{"id":480470,"date":"2025-12-30T17:07:16","date_gmt":"2025-12-30T17:07:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/480470\/"},"modified":"2025-12-30T17:07:16","modified_gmt":"2025-12-30T17:07:16","slug":"the-saddest-2025-restaurant-closures-in-los-angeles-according-to-local-restaurateurs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/480470\/","title":{"rendered":"The Saddest 2025 Restaurant Closures in Los Angeles, According to Local Restaurateurs"},"content":{"rendered":"

For Los Angeles restaurants, the theme of 2025 has been unshakable resilience. The year opened with the Eaton and Palisades fires devastating both sides of the city, followed by the expansion of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids as summer arrived, which made restaurant workers more vulnerable<\/a>. Through it all, restaurants remained gathering places for local communities<\/a>, became distribution centers for community aid, and offered momentary respites. Amid the ongoing struggles, Los Angeles lost numerous beloved restaurants, from neighborhood go-tos for fried chicken<\/a>, to Greek institutions<\/a>, and more. This year, we asked Los Angeles chefs and restaurateurs which 2025 restaurant closures stuck with them.<\/p>\n

These interviews have been edited for clarity.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a><\/p>\n

Birdie G\u2019s. Jim Sullivan<\/p>\n

Birdie G\u2019s and Cassia, Santa Monica<\/strong><\/p>\n

I opened my first restaurant in 1996, so basically the last 30 years I\u2019ve been running restaurants in Los Angeles, and this has definitely been one of the hardest years I can remember. There are so many things happening at once between the fires; downturn in tourism; the homelessness; the situation with Hollywood since the strikes; the industry not really coming back, so many people out of work. Before, Los Angeles was always the last one to feel a recession and the first one out of it because we had the entertainment industry. We felt recessions but never like other places in the country; we were insulated. But right now it seems different. I\u2019m thinking it will be a hard beginning of 2026 \u2014 it won\u2019t be magically shifted. Since the fires hit, so many people have been displaced. I\u2019m hoping though with FIFA coming here<\/a> and California signing that tax credit<\/a> Los Angeles will come back. I\u2019m excited that Noma is coming to LA.<\/a> It\u2019s going to bring a lot of international journalists and travelers. It couldn\u2019t be a better time.<\/p>\n

Restaurants survive day to day. There is no money in banks, there never has been. You just get by day to day, week to week. I loved going to Cassia<\/a>. I loved Birdie G\u2019s<\/a>. I think Jeremy Fox is such a great chef. Together, we kind of grew in Santa Monica. Rustic Canyon Group and my restaurants, we kind of built that restaurant scene in Santa Monica together. I thought all the restaurants Rustic brought to Santa Monica were pretty individual: Cassia, Rustic Canyon, Milo + Olive. These are places I enjoyed going to. I respect Jeremy so much for what he does and what he brings, the nod to Jewish cooking. It\u2019s a huge loss. It\u2019s someone you don\u2019t want to see not operating in Santa Monica.<\/p>\n

Cassia was somewhere I liked to go meet my girlfriend after work. You could feel like you\u2019re living a normal life: Pop in and get some rice, get some noodles. I just have good memories of a cool vibey place that was near my restaurant. This business is a grind; it wears on you, it tires you out. You can\u2019t just do what you do, you have to keep trying to stay relevant. That\u2019s exciting and what keeps you pushing, but that\u2019s also the hard part. \u2014 Josiah Citrin, chef\/owner, M\u00e9lisse, Citrin, Augie\u2019s on Main<\/p>\n

\"Jollof<\/a><\/p>\n

Jollof arancini at Jikoni Alessandra Griffin<\/p>\n

Jikoni in Citizen Public Market, Culver City<\/strong><\/p>\n

Kiano Moju\u2019s Jikoni in Citizen Public Market was one of the saddest closures. Kiano was on a roll and pushing an AfriCali wave<\/a> in Culver City. It\u2019s crazy that the whole market is shut down, too<\/a>. Jikoni was one of my favorite spots; the food is so familiar and her biryani was so delicious. Culver City lost one of the few Black operators it has \u2014 they had one that was a gem and now it\u2019s gone. Another one is Post and Beam. We lost a community space and watering hole where I could see someone I know, we\u2019ll chop it up, and it\u2019s always love when I went in. Two Homm\u00e9s<\/a> picked up a lot of people who were employed by Post and Beam. I\u2019ve been talking to Jon Cleveland [former co-owner of Post and Beam], asking him, \u201cWhat\u2019s the deal? You gotta feed these streets.\u201d In 2025, we lost two good ones. \u2014 Yaw Marcus \u201cchef Mando\u201d Johnson, co-owner, Two Homm\u00e9s<\/p>\n

