Highland Park’s Newest Restaurant Is a Rollicking Italian Deli Straight Out of New Jersey (2024)

Ggiata Delicatessen will open its first restaurant with a full dining room on Wednesday, July 17 in Highland Park. The chain of New Jersey-inspired Italian sandwich shops has been on an expansion tear across Los Angeles since debuting in 2020. Initially operating out of a Koreatown ghost kitchen, Ggiata opened its first store in the booming Melrose Hill neighborhood in 2021, a second location in West Hollywood in 2022, and a third outpost in Venice in 2023 with financial assistance from two dozen investors.

“We’ve grown now to a size where the profit spitting off of the business can fund about one store a year and we’re comfortable going at around that pace,” says co-owner Noah Holton-Raphael, who runs the business with partners Max Bahramipour and Jack Biebel.

Ggiata’s partners have been regular patrons of Highland Park restaurants and bars since they moved to Los Angeles in 2018, frequenting some of the trendier businesses along York Boulevard like the Taiwanese spot Joy and Belle’s Bagels. Opening in Highland Park felt like a natural next step for a shop with three locations that veer west. Like many neighborhoods across the Southland, Northeast Los Angeles has experienced rapid gentrification in recent years, with new businesses sparking activism among some longtime residents who fear displacement. “We’ve always loved the community there,” says Holton-Raphael, adding that the neighborhood is full of “young, creative families” who have access to a lot of restaurants already — there’s just maybe room for more.

To introduce itself to surrounding Highland Park businesses and residents, Ggiata staffers canvassed the neighborhood leading up to its opening and provided their contact information. While Holton-Raphael and his partners view Highland Park as more “established” in its food scene than Melrose Hill was when they opened their first location, they still plan to extend a 15 percent discount to locals based on an honor system and to hire directly from the neighborhood. “Anytime we go into any community, our intention is to be a really great neighbor and to be a place where when that Ggiata logo goes up, people in that neighborhood are excited for us to open and not dreading it because it comes with some sort of unintended baggage,” says Holton-Raphael.

The space at 5025 East York Boulevard has served as a coffee shop offering bike repair services called A Bloc since 2017. When it closed midway through 2023, Ggiata’s owners signed a lease and began the remodeling process in December of that year. The updated 1,500-square-foot space seats up to 21 inside, with half a dozen stools perched along a wood bar constructed by Highland Park resident Logan Douangsitthi, and around 10 seats outside.

“So much of what we’ve aimed to do with Ggiata is bring people together around food and sandwiches in the same way that we experienced growing up in Jersey,” says Holton-Raphael. “It’s hard to do that when you don’t have anywhere for people to sit.” Holton-Raphael envisions a comfortable and casual room where diners can grab a seat at the bar to see their sandwiches made and wines poured, or where they can hide away in a banquette for some more privacy.

The menu by chef Celerino Cruz, featuring breakfast sandwiches, Italian American heroes, salads, and sides, will be familiar to Ggiata regulars. Best-sellers like the eggplant Parmesan and chicken Caesar salad wrap are accounted for, however, a notable addition to Highland Park will be new desserts from pastry chef Christy Erickson. The location’s on-site dining allows for more elaborate sweets than what’s available at the takeout-only stores, says Holton-Raphael.

To drink are local and Italian beers, along with four custom wines by Jumbo Time Wines: a chilled red, an orange, a rosé, and a white. Food and drink orders will be taken at the front counter and everything will be brought to the diner at their seat if they’re eating at the restaurant.

Next up, the Ggiata team will scout for potential locations in the San Fernando Valley, Long Beach, and Brentwood. “There’s probably another two or three neighborhoods that we can open in Los Angeles without it starting to feel like a chain or so ubiquitous that the experience isn’t special anymore,” says Holton-Raphael.

For now, though, the trio of owners is focused on successfully opening in Highland Park. “For all of the negativity around being a business owner in LA or California, California and Los Angeles have been pretty amazing to us. We grew up in Jersey, but we’ve made this our home for the last six years. We have no plans to leave any time soon,” he says.

Ggiata is located at 5025 York Boulevard, Highland Park, CA 90042, and is open from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday and from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday.