One of LA’s Best Pie Shops Scores a Big, Sunny New Santa Monica Home

Winston Pies has secured a new location in Santa Monica, with plans to formalize its new facility on Ocean Avenue sometime in early March. Owner Brianna Abrams’ popular pie shop, which first opened in Brentwood in 2017 before expanding to West Third Street, is taking over the long-dormant former Joan’s on Third offshoot at 1705 Ocean Avenue, and will use the much larger facility to expand its customer base and delivery range, and to greatly grow its production volume and nationwide shipping.

“The little Brentwood kitchen and prep space just couldn’t handle the orders,” Abrams tells Eater by email. “The new kitchen has so much more space and oven capacity, and it happens that this beautiful kitchen also has a fantastic front area for pick up and to-go.” Look for a firm opening date in the next several weeks, with the possibility of on-site dining still to come. Meanwhile, in related pie news, the Pie Hole has just opened a standalone shop inside of the Gelson’s Market (also in Santa Monica) at 2627 Lincoln Boulevard.

In other news:

• Chicas Tacos has also expanded, opening up its newest location at 8312 W. Third Street in the former Prime Cutts space. The restaurant opened late last week, serving signature tacos, bowls and more from culinary director Eduardo Ruiz of BLVD Hospitality. The plan is still to open several more Chicas locations around town, beyond this new West Third shop and the Culver City option, including at All Season Brewing Company inside La Brea’s historic Firestone Building. A fourth location in Venice is still planned as well.

• Meanwhile, the New York Times takes a hearty look at the booming world of birria from a mostly Los Angeles lens, interviewing everyone from Teddy Vazquez of Teddy’s Red Tacos to Josef Centeno.
• Spoon by H has received a large outpouring of support after publicly discussing a troubling issue with a previous customer. Per the restaurant, an unnamed person placed “one of the largest orders we’ve ever received,” only to dispute the charge with their credit card company after pickup, meaning Spoon by H was on the hook to repay the customer for the food they’d received. Since then, folks have been ordering gift cards to the restaurant and planning to even more robustly support them during the ongoing restaurant crisis.
• Michael Mina and Brent Bolthouse’s Bungalow Kitchen at Belmont Shore in Long Beach is opening on March 4, per the company’s Instagram.
• Conservatory West Hollywood is temporarily closing for the foreseeable future. Reps for the restaurant have passed along a statement, which reads in part: “We are supportive of our industry and are happy that outdoor dining is reinstated for those that are able, but we are making the decision to temporarily close until we can open again safely and in a position to be open at a larger capacity.”
• Chef Javier Ramos is popping up at Goldburger on February 15, cooking wings, doughnuts, and. Burgers for a few hours in the evening.