Gaucho’s Village reopens down the road

Brazilian steakhouse Gaucho’s Village is once again serving up meat skewers after reopening at its new location on Maryland Avenue last Friday, though the owner said there were some challenges in getting his business up and running again.

The eatery moved from its previous location of 14 years at 411 Brand Blvd. a little over a month ago and took over the space left behind by La Cubana restaurant in the Exchange at 135 N. Maryland Ave.

One of the permits that didn’t tag along in the move, however, was the licensing for hookah, so smoking isn’t allowed at the new spot.

Owner Kevin Aksacki said he acknowledges Gaucho’s might be in a slightly quieter neighborhood with less foot traffic, but doesn’t think he’ll have an issue getting his repeat customers to keep coming back.

“I think it’s a great location … we’re not too far from the places that are happening,” he said.

The new restaurant is closer to the Americana at Brand and Glendale Galleria as well as the future Laemmle Theatres than his previous site.

But the road to keeping the restaurant in Glendale did have a few bumps along the way, Aksacki said.

“I was promised to have a smooth transition and so I chose to stay,” he said. “I had an offer to go to downtown L.A.”

Leading up to reopening Gaucho’s doors, Aksacki said he’s spent more than $300,000 to renovate the new location and, in the time it took him to do so, six of his 40 employees moved on to other jobs.

The plan was to reopen by Aug. 6, but time had to be spent on installing a new sprinkler system and other improvements such as new fire-alarm horns.

Aksacki said he felt city inspectors gave him a hard time and kept adding to a list of things he needed to take care of out of his own pocket.

The city gave him the permitting to open up shop on Sept. 18, but the delay happened because a contractor had issues with getting the fire-safety system ready, on top of design changes that were not on the original permit, said city spokesman Tom Lorenz.

“Very often, city plan-checkers and inspectors are unfairly — if conveniently — blamed,” Lorenz posted in the city’s online “Rumor Page.”

“All of these circumstances affected the Gaucho’s project — yet is nevertheless incumbent upon our employees to make sure that the public enjoys a beautiful, fun and safe atmosphere when visiting Glendale,” Lorenz posted.

Aksacki said he plans to hold a grand opening event in the near future.