For most of the twentieth century, Coronado's dirty linens rode in a truck. The Hotel del Coronado built its Laundry in 1919 to wash for the hotel and for local households. A fleet of five delivery trucks made rounds across the island. The equipment ran on steam for the building's entire 99-year working life. The Laundry kept washing for the hotel and its staff until 2018.

The red-brick building is still standing, and it is open to the public again, but not every day. You find out when the doors are open from a schedule. On the evening this post publishes, Thursday, Nov. 5, the Laundry runs as a pop-up sports bar from 5 to 9 p.m. After that its next public date is Sunday, Nov. 15. In practice, the building that once came to Coronado's doors now posts its own hours on a calendar.

Five trucks and a steam plant

How long the Laundry served island homes depends on the source. The hotel says its trucks were a regular sight on the island until local service ended in 1973. A Coronado Eagle & Journal feature on the building says resident service ended in 1940. Both accounts agree on the core history. For a generation or more, this was a working building whose customers lived on the island.

The restoration that turned it into a gathering place started in 2018. The Eagle & Journal reported that David Marshall of Heritage Architecture & Planning was the historic consultant and worked with OBR Architecture. The team kept the red brick walls, the wood windows and the clerestory rooftop windows, along with the wood floors, old signs, office partitions and the overhead laundry conveyor. Marshall told the paper the conveyor "wasn't in the way and now it looks like an elaborate contemporary art installation." He called the biggest change uncovering the red brick front facade, which had been painted white years earlier. The building was also seismically retrofitted. According to the hotel, crews stripped the paint from the brick by hand and found signage dating to 1925, which now hangs near the bar.

The work won a publicly nominated Orchid in the San Diego Architectural Foundation's Orchids & Onions program. The two sources also disagree on when the work finished. The Eagle & Journal gives July 2019, and the hotel dates the Laundry's restoration to 2021 as part of its master plan. Either way, the public didn't get in right away. In September 2021 the San Diego Union-Tribune reported that the building was still serving as temporary offices while the rest of the Del was under construction.

Two restaurants, then a different plan

When the doors finally opened, the Laundry ran as a restaurant. Coronado Times reported in June 2023 that the hotel planned to open Smokehouse & Bar there in mid-July. By March 2024 the barbecue concept had become the Laundry Pub, which Coronado Times described as aimed at locals, guests and families. It served pub food and cocktails beside arcade-style games and an 1880s bar.

That version closed in less than a year. The Coronado News reported that the pub's last service was the Super Bowl on Feb. 9, 2025, and that it closed on Feb. 10. Tipi Vyrasith, the hotel's director of food and beverage, told the paper that the plan for the building "always included its eventual transformation into a versatile event space." She described the pub years as a chance to "experiment with the space as a casual neighborhood hotspot."

That explains the calendar. The hotel now markets the Laundry as a historic event venue with 100 indoor seats and 40 on the lawn. On nights it is booked for weddings and corporate events, the public has no way in. On the nights the hotel opens it to everyone, those dates are now the only way in.

The Laundry's public dates, November through New Year's

From now through the start of January, the hotel has scheduled three kinds of public openings in the building. Game Day at The Laundry calls itself a "Coronado neighborhood pop-up sports bar." It offers value pricing on beer and pub-style bites, plus billiards and arcade games, and requires no reservations. Holiday Lodge, which is new this year, fills the building with lights, décor, holiday shopping, a family-friendly pub-style menu, and cookie and stocking decorating for children. The year ends with a New Year's Eve party.

The hotel says Game Day hours are subject to change, and the Holiday Lodge page notes that its dates and times may also move. The Holiday Lodge page is the place to check before heading over.

Why Dec. 2 and Dec. 4 are the dates to circle

Two of the Holiday Lodge dates fall on the island's two biggest community nights of the season. Those are the evenings when the Laundry, the lawns around it and Orange Avenue are all busy at once.

Wednesday, Dec. 2, is the Del's annual Holiday Festival, which the hotel describes as a community event open to all. The posted schedule runs as follows:

1. Coronado school performances in the Founders Ballroom, times to be announced
2. Skating on the Windsor Lawn, 4 to 10 p.m.
3. Santa's skydive onto Del Beach at 4:30 p.m.
4. The light show on Founders Lawn, 5 to 9 p.m.
5. Fireworks over Del Beach at 6:45 p.m.

Passes for photos with Santa are handed out on site.

Two nights later, on Friday, Dec. 4, the Coronado Chamber of Commerce holds its Holiday Parade and Tree Lighting. So far the Chamber has posted only the date. Last year's layout gives a sense of the evening. Coronado Times' preview of the 2025 parade, the 50th, listed a 6 p.m. start at Orange Avenue and 8th Street, a route toward R.H. Dana Place, and a 7 p.m. tree lighting by Santa at Rotary Plaza near 10th and Orange. The City's 2025 listing showed the route looping at R.H. Dana and Adella. That loop sits near the Del's own address at 1500 Orange Avenue.

The rest of the Del's season starts earlier. Skating by the Sea opens on the Windsor Lawn on Nov. 20 and runs through Jan. 3. Sessions last 90 minutes, and general admission is $35 to $45. Hotel guests, members, military and first responders get $5 off. The free Lightshow Spectacular runs over the same dates in the Norfolk Island Pines on Founders Lawn. It is a 10-minute show every 30 minutes from 5 to 9 p.m. nightly. This year's theme, "A Holiday Through Time," is built around themed trees for different eras of the hotel's history.

When the Laundry is dark, the 1300 block is open

Most nights between now and January, the Laundry is closed to the public. A few blocks up Orange Avenue, the 1300 block has added or reworked several year-round spots since August.

By the Sea opened on the second floor of 1300 Orange Ave. this summer. It took over the former Boardwalk Beach Club space after a four-year, $6 million renovation. Coronado Times reported a Mediterranean, seafood-forward menu and 245 indoor and outdoor seats. Hours are 4 to 11 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 4 p.m. to midnight on Friday and Saturday, and the restaurant is closed Tuesdays.

Next door at 1310 Orange Avenue, Tavern has brought back its bone-in pork chop after a three-year absence. It also added hot-honey chicken sliders and a 14-ounce Kobe Tajima Wagyu ribeye, according to Coronado Times.

At Coronado Plaza, Brio Recovery Studio and Wellness Market had a soft opening on Sept. 21 at 1330 Orange Ave., Suite 120, Coronado Times reported. It offers a wellness market, a gathering patio, and services including an infrared sauna, red-light therapy and a salt room.

The Laundry is one of the historic buildings the hotel counts in its restoration program of more than $550 million, completed in 2025. The Del itself has been a National Historic Landmark since 1977. The building still has its brick, its conveyor and its 1925 sign, and through Jan. 3 it is open to the public only on the dates listed above.

Houses near buildings like the Laundry have their own documented histories. If you own one of the island's older homes and want to know how that history affects its value, Hernholm Group is glad to talk it through privately. Get Access to Exclusive Listings.