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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.

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.

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.

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.

This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

My friends and I used to joke around at Pali High: “Imagine if the school just burned down. No class for a week!”

Then the school burned down.

Pacific Palisades High School didn’t escape the scourge of the Palisades Fire in January last year. It wasn’t a joke anymore.

The smoke filled the sky, people started evacuating and it felt like the whole city was holding its breath. My school shut down completely. It was damaged, unsafe, and just like that, I had to switch schools.

It felt unreal at first. One minute I was comfortable in my routine, the next I was packing up and leaving it all behind. I didn’t want to go. I was angry. Confused. But now, I honestly think God had a reason.

I ended up at Samo (Santa Monica High School). Weirdly enough, that’s where a bunch of my old friends were already going. At first, I didn’t know how it would go, but reconnecting with them made the transition easier. It felt like maybe God wasn’t just taking things away from me. He was giving me a second chance to keep friends.

But second chances came with distractions.

What kind of distractions? Parties. A lot of them. At first, it was just me trying to enjoy high school. But it became too much. I’d sneak out, lie to my mom, stay out late thinking it was all just “normal teenage stuff.” But one night, the cops showed up at a party I was at. Sirens. People running. Pure chaos. I got caught. And yeah, my mom found out. That was the last straw for her.

She wanted something better for me. Somewhere I could focus, reset and just stay out of trouble. She enrolled me at Lighthouse, here in Santa Monica. At first, I thought I was being punished. But honestly, it doesn’t feel like that anymore.

I just started at Lighthouse, not much has happened yet, but I’ve already made a few friends, and the environment feels different in a good way. It’s smaller, more real and I feel like maybe this is exactly what I needed, even if I didn’t want to admit it at first.

So… after everything, how do you feel now? +I still think about how weird it is that a joke we made turned into real life. One fire changed my whole path. But sometimes, God uses chaos to wake us up. I went from losing my school, to reconnecting at SAMO, to getting caught up in the wrong stuff, and now starting over again at Lighthouse.

It’s been a lot. But I’m not mad about it anymore. I think everything that happened brought me to where I’m supposed to be.

And honestly? I hope my sophomore year at Lighthouse goes great.

I’m ready for a fresh start.

About this writer: Exjani Rojas is in the journalism class at Lighthouse Christian Academy of Santa Monica.

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?

We’ve tracked down the best views and vibes—some even have great cocktails!—from Santa Monica sunsets to the Downtown skyline.

What is it that they say about L.A.’s smog? Oh yeah, the reason for its beautiful sunsets that never get old. Make the city’s pollution and marine layer work for you at these sky-high cocktail bars, where the views rightfully rival the booze. With so many new rooftop restaurants and bars in town, we’ve narrowed this list to the best drinking-oriented spots in the city, rather than full-blown dining destinations. They run the gamut from lowkey Westside rooftops to see-and-be-seen hotspots in West Hollywood, with a few longtime favorites thrown in for good measure.

Most take walk-ins, thankfully, and those that require reservations aren’t necessarily the places we’d endorse paying for a full meal anyway. None of our picks require a cover fee or drink minimum, unless stated otherwise. (There are many more rooftop bars than the ones featured on our guide, but trust us, we’ve visited every single one of them, and not all of them merit paying premium cocktail prices.) From rooftop watering holes in Downtown and Hollywood to a few tried-and-true beachside bars in Venice and Santa Monica, here are the city’s—literally—top rooftop bars.

August 2025: Since my last major update, Grandmasters Recorders and the Sauced pop-up atop the former Ace Hotel have closed, and Cha Cha Chá announced plans to close. New to this season’s guide is Kassi, the newest concept atop Venice’s Hotel Eriwn. For more on our new policies, feel free to check out How we review at Time Out.

The ultra-luxurious Santa Monica Proper hotel — where rooms range from around $600 to $2,600 a night — has been accused of failing to pay its employees minimum wage and, in some cases, paying them less per hour than it charges guests for a bowl of hummus.

This week, a class-action lawsuit was filed to the L.A. County Superior Court against the upscale hotel on behalf of around 100 workers who have allegedly been underpaid for years.

The 263-room hotel promises guests an experience where “every moment is considered through a luxury lens,” according to its website, and boasts two renowned restaurants, a rooftop pool, a fitness center and an award-winning spa.

“Dining options feature items like $21 mocktails and $250 wagyu steaks,” states the complaint. “Despite these premium prices, the Proper hotel does not pay its workers the minimum wage.”

In a statement to The Times, the company that owns the hotel, Proper Hospitality, said, “We categorically disagree with the claims in this lawsuit, which mischaracterize both our labor practices and the status of our union agreements,” adding that staff receive “highly competitive” compensation and benefits.

In Santa Monica, all hotel staff are entitled to the minimum wage stipulated by the Santa Monica Hotel Worker Living Wage Ordinance — which was set at $19.73 in July 2023, jumped to $20.32 in July 2024, and a year later is $21.01. These rates are similar to those set by the city of L.A.’s minimum wage ordinance for hotel workers.

Plaintiffs Chelsea Kupitz and Eric Block are servers who have worked at the hotel since 2019 and are pursuing the class-action suit on behalf of all employees whose rights under the Santa Monica ordinance have allegedly been violated.

