The former Johnny Rockets space on the Third Street Promenade has a new tenant. Dragon Alley Kitchen & Burgers, a smash-burger restaurant from Santa Monica resident Richard Chand, will open at 1322 3rd St. with a menu of smash burgers, chicken burgers, milkshakes, root beer floats and breakfast items.

Chand announced the concept on social media, calling it a place where "friends and families can come together," the Santa Monica Mirror reported Thursday, Aug. 20. No opening date has been set.

The burger restaurant marks Chand's second Dragon Alley venue in two months. He and partners Sage Chand, Victor Garcia, Jostin Moller and Fernando Garcia opened Dragon Alley Coffee on June 17 at 312 Santa Monica Blvd., just around the corner from the planned kitchen. The roughly 1,000-square-foot café serves imported Japanese matcha, espresso drinks and a banana loaf latte. Downtown Santa Monica Inc. CEO Debbie Lee, who sampled the drink before the grand opening, called it "one of the best coffees I've had in a very long time."

The five co-founders all work together as accountants and spent six months building the coffee concept before its debut, the Santa Monica Daily Press reported.

At the coffee shop's June 17 opening, Santa Monica City Councilmember Dan Hall framed the venture as part of a broader downtown recovery. "We've invested over $60 million in cleaning up our downtown," Hall said, "and we're very grateful that y'all are part of that story."

The 1322 3rd St. space was listed for lease as early as January 2026 after Johnny Rockets closed, according to a Tenzer Commercial listing. Retail and restaurant vacancy on the Promenade and surrounding blocks has hovered around 20%, among the highest rates in Los Angeles County, according to a July 2026 analysis by SM Observed.

New tenants have been arriving steadily. Raising Cane's Chicken Fingers and TMNT Pizzeria both opened on the Promenade in June, and The Win~Dow burger concept debuted at 930 Montana Ave. the same week. The city made permanent its suspension of formula-retail restrictions in August 2025 and approved a $3 million Economic Development Fund in March 2026 targeting restaurant-attraction incentives on the Promenade.

Dragon Alley Kitchen & Burgers has not announced a timeline for construction or opening.