Ellie’s in Alamitos Beach. Ginger’s directly next door. Jolie on Coronado Island in San Diego. And now, Chef Jason Witzl—along with an incredible crew that includes partner Molly Sirody and Chef Patrick Claytor, formerly of Heritage and Olive & Rose—is ready to introduce Gigi’s.
And they’re taking over a space that the community has long desired to have activated.
Gigi’s will take over the former Picarelli’s space at PCH and Loynes.
For years, the hulking, conspicuously empty space at 6204 E. Pacific Coast Hwy.—right where it meets Loynes Drive over on the Eastside—has generated one of East Long Beach’s most reliably recurring questions: What, exactly, is going in there?
For many in the neighborhood, the loss of Picarelli’s has felt weighty: Joe Picarelli took over the space in 2013 after outgrowing his original spot, which is now The Crooked Duck. It offered a perfect counterpart to the neighboring Enrique’s—and that is precisely what Chef Jason and his team are wanting to achieve with Gigi’s…