Jeremy Fox’s beloved Santa Monica restaurant, Birdie G’s , will resurrect at Fairmont Century Plaza after closing at the end of 2025. Named after Fox’s daughter Birdie and grandmother Gladys, the restaurant will reopen on October 26, serving breakfast,
lunch, and dinner with a mix of original favorites, such as the Pickle Chick, and new dishes, including a Rancho Gordo bean–based poached egg ribollita.
When Fox first spoke with Fairmont Century Plaza about Birdie’s G’s in June 2025, it was supposed to be the restaurant’s second location. But as it became increasingly clear that the Bergamot Station Arts Center outpost could not remain open, nothing was set in stone; at the time of the closure, Fox believed Birdie G’s might be gone for good. “In life, you very rarely get second chances, and in a restaurant even less so,” he says. “So I feel very fortunate and grateful that I didn’t have to tell Birdie that her restaurant was done.”
While the original Birdie G’s served only dinner, the Century City location will open at 6 a.m. for coffee, with its Midwest and Jewish–inflected breakfast and lunch available from 6:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and dinner from 5:30 to 9:30 p.m. The breakfast menu opens with Birdie’s muesli crowned with banana and apple, along with a cornbread waffle paired with sweet pepper jam, citrusy blood orange agrumato-dressed avocado toast, a build-your-own omelet, koji-marinated steak and eggs, and a smoked fish platter. Lunch brings a corned beef Reuben on Bub & Grandma’s bread, rice flour–batter mushroom fritto misto, the return of the famed gluten-free pickle chicken, three sizes of steak frites spanning eight to 28 ounces, and cauliflower kugel. The dinner menu, which offers many of the same dishes as lunch, sees the return of the Hangtown Brei with fried oyster and pork belly that Fox describes as “very decadent, over-the-top, semi-blasphemous,” lamb à la sales, and the stained-glass-like rose petal pie, plus new options such as rotisserie chicken and vegetables. “I like to refer to it as bubbe cuisine,” Fox says. “Just trying to channel that kind of no-nonsense, bare-bones, straight-to-the-point cooking.”
The restaurant will also bring back some of Birdie G’s former staff, including bar director Stephanie Redding, who will consult on the drinks; Laura Eldrige, who will work in the bar; and former cooks. Over the years, Fox and the Birdie G’s team documented most of their recipes, which will be the basis for the new location.
Birdie G’s in Santa Monica is the first restaurant Fox designed from the ground up; looking back, he says he didn’t quite understand the process or know how to advocate for his ideas at the time. “It was a really cool warehouse space, but nothing about it tied into the concept, the vibe, the atmosphere, to what I wanted Birdie G’s to be,” Fox says. In Century City, he collaborated with EDG Design to help bring his initial vision to fruition. The restaurant stands in stark contrast to the rest of the upscale hotel, bathed in neutral stone and punctuated by indoor greenery. Strong 1970s inspiration permeates the dining room, from the burnt-mustard banquettes to the plaid bar stools and repeating triangular wallpaper that looks like it could be found in a retro basement. Artwork shaped into small galleries adorns the walls, including vintage magazine covers like a 1987 Sports Illustrated issue featuring Joe Carter and Corey Snyder of the Cleveland Indians (now Guardians), and a painting of two birds in dinner coats. “It definitely feels like you’re somewhere else in time, somewhere else in the country,” Fox says.
For Fox, Birdie G’s was never meant to be a hotspot. Instead, he hoped the restaurant would feel like it had been there forever; it was initially inspired by his love of chain restaurants like Applebee’s and the Cheesecake Factory. Fox points to 1996’s Big Night as something that influenced him to go to culinary school at all. While he worked in fine dining at restaurants including Rustic Canyon, he kept returning to the cozy Italian restaurant run by the brothers in Big Night as a reference for what he hoped to do. “I wanted that restaurant that was simple, that was earnest, that wasn’t trendy,” Fox says.
Decades into Fox’s career, the Century City Birdie G’s feels like something entirely new for him. He says that over the last five years, as he and the industry faced numerous difficulties, it’s been hard to operate as a confident creative force. When Birdie G’s closed in Santa Monica, he suddenly faced, for the first time in many years, not having somewhere to report to every day. Now, as he prepares to reopen Birdie G’s and continues developing his San Luis Obispo restaurant, Edna, he’s feeling hopeful about what is next. “This is me really needing a W,” Fox says. “Really needing a win.”
Reservations for Birdie G’s are available on OpenTable.
