One of LA’s Best Italian Sandwich Makers Moves Onto a Busy Melrose Block

Los Angeles host kitchen concept Ggiata is taking its popular Italian sandwiches to the streets, jumping from app to storefront along busy Melrose. Owners Noah Holton-Raphael, Max Bahramipour, Jack Biebel, and Jack Welles tell Eater that the upstart company is commencing next week with on-site dining, takeaway service, and of course delivery.

The new Ggiata lands at 5009 Melrose Avenue in the Melrose Hill area, part of greater East Hollywood not far from Osteria La Buca and others. The neighborhood has long been a haven for small restaurant operations tucked away in strip malls and storefronts and playing to diners in nearby Larchmont, Koreatown, and beyond, which makes Ggiata’s tiny new 800-square-foot restaurant all the more applicable.

Ggiata

The gleaming white space will help the company to move beyond its commissary kitchen beginnings, and to expand its menu with more sandwiches, pastas, sides, desserts, and drinks. There are plans for retail offerings too, from housemade giardiniera and sauces to breads and even merchandise, a la Uncle Paulie’s.

The new storefront is scheduled to open next week on Wednesday, March 17, keeping hours from morning (think breakfast sandwiches) through dinner daily. There will be some limited on-site outdoor seating available by way of a couple of small tables on the sidewalk and around the corner, with the possibility of future indoor stand-up dining like Fairfax’s Prime Pizza down the line — though with the pandemic and ongoing uncertainty about reopening protocols, that’s still a ways off. Ultimately, the team is hoping to use this new space as a small-footprint model for future expansion, with hopes to add small Ggiata locations around Los Angeles, and even beyond. For now, fans can score one of LA’s most talked about Italian sandwiches right on Melrose, starting next week.

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