Birdie G’s, the lauded Santa Monica restaurant where Midwestern meets Jewish meets Californian cuisine, will close at the end of the year. Chef-owner Jeremy Fox cites the restaurant’s location and sizable footprint, along with years of economic setbacks, as contributing factors.
As with many of L.A.’s restaurant closures in 2025, a series of events that included the pandemic, inflation and entertainment-industry strikes led to the decision. Drastic drops in business following the nearby Palisades fire in January “felt like the nail in the coffin,” said Fox, who is also chef-partner of the restaurant Rustic Canyon.
In 2025 the weeks following the fire felt like a repeat of COVID-19, he said: No customers came in to dine, and Fox and his team didn’t know whether they should furlough staff until business picked up again. Fox estimates revenue fell by 80% during that time.
“That was a bloodbath, how much money we lost,” Fox said. “It was an ungodly amount of money. It was that bad.”
Fox opened Birdie G’s in June 2019 with partners Josh Loeb and Zoe Nathan, owners of the Rustic Canyon Family restaurant group. The idea was a gourmand spin on chain restaurants, but done at a higher level: Approachable but still-creative cuisine could be seen through the lens of his Midwestern and Eastern European Jewish roots, and utilize high-quality, seasonal ingredients.
He didn’t envision Birdie G’s as a haute destination but “the friendliest, kindest restaurant in town.” Named for his daughter, Birdie, and grandmother Gladys, it launched to rave reviews and served relish trays brimming with pickled local produce, a sweet-tangy chicken-liver mousse toast with caramelized onion-Manischewitz jam and roe-dotted pierogi.
It landed on the L.A. Times 101 list of best restaurants multiple years in a row (and currently sits at No. 52); received recognition from the Michelin Guide; and garnered glowing reviews, with L.A. Times Food critic Bill Addison calling it “Santa Monica’s hottest restaurant of the year” in 2019.
But the years since have proved difficult to sustain.
Outdoor dining at Birdie G’s inside the Bergamot Station complex.
(Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times)
Birdie G’s has 180 seats spread across 5,000 square feet in the mixed-use complex called Bergamot Station.
Initial plans for the buildings included a boutique hotel and multiple additional restaurants, more shops and a parking structure. Opening there made sense in 2019: The industrial sector reminded Fox of the Arts District, and the raw space with large windows and stone walls felt ripe for his long-planned restaurant.
But after the pandemic the complex’s buildout slowed, and the restaurant’s lack of parking — with $18 valet often serving as the only option for guests — also deterred business, Fox said.
“I’ve definitely been fighting with my inner monologue for several years, wondering why things weren’t picking up, why things weren’t connecting, and there was definitely a lot of self-doubt,” Fox said. “But I honestly think that we could have been the most perfect restaurant and it still wouldn’t have made a difference, with where we were located.”
Fox said the fires decimated business at the start of 2025. Many of the restaurant’s guests live in the Palisades and surrounding areas, according to the chef-owner. He also cites a decrease in tourism.
This year he’s tried new avenues to draw customers into Birdie G’s, such as leaning even more toward comfort foods and adding a lauded burger as well as brunch. While they helped, the chef added, it wasn’t enough.
Birdie G’s chef-owner Jeremy Fox, left, and former chef de cuisine, Brittany Cassidy, in 2019.
(Mariah Tauger / Los Angeles Times)
Though he’d been weighing the decision to close since the start of the year, he held off due to glimmers of hope. One month the sprawling restaurant’s seats would all be filled; the following, sales would drop by 40% for no discernible reason.
So now, with just over three months until closing, Fox and the restaurant’s other co-owners plan to bid adieu in style with more experimentation in addition to the more familiar set menu: “What’s the worst that could happen, we go out of business?”
“I’m hoping that the people who are coming in are ready to celebrate Birdie G’s will be open to some more adventurous things: the whims of the kitchen and what we can do.”
They’ve begun adding more daily specials, including house-made charcuterie and sausages and other recipes from Fox’s newest cookbook, “On Meat.” He hopes to offer more-ambitious large-format dishes, as well as more shellfish. Guests can expect one final run of the restaurant’s fan-favorite Hanukkah series, 8 Nights, when one visiting chef and one local chef prepare a new menu each night.
A signature dish of lamb a la Saless at Birdie G’s.
(Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times)
Much of the staff chose to remain on through the end of the year, and some of the restaurant’s alumni will return for guest shifts and special appearances.
And who knows, Fox, said, maybe 2025 won’t be the last of Birdie G’s forever.
“I love Birdie G’s and I believe in it,” he said, “so I’m hoping that there’ll be a chance for it to pop up again somewhere, somehow.”
Birdie G’s is located at 2421 Michigan Ave. in Santa Monica, open Tuesday to Thursday from 5 to 9 p.m. and Friday and Saturday from 5 to 9:30 p.m.