Throughout the construction and creation of Here\u2019s Looking At You<\/a>, we ate fried chicken. Not from the well-known wing spot a block east of us on Sixth Street, but from a little-known storefront one block west. We had to cross Western to get to Kokio, and while we pondered drapery and paint colors, we explored the Kokio chicken menu to the fullest extent: from the wings to the tenders to the fried chicken sandwiches \u2014 the latter I had to order without onion. Its Sixth Street location suffered a fire one day, and I longed for our neighbor to reopen, but it never did. Years passed, as did a pandemic.<\/p>\n

One day this year, I was driving along Olympic when Kokio\u2019s familiar logo appeared to me in a small shopping center. Kokio resurrected! (To be fair, I had no idea they had multiple locations scattered across the Southland.) I vowed to go on my next night off, and I ordered a bunch of wings for an Oscars viewing party of one. Then, I picked up a bunch of chicken to bring to Here\u2019s Looking at You to help me survive a full cocktail menu tasting. I explained that in 2016, Jonathan and I ate so much of this chicken. It was an addiction. A special crispy, yes, but I especially loved how hot it was served temperature-wise. I returned over and over, and I would sit in the dining room, often alone, watching Korean music videos on the televisions. It seemed like a booming takeout business to me.<\/p>\n

This fall, I was committed to picking up a large amount of wings for a potluck but I struggling to pull up their phone number, and I suddenly got the stunning message: \u201cAll locations permanently closed.\u201d I was truly shook. I hated not knowing when it had happened, and it ached me to imagine all the struggles that led to their decision to close \u2014 close them all. I wish them renewal in whatever form they feel called to. \u2014 Lien Ta, co-founder, All Day Baby and Here\u2019s Looking at You<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been going to Patra since I was a kid, grabbing breakfast burritos before school and then later destroying burgers and onion rings after late nights out. I always loved the food and the vibe of their tiny dining room. It felt like the last domino in the neighborhood. And while restaurants come and go \u2014 that part is inevitable \u2014 Patra\u2019s disappearance speaks to something bigger.<\/p>\n

Utility dining \u2014 the everyday spots that quietly hold a community together \u2014 feels like it\u2019s in real danger.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Avish Naran<\/p>\n

To me, it raises the question of how sustainable family-run places or solo ventures even are today. Utility dining \u2014 the everyday spots that quietly hold a community together \u2014 feels like it\u2019s in real danger. Independent operators are up against restaurant groups (even the more boutique groups) that can negotiate lower processing fees, leverage stronger branding, get better buying power from vendors, and streamline operations in ways small restaurants simply can\u2019t. So when a place like Patra closes, it\u2019s not just a business changing over; it\u2019s a reminder of how the industry is shifting and how difficult it\u2019s become for the kinds of restaurants I grew up on to survive. Everyone needs to have branded to-go cups with intentional artwork these days. \u2014 Avish Naran, owner, Pijja Palace<\/p>\n

Papa Cristo\u2019s in Pico-Union and Spoon and Pork in Silver Lake<\/strong><\/p>\n

For me, it\u2019s been all of them: they\u2019re all really sad for the owners, employees, and their families. At Cielo a lot of the people we serve are from the restaurant industry. One that hit really hard was Papa Cristo\u2019s<\/a> because it had been there forever. We tried our first wines when we were there. It was a gathering place when we used to be in Koreatown for organizing. It makes me sad every time I drive by there. Another one that broke my heart is Spoon and Pork. This is your life savings you put into the restaurant, into the business. It hurts the owners, the community, and their families. Every time I hear about a restaurant closing, it\u2019s heartbreaking and I think what we can do is go out as much as possible, as much as our budget allows to support these restaurants.\u2014 Odilia Yego, co-founder, Cielo<\/a>; co-owner of Poncho\u2019s Tlayudas and Lugya\u2019h<\/p>\n

