Whittier Sprouts a Historic New Brewery and Food Hall Soon

Chef Ricardo Diaz is hard at work on his biggest project to date, a massive multi-concept property in the heart of his hometown Whittier. The former Bank of America building will indeed house Diaz’s upcoming Whittier Brewing Company, as well as a slew of new projects just now being announced.

In total, the reformatted property is being called Poet Gardens, and it will house a food hall with roughly half-a-dozen distinct entities inside. There’s the brewery, co-founded by Edgar Hernandez, John Kennedy, and Ricardo Diaz, that will act as an anchor tenant for the entire place. Diaz will also serve food, a drink-friendly collection of things like fries and sausages.

After that comes Fish God, another Diaz project that will focus on seafood in all its iterations. There will be crudos, ceviches, Japanese tatakes, and the like, making it a more robust and international version of, say, Holbox at the Mercado La Paloma. And then there’s Samaritan Pizza by Patrick Aguirre, the former head baker of Yountville’s Bouchon; he’ll be crafting wood-fired Neapolitan pizzas.

There are more projects to be announced for Poet Gardens, but for now construction is in full swing. Sources say brewing equipment is being installed now, and the Poet Gardens food hall side could be live as soon as May.

Poet Gardens
13006 Philadelphia St.
Whittier, CA

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