enough for business owners in the tight-knit community.

Several restaurant and store owners called the partial shutdown of PCH their single biggest headache, along with recent adverse weather, mudslides and a loss of customers from the Palisades, an important part of their usual clientele who have now been displaced.

Henderson estimated a drop of 70% to 80% in customers for her restaurant during the week, not including the Malibu Farm café at the end of the pier, which has coincidentally been closed due to a separate California State Parks closure.

Weekends are often better, though they still only bring in about half the people the restaurant used to serve, she said. And because of the required detour, Henderson now is often tasked with fielding calls from customers baffled by the change in driving directions.

“All our phone calls are like this: ‘But I don’t understand how to get there,’” she said.

Of the reservations they do receive, about half of the customers end up not showing up, she added.

In response, Henderson has limited the restaurant’s hours and pared back on staffing.

“Business is definitely not the same,” she said with a sigh. “The mood of everyone is stressed out. A lot of (staff) say they want more hours than we’re able to give them.”

A similar story is playing out at Taverna Tony, a popular Greek restaurant at the Malibu Country Mart.

Owner Zane Koss estimates the eatery sees about 30% fewer customers than this same time last year, primarily due to the disruption with the PCH.

“People are not going to go from taking a 20-minute cruise down the beach, looking at the ocean, to being in a car for an hour and taking a highway and dropping down a canyon. They’re not doing it,” he said.

However, Koss is proud that he’s been able to keep relatively normal hours and retain all his staff, even if he’s had to put fewer employees on the same shift to account for slower foot traffic.

“That was the most important thing for me, to just keep everybody working,” he said. “It was important to me that the community saw too that not just, we’re strong, (but) to show other restaurants like they should open and be strong too. To set an example.”

This has, of course, come at a price. Like Malibu Farm, the downturn has also cost the Mediterranean restaurant approximately $1 million in lost revenue, according to Koss.

That’s not counting the hit taken from the food that spoiled when power was shut off during the fire. Tony Taverna had lost tens of thousands of dollars in immediate damages. Malibu Farm and Duke’s, the beachfront restaurant and bar that has long been a favorite among locals and tourists, also lost at least $60,000 and saw “hundreds of thousands” of dollars in costs, respectively.

To cope, Koss has explored applying for various grants and loans, including one from the Small Business Administration (SBA), and encouraged others to do the same.

‘Malibu is being suffocated’

Malibu is no stranger to natural disasters, having endured devastation from the Woolsey Fire in November 2018 and the Franklin Fire in December 2024.

The economic toll from the most recent blaze has been astronomical. According to an April report by Beacon Economics and the Pepperdine University School of Public Policy, the 2025 fire “damaged 234 businesses in and around Malibu and completely destroyed 99.”

“These 99 properties supported nearly half of all jobs in the city,” researchers said in a statement accompanying the report’s release. “Sales in restaurants and bars alone are down an estimated $7.6 million per month, making up nearly 80% of the city’s total monthly sales loss.”

Bruderlin, the commerce chamber chief, called the aftermath of the fire “a death grip on the remaining Malibu businesses who, after five months of an average 70% decline in business, are on the brink of closing down.”

One such business is Malibu Village Books. Between the Franklin Fire and – just weeks later – the Palisades Fire, owner Michelle Pierce feels like she just can’t catch a break.

“Malibu is being suffocated,” she said.

Both incidents meant the bookstore had to shut its doors twice, each time for weeks, forcing it to miss out on the holiday season which typically represents its busiest time of sales all year.

Pierce said she had saved about $50,000 for contingencies, but that was quickly wiped out. “It’s all gone,” she said, citing payroll, taxes, rent and other expenses.

Like other businesses, Pierce has limited shop hours, though she takes pains to stay open as much as she can.

Asked whether that made sense financially given the current environment, she said the decision was to ensure customers knew they hadn’t shut down completely.

“Something I’ve learned in business is the moment you close your doors, even for a day or two, if people come up and see you closed, they think you’re closed for forever. So I would much rather be open, even for small bits like that … to say, ‘Hey, we’re open,’ (even) if we get one or two people coming through.”

The pressure of operating in the protracted slowdown is still coming to a head. In February, Malibu Village Books started a GoFundMe page calling on donors to “help save the only bookstore in Malibu.”

“With Pacific Coast Highway closed, we are unsure of when our community will be back,” the company wrote. “Without traffic, we are teetering on closure and we need your help.”

As of press time, the campaign had raised more than $9,000, or 9% of its $110,000 goal.

Calls for more relief

Part of the problem is that businesses need more grace, said Pierce. She noted, for instance, that she paid full rent for her store in January despite having to close most of the month. Some landlords “don’t care,” she said.

Unlike during Covid-19, when special measures were given to businesses, bills are expected to be paid all the same. Currently, there’s no pause on “the immediate need of everyone wanting money from you,” she said. “This is (also) something that’s unprecedented, no matter how much savings you had.”

Henderson also said that in some ways, the pandemic had been easier for businesses.

At the time, the government was “throwing money at you,” she quipped, citing the paycheck protection program that helped firms keep workers employed during the crisis.

“I mean, this is kind of what we really need now, is for Newsom to give us the payroll protection or employee retention credit,” Henderson said.

The Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce Foundation has set up a recovery fund to provide grants of up to $25,000 for businesses affected by both the Palisades and Eaton Fires, along with other agencies and organizations.

Pierce said she researched several local grants, but had been told the business didn’t qualify, possibly because her corporation’s main address is registered in Orange County, where it operates a sister bookstore.

Signs of hope

Duke’s, a Malibu mainstay for decades, has also been in trouble.

The establishment was hit not by the fires, but a massive mudslide in February that “completely devastated the entire building,” according to Jackie Reed, chief executive of Duke’s owner TS Restaurants.

“It got into every inch of the ground floor and in some places up to four feet,” she said.

As a result, the building is undergoing a complete remodel, and will reopen in phases, starting in July.

The company has also lost out on millions of dollars in revenue this year, though after losing another restaurant and experiencing another tragic fire in Maui’s Lahaina area in 2023, Reed emphasizes that she’s just glad to have everyone safe.

“It was very scary because we know exactly what can happen,” she said. “We weren’t really concerned about the building.”

Have the recent weather or wildfires made the company think twice on whether to reinvest in Malibu? Reed says no.

“We’re very proud of how we’ve been able to establish ourselves as part of the Malibu community. And we want to continue to be there,” she said of the nearly 30-year-old business. “We hope that people will want to come and support the businesses that are in Malibu and not forget that we’re all there.”

Koss echoed that view.

“I will always believe in Malibu,” he said. “I think that there’s trouble everywhere, in all of our city. We have earthquakes and fires and floods and all kinds of things … You’ve got to be able to hustle and move with it.”

Despite the current tough spot, Koss said he was cognizant that he was one of the luckier ones.

“I do have a large sense of gratitude that I’m still there, (because) so many fellow restaurateurs are not,” he said.