“No luxury hotel is above the law,” attorney Alexander Winnick told The Times. “Santa Monica’s hotel worker living wage reflects the city’s commitment to a fair and vibrant tourism industry and to keeping wages competitive with other cities. Sometimes it takes courageous workers to stand up to protect everyone’s rights.”

In Santa Monica, the only way hotels can receive an exception to the ordinance is by applying for a one-year waiver, arguing that compliance would force a shutdown, or by reaching a collective bargaining agreement with employees that includes a waiver.

The Santa Monica Proper hotel has never formally sought a waiver from the city claiming it is unable to afford the rates, according to the complaint. The hotel did have language in its previous collective bargaining agreement about sidestepping the ordinance’s pay rates, but that agreement expired in June 2023, the complaint states.

Since then, the hotel has failed to raise its wages in line with those mandated by the ordinance — leaving many employees earning an hourly rate that is less than the $20 charged for a bowl of hummus at the hotel’s rooftop restaurant, according to the complaint.

Proper Hospitality said in a statement, however, that the Santa Monica Proper hotel continues to operates under a collective bargaining agreement with the union representing staff. Attorneys for employees said negotiations on a new agreement are continuing.

The complaint further alleges that the language in the collective bargaining agreement was not specific enough to constitute a formal waiver to the ordinance, and therefore, employees have been underpaid since July 2022.

“They [staff] have been systematically denied the minimum wages mandated by the Ordinance,” states the complaint. “This shortfall not only undercuts their livelihoods but highlights the glaring hypocrisy of a luxury establishment profiting handsomely while skimping on fair pay for those who make it shine.”

The Proper pushed back on any implication of exploitation, saying that its healthcare coverage and retirement pension contributions go beyond what the ordinance requires.

“We also conduct regular training and audits to ensure full compliance and transparency,” Proper Hospitality stated. “We’re confident that a full review of the facts will show our practices reflect that commitment.”

Plaintiffs are seeking a jury trial and compensatory damages including back pay owed to workers. In addition, they are asking for penalties of $100 per day per person whose rights were violated under the Santa Monica Hotel Worker Living Wage Ordinance plus further penalties for violations of the California Labor Code.

They are also seeking a court order requiring that the hotel prominently display hotel worker minimum wage rates and that an independent party monitor the hotel’s payroll compliance for two to three years.

It’s been a famed celebrity hangout since its Dutch doors opened in 1959 with stars like Elvis Presley pulling up in his pink Cadillac and Steve McQueen rubbing elbows on the well-worn wood bar next to locals and beach bums.

Even members of the Beach Boys and the Rat Pack gathered at this historic spot over martinis and it’s said that John F. Kennedy and Marilyn Monroe had more than a few rendezvous at the small nautical themed bar, leading to the interior being declared a “paparazzi-free” zone.

Located by the end of Route 66 near the Santa Monica Pier, the historic Chez Jay celebrates its 66-year anniversary on Saturday, Aug. 9 with a daylong retro-theme party.

“We’ve had such a rich history here,” said Chris Anderson, who along with his father Michael Anderson owns the famous spot, which has long been described as a high-class dive bar and classy joint that’s pretty much remained the same since it opened in 1959.

“In a city that’s ever changing you can count on us to never change. And I think what’s special about that is that we see people who come in and they’ll sit in the same booth that their grandparents or their parents sat at. That kind of magic is something you can’t replicate,” he added.

The anniversary celebration is a ticketed event that will include live music featuring covers of The Beach Boys, Motown and jazz bands, a retro “Route 66” classic car display; a mini Chez Jay museum featuring memorabilia and historic photographs on display plus and interactive “Rumor Has It” video booth where attendees can share their Chez Jay memories.

And since Chez Jay also happens to be a legit restaurant known for dishes like the Butter Steak and Sand Dabs Sauté Almondine, its famed Linguine and Clams and Chez Jay’s “Original” Clam Chowder, some ticket holders will be able to reserve a prix-fixe dinner as part of the celebration. But with only 10 tables and 12 bar seats, you may have to be a celebrity to score one of these tickets.

Chez Jay was originally founded by actor and hot-air balloonist Jay Fiondella, who purchased it when it was then known as the “Dawn Cafe” for one dollar. It opened with a party that included show girls and a circus elephants who ate free peanuts from the bar, according to the Santa Monica Conservancy. One of the elephants even left a dent on the bar, which can still be seen today.

According to the Conservancy, Chez Jay also has a place in political and space history too because the Pentagon Papers were passed to a New York Times reporter at table 10 and astronaut Alan Shepard smuggled a Chez Jay peanut into space and back.

While its lore is forever woven into the fabric of the city, for Anderson Chez Jay is still a spot that’s all about the people and the stories they share when they pull up a seat at the bar.

“You just never know who’s going to walk in through that front door,” Anderson said.

“It’s all about the people who come here. And it’s just this melting pot, a time capsule, no one is on their cell phones, everyone leaves their problems at the door and they come to the bar and you hear the greatest stories from all around the country and the world,” he added.

When: 3 p.m.-12 a.m. Aug. 9

Where: Chez Jay, 1657 Ocean Ave, Santa Monica