Once-Flashy Studio City Fine Dining Hit Girasol Has Closed

It looks like Girasol has officially shuttered in Studio City. The Moorpark Street finer-dining anchor opened with a bang back in 2013 thanks to some celebrity chef star power from partner CJ Jacobson, a former Top Chef contestant, but in recent years has struggled to find a consistent new chef and steady audience.

Girasol was considered by some when it opened to be an early indicator of a growing movement to expand the scope and substance of the San Fernando Valley’s dining scene. The notion was that celebrity chefs and more upscale eateries would start to take over whole stretches of Ventura Boulevard, but the change was slower to come than some might have thought, with Petit Trois Le Valley and The Bellwether opening well after Girasol had become an established part of Studio City.

Still, the place was received well by locals and critics alike for years, with then-LA Weekly critic Besha Rodell saying in 2016 the restaurant was doing “some of the more elegant and meticulous cooking I’ve experienced lately.” Jacobson continued to cook at the restaurant until the end of that year, before departing for Chicago.

So now, Girasol has gone under. A note on the restaurant’s largely defunct website says the place is “closed for renovations,” and both OpenTable and Yelp show them as fully closed. Several readers say there’s a new sign going up at the space these days, though it’s unclear exactly what will take over just yet. Know more about what’s to come on Moorpark Street in Studio City? Hit the tipline. Anonymity guaranteed.

• The San Fernando Valley’s Essential Restaurants, Fall 2018 [ELA]