Walking down Broadway in Long Beach, just east of the Gayborhood where Wild Chive sits at Molino Avenue in Bluff Heights, one sign is hard to miss in their window. “Vizzi: Eat like you give a damn.”
Now operating as an evening residency inside The Wild Chive after its daytime brunch service, owner Akhil Viz wasn’t interested in simply opening another vegan restaurant. He wanted to create something he believes Long Beach doesn’t yet have: a space where the food is merely one expression of a much broader philosophy.
“I just want to have conversations with people who are willing to hear,” Akhil said. “My mission is to serve… If I can have a conversation with someone and say, ‘Is there a need? What’s the justification?’ and they walk away thinking, ‘You know what? Akhil had a good point. I should think about it.’ My job is done. Whether Vizzi survives or not? I don’t give a shit. If I’m out of business next month? I don’t give a shit. But if I’ve had one conversation—if I have one person think about it—I have served my purpose.”
What Vizzi represents on a fundamental level…
That mission permeates everything about Vizzi. The menu isn’t merely vegan; it is intentionally “plant-forward,” built around Hindu concepts like Ahimsa (nonviolence), Sattva (purity and harmony), and Sangha (community).
Even the restaurant’s language avoids conventional branding. Guests are invited into what Akhil calls “a communal space for recalibration and awakening,” while dishes like The Chariot Burger, The Infinite Burrito and Hari Bowl are named after spiritual concepts rather than clever marketing…