How Ggiata Became One of LA’s Go-To Sandwich Spots

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Everyone loves a good deli. The problem is that everyone also has their own opinions on what makes one good. If you’ve ever found yourself in a weirdly heated debate about toastiness, brininess, general sandwich architecture… you know. 

And still, every city has a few spots no one really argues about. In Los Angeles, Ggiata is one of them. 

What started as a cloud kitchen from three childhood friends out of New Jersey has grown into a real LA establishment-in-the-making. Ahead of the opening of their seventh location in Echo Park, I caught up with founders and still-best friends Noah Holton-Raphael, Max Bahramipour, and Jack Biebel to chat sandwiches, social media, and the secret to a standout chicken caesar wrap. 

1. You’re about to open your 7th Ggiata location – congratulations! That’s huge. For anyone who doesn’t know your story, can you explain the TL;DR on how you three got here? 

NOAH: Thank you! Max, Jack, and I grew up in Montclair, NJ. We like to say Essex County, NJ is the Deli Capital of the country. Our town was 40,000 people and I remember 9 delis by name that we would eat at growing up. There were the Italian delis: Belgiovene’s, Rosarios, Niccolos, and Marzullos; the Jewish delis: Millburn; the Middle Eastern delis: Jackie’s Grillette and Beyond Pita. There was The Skinny Deli and The Fat Deli. There were pizza shops that served sandwiches, and diners that served sandwiches. 

These places had an impact on us that we couldn’t appreciate at the time. When I reflect on 

my childhood growing up in New Jersey, so many memories were made at the deli. When we moved to LA in 2018, we felt these kinds of neighborhood sandwich shops were missing and that maybe we could add something to the already great restaurant landscape here. 

2. How do you divide up your roles day-to-day? How has that division changed as you've scaled? 

NOAH: The three of us have very different skill sets. Jack is analytical, a deep thinker. He has helped shape the vision for growing and planning the business. Ggiata has evolved from a brand to a business because of him. 

Max is a tastemaker, always on the nose when it comes to design and creative. He has helped shape the creative direction of the brand and pushed the design of our restaurants to become an iconic part of the Ggiata experience. 

I am a food and restaurant lover, so many of my childhood heroes growing up were restaurateurs and chefs. I have had the privilege of working with an incredible team of Chefs at Ggiata who have helped bring the culinary vision for the restaurants to life. I am awed by how deftly Chef Cristy and Chef Cele translate ideas for new menu items to reality.

3. Ggiata is a Jersey-meets-LA establishment. Which elements of the restaurant draw on your Jersey roots, and which parts skew more LA? 

MAX: So much of what our guests experience before they unwrap their sandwich is representative of our childhood in Jersey. From the art on the walls to the playlists booming out the speakers. Our light fixtures are hand painted with scenes from summers at the shore or wise guys in the back room. The bar stools refer back to the luncheonette counters we’d eat at during off campus lunch at Montclair High School.

In the kitchen we lean into the culinary features of Los Angeles and California more heavily. We have access to things here that we don’t in New Jersey. Year round produce that is fresh and grown locally, tortillas that are made daily in Boyle Heights, an incredible density of culinary talent. We want our shops to look and feel like Jersey, but taste more like a marriage between LA and home. 

4. As three guys without restaurant backgrounds, you've built a really strong brand. How much of that do you attribute to social media, and how intentional was that strategy from the start? 

JACK: These days it's relatively easy to start a food business. The traditional barrier to entry, namely having a Million dollars to build a restaurant, has been lowered by ghost kitchens, food trucks, pop ups and now MEHKO. Ggiata exists because of these new modes of bringing an idea for a restaurant to life. We started from a cloud kitchen in Koreatown on a month-to-month lease that cost us about $4,000 a month.

The tradeoff to lower barriers to entry in food means more competition and more emphasis on brand and marketing. Few and far between are the restaurants and cafes that flourish without a strong digital identity. We are torn on how to feel about this. As a consumer, we love getting to look behind the scenes at my favorite places to eat and drink. We develop a deeper love and respect for the chefs and restaurants we admire when we feel like we know them, even just through the screen. Conversely, it means that mom and pop operations that don’t have a firm grasp on socials or a son or daughter to point the camera will struggle. 

That might have not  actually answered your question but it’s something we think about often.

5. Much has been said about the millennial love of chicken caesar wraps. What's your take — and what separates a great CCW from a mediocre one?

NOAH: A Caesar Wrap was something you would see on every menu growing up, but was almost never something I ordered. It was country club food. Bland store bought tortilla, cold chicken cooked the day before, shredded parm from a bag and some caesar dressing out of a bottle. Maybe they would grill the thing after it was wrapped, maybe they wouldn’t.

When I met with Eduardo of Burritos La Palma at the end of 2023, he showed me the tortilla they had begun wholesaling, at that point exclusively to Mexican restaurants and taquerias. Immediately the opportunity to make something better than what we grew up eating in the wrap category was clear. The Mejorado tortilla is what catalyzed the whole thing, and we built from there.

I love seeing all the new takes on the caesar wrap. Armen at Mini Kabob is making a version that I love with falafel croutons and a crazy chipotle garlic sauce. The Miso caesar from Faregrounds looks great, and then you have the more classic versions from Dialog and Carla Cafe. All this iteration and evolution of a traditionally boring food could only happen in LA.

6. At this point, you have sandwich shops in most of LA’s buzziest neighborhoods. How do you decide where to open shop next? 

JACK: There is some art and some science to the real estate but mostly it boils down to whether or not we enjoy spending time in that neighborhood, if it has a real sense of community, and if we think a great neighborhood sandwich shop is lacking. We take a lot of pride in the fact that Ggiata resonates in totally different neighborhoods with totally different communities. Our neighbors in Highland Park are unique to our neighbors in Brentwood, but we can be a hub for both communities. That was the idea all along.

7. Who or what is exciting you about the LA food scene right now? 

NOAH: It’s a lot to be excited about in LA right now. The MEHKO law is going to spark some crazy new food experiences in funky and cool settings. I love all the Latin inspired cafes like Chainsaw, Paisita and Cafe Tondo. I think the next wave of coffee in LA will be heavily inspired by Latin America. I love watching all the successful food brands that started or grew out of the pandemic. Southern California has a rich history of propelling food brands to regional and national levels, and there are so many homegrown brands poised to keep growing. If our kids can order Prime Pizza instead of Pizza Hut, Taco Stand instead of Taco Bell, Sonoratown instead of Del Taco, Kismet instead of KFC, then I think there is hope for the future. Popeyes will still be in the rotation though, shoutout to Popeyes. 

8. Where are your 3-4 most-visited spots in LA outside of Ggiata?

NOAH: I work in Melrose Hill and live in Los Feliz. Etra is the best neighborhood restaurant in the city. I don’t understand how there could ever be an open slot on their Resy. Chainsaw makes the best pies I have ever eaten, I try to work those into the rotation as often as my fiance allows. Whenever we order delivery, it's either Pa Ord or MDK Noodles. MDK vacuum seals the cellophane onto the container somehow so it shows up hot as all hell with no spillage. That’s a technological revolution I can get behind.

 I don’t get to Gjusta as often as I used to when I lived in Mar Vista but I still think it is the most under-appreciated food operation in the city. The level of quality and ambition from the bakery to the smoked fish and meats to the sourcing of produce and cheeses. It is a food museum.

9. What’s your hottest food take?

NOAH: The best wings in the city are at Bon Vivant on Glendale in Atwater. 

‍Live in LA? You can try Ggiata for yourself at one of their seven delis. Want to keep up with new menu items, locations, and the like? @ggiata is worth a follow.