A Year After the Eaton and Palisades Fires, Los Angeles’s Restaurant Community Is Still Rebuilding | Eater LA

"Originally an Italian restaurant deeply rooted in the Pacific Palisades community, this spot saw its world upended when the Palisades Fire tore through the neighborhood, leaving blocks around the owners’ condominium looking like a war zone where only three buildings in several square blocks were still standing and the back of their restaurant building burned so badly that the garage was no longer accessible. With no insurance on their condominium, they had to remediate and move back out of pocket, living in a place where the devastation made it painful to be home after 22 years of connection to the community, surrounded by empty lots and memories. In the months after the fire, day-to-day operations at a temporary space inside the Colony on Lincoln felt slow and ill-suited to their style of food until they found a small former cafe on Rose in Venice that reminded them of their original location; in just 20 days they cleaned, painted, changed appliances and the kitchen, and reopened as Cinque Terre West in June 2025. At the new Rose Avenue location, open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, Palisades regulars began showing up every day, often describing their visits as therapy: people laughed and cried together, greeted each other as fellow Palisadeans, and said that being able to eat Gianba’s food again and see familiar faces made it feel like home. When a message went out inviting everyone to come for drinks and bites at the new spot, around 250 people from the Palisades turned up, underscoring how the restaurant has become a place where a displaced community can gather and heal, even as the owners weigh whether returning to the Palisades one day would make business sense and allow them to serve the community for the long term." - Rebecca Roland