An events venue tests a dinner concert plan, and may move toward inviting national acts.

The 6,000-square-foot building has loomed over Del Monte Beach right next to the commercial wharf in Monterey for three-and-a-half decades. Under-utilized for its first 27 years, current owners David and Brenda Pollacci have breathed new life into the edifice since acquiring it eight years ago, forging it into a haven of upscale corporate events, along with private wedding and birthday celebrations.

“We revamped the previous business model,” David Pollacci says. “We greatly expanded the business, did an extensive remodel and put food and beverage service models in place.”

Those changes have led to everything from beach bonfire barbecue parties to high-end, formal sit-down dinners—all with a small, intimate private feel.

But ever since their beginnings, the Pollaccis have envisioned opening things up a bit—going public as it were.

It was a chance meeting with local music promoter/impressaria Kiki Wow at a local Fourth of July party that may have provided the necessary impetus.

“We’d always thought of doing meet-and-greet dinner concerts,” Pollacci says. “We have the venue and now Kiki and her husband Greg have the contacts to make it happen.”

Testing the waters as a live music venue, the Monterey Beach House will offer an open-to-the-public concert series once a month beginning on Oct. 14, with perennial local favorites Red Beans and Rice providing the dance tunes. (Admission is free; a cash bar and food for sale will be available.)

“We won’t ever be an everyday concert venue or club,” Pollacci says. “But we do want to share our special, intimate place to give back to the community that has given us so much.”

Already, however, the Pollacis are are thinking bigger. A business partner, David Berkowitz, has ties to Journey. And Wow and hubby are thinking Chris Isaak or even Stevie Nicks.

“National acts are a definite possibility after the first of the year,” Pollacci says, “but it will be a bit different (than a classic venue).”

He describes an intimate gourmet dinner to start, with maybe 75 to 100 people indoors, then a second set, oustide on the beach, with bonfires and s’mores, and another 150 audience members or so.

“There’s nothing like having your toes in the sand outside around a blazing bonfire eating s’mores and listening to outstanding music,” Pollacci says.

RED BEANS AND RICE Monterey Beach House, 285 Figueroa St., Monterey. 1-4pm Sunday, Oct. 14. No cover. 648-7240, montereybeachhouse.com