Chef Jeremy Fox has opened two restaurants in two cities within about two weeks. The new Birdie G's sits inside the Fairmont Century Plaza hotel in Los Angeles, and The Restaurant at Edna opens in San Luis Obispo on November 5, with a focus on local agriculture.
A Return to Everyday Cooking
Fox closed the original Birdie G's, a Santa Monica dinner restaurant named for his daughter and inspired by his grandmother's home cooking, at the end of 2025. The closure was one of many in Los Angeles tied to an economic downturn. The new Birdie G's, which opened October 26, serves breakfast, lunch and dinner, a change from the dinner-only format of the earlier location.
The menu keeps familiar comfort dishes. Fox has put a Rancho Gordo yellow eye bean stew on the lunch menu, a recipe that began at Manresa and later appeared at Ubuntu and Rustic Canyon. He describes the stew as containing a large amount of garlic that must be cooked through without browning, so that it does not overpower the dish. The matzo ball soup, enriched with carrot miso, is prepared through a carefully regimented process influenced by both his grandmother's recipe and his wife's approach to chicken broth.
Seasonal Cooking in Wine Country
The Restaurant at Edna takes a different direction. Fox and former Birdie G's executive chef Matthew Schaler plan a dinner-only restaurant, open five nights a week, with a menu that changes frequently. Friends-and-family dinners featured dishes such as cone cabbage stuffed with smoked bacon and ramps, sweet potato and pumpkin pavé with brown butter sabayon, and mushroom ravioli made with Stepladder Moonstone cheese fonduta.
Fox says the restaurant will rely on local farms he has worked with for more than a decade in Los Angeles, along with regional seafood and California meat such as Flannery beef. The menu is designed around ingredients prepared with restraint, with the aim of making the restaurant a place guests can visit regularly rather than a single destination occasion.
Managing Pressure During a Busy Stretch
Fox has spoken openly about anxiety, and he says the pace of two openings has actually steadied him. He explained that months without daily service deadlines were harder for him than a full schedule. Both restaurants reflect his long career, from fine dining to accessible, nostalgic food inspired by classic American diners and chain restaurants he grew up with.