Birdie G's
A lively Santa Monica spot where you can stay out late
by Patrick JanelleLiving in LA in the mid 2000s, I would occasionally attend art openings at Bergamot Station, a creative complex set in airy warehouses on the city's Westside. This industrial, off-the-beaten-path area of Santa Monica is now home to Birdie G's, a venture from the team behind the acclaimed Rustic Canyon restaurant. The new establishment has already drawn far more people to the neighborhood than it usually sees—including Gwyneth Paltrow, whom I serendipitously met at the bar. (Yes, Gwyenth and I chatted about cocktails and she downloaded my app The Liquor Cabinet in front of my eyes.)
At Birdie G's, chef-owner Jeremy Fox, known for his farmer's market-driven food, pays homage to nostalgic, Americana supper clubs and takes menu influences from the Midwest, South, and California. Named for his daughter Birdie and grandmother Gladys, the spot puts a special focus on professional yet extremely friendly and approachable service.
The high energy, 150-seat restaurant is dripping with fun and offers a wide range of plates you can't find anywhere else. Among my favorites were sweet and sour beets with whipped chevré, horseradish, and stonefruit-pecan "charoset," a Jewish dish traditionally eaten at Passover, and the lamb "a la saless," a dish in which slices of tender lamb seasoned with Persian spices are drizzled with saffron yogurt and sit atop crispy dill rice. My friends and I (after a bottle of a carbonic, chilled red) were the last table to leave, proof this is a place that can have Angelenos out until midnight on a Wednesday.