New Hellertown Restaurant to Offer a Bit of Everything
After decades of cooking in someone else’s kitchen, Alejandro Lopez is finally opening one of his own–and he’s doing it with his family.
Lopez and his wife, Lucia, are preparing to open Gigi & Alex, a family-run restaurant taking over the former Wings on Main Sports Bar & Grille space at 605 Main Street in Hellertown. The name is a tribute to the couple’s two children: daughter Gigi and son Alex, a first-year U.S. Marine.
If everything lines up with inspections, Lopez is targeting a late August or early September opening.
“My goal is going to be (opening in) two or three weeks, toward the end of the month or the first week of September,” Lopez said.
Twenty Years in Someone Else’s Kitchen
Lopez has spent roughly 20 years working in restaurant kitchens across the region. He started out washing dishes, cooking at pizzerias and in Italian restaurants and, eventually, in diners, where he says he really found his footing.
“I’ve been cooking for a long time,” said Lopez, who lives in the Bethlehem area with his family.
That diner background is doing most of the heavy lifting for what Gigi & Alex is going to look like on the plate.
“I’ve taken a little bit from everywhere I learned,” said Lopez, whose restaurant will offer breakfast, lunch and dinner.
A Menu Built for Everybody
Mornings will lean classic diner: French toast, pancakes, omelets and eggs. Lunch is where the menu opens up, with burgers, gyros, pastas and, in Lopez’s own words, “a little bit of everything.”
That “little bit of everything” approach is intentional. After bouncing between pizzerias, Italian restaurants and diners for two decades, Lopez isn’t trying to box the new place into one category.
Years of Waiting for the Right Spot
Opening his own place has been on Lopez’s radar for a while. He said he first started looking for a space a few years ago.
“I think that was my goal, my dream,” he said. “One day, I wanted to do this on my own, for my family. And I was looking forward to it. I thought this was a really good opportunity, a really good chance. I got the support from all of my family, so we decided to do it.”
Interior work has been kept simple. Lopez said the crew has done light touch-ups–including some painting–rather than a full remodel.
Planned hours for Gigi & Alex are 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Saturday, and 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Sunday. Beyond his family members, Lopez said the restaurant will be hiring some more staff to round out the crew.
For more information and updates on the opening, follow the Gigi & Alex Facebook page.