Pizza of Venice, Altadena<\/strong><\/p>\n

Jaime Woolner [Pizza of Venice owner] is the person that most business owners or entrepreneurs are at heart. Jamie is this scrappy guy who opened this great Altadena pizza place. There are so few neighborhoods left in Los Angeles, and maybe Altadena is the very last one, where you could go up to Altadena and be scrappy. He\u2019s the embodiment of let\u2019s do it for the community and make things happen. We moved to Altadena in 2017, and would order Pizza of Venice, which felt like the perfect restaurant for the perfect neighborhood at the perfect time. It was just a special place. It was born out of just pure desire, and you could taste it in the food. It perfectly integrated into the neighborhood it was in and felt exactly like Altadena. In the new Altadena, there will probably be a shiny new building that makes it hard to be scrappy with that same underdog mentality. I miss all the Altadena restaurants we lost<\/a>, but I miss Pizza of Venice because we\u2019re all scrappy entrepreneurs under the surface. That place always felt super scrappy, and I love that. It\u2019s a true loss. \u2014 Randy Clement, co-owner at Good Neighbor Bar<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been dining at Rodded for a long time; I\u2019ve been going there since I first came to the United States, so at least a decade. Joy, my wife, has been going there even longer \u2014 like 20 years. It\u2019s a Thai-Chinese spot in Hollywood. I could be wrong but I think they\u2019d been open for 30-plus years.<\/p>\n

Rodded was known for their duck noodle soup. Every time I had it, it felt like I was in Chinatown in Thailand. The shrimp balls were also amazing. It was a place I aimed to eat at whenever I was in Thai Town. To me, it felt like any time I talked to a Thai-Chinese chef, they\u2019d mention Rodded. Joy and I always loved chatting with the grandmas that worked there \u2014 it felt so special. I think the second generation owner took over and they didn\u2019t want to continue anymore, but it\u2019s so sad. For me, LA needs mom and pop restaurants. We\u2019re a city known for our diversity of restaurants. These are the types of places that inspire, where people can go back and say, \u201cThis is why I\u2019m cooking. This is why I decided to be a chef.\u201d \u2014 Deau Arpapornnopparat, chef and founder of Holy Basil<\/p>\n

\"Chori<\/a><\/p>\n

Spoon & Pork<\/p>\n

Spoon and Pork, Silver Lake and Sawtelle Japantown<\/strong><\/p>\n

For me, Spoon and Pork was the saddest closure<\/a>. I loved that place, I loved those guys. Their story is similar to mine: being a really successful pop-up that made it to brick and mortar. Doing a cuisine that spoke to their culture and doing it really well. They went through so many ups and downs; trying to open on the Westside and it not working out. They struggled to make money on a cuisine that Los Angeles supposedly embraces. It\u2019s the thing that frustrates me sometimes about Los Angeles: Can it get out of its own way of being a burgers, doughnuts, and pizza town? It claims to be a home to these diverse cuisines, but at the end of the day, lines are out the door for the same-old, same-old sometimes. As a person who\u2019s in a similar boat \u2014 I\u2019ve gotten accolades<\/a> but sometimes get frustrated by the lack of people in the door for our Caribbean food, people not knowing what Caribbean food is. The accolades don\u2019t necessarily match the feet coming through the door. You think of LA as a place where cuisines like ours can thrive and yet often I have more New Yorkers and out-of-towners in here than locals.<\/p>\n

With Spoon and Pork, my wife would make fun of me because she would ask on my day off what I want to eat and I would immediately say \u201cPatita.\u201d It\u2019s a perfect thing. They had the best lumpia in town. Adobo chicken. Everything was good, executed well, consistent. They were just so passionate. They did everything the right way.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s only good things coming along \u2014 it can\u2019t get any worse than 2025. We started with a burn, and we\u2019re like a phoenix rising from the ashes.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Rashida Holmes<\/p>\n

In Los Angeles, we lost a huge chunk of our customer base. I have a fairly large amount of friends in the film industry who are no longer in the film industry and subsequently have left Los Angeles. The impact of that on our customer base as restaurants \u2026 it\u2019s a slow burn but a significant one. That chunk of people with disposable income that supported this town from an economic standpoint \u2014 restaurants are the first ones to feel the impact of that loss. I don\u2019t know how you replace hundreds of thousands of people with disposable income in a city. I don\u2019t know what the future holds in terms of that. I don\u2019t see it coming back, so then what replaces it? There are too many restaurants to support what\u2019s left. There\u2019s going to be a serious culling and then maybe it will even itself out, but that will leave a lot of people without their places of business. Places we love are not going to make it. I hope to survive.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m glad that I\u2019ve built a business that feels recession proof; building a quick-service restaurant. We can keep on keeping on. I\u2019m pretty optimistic in terms of Bridgetown. We also have a lot of things in Los Angeles coming up: Olympics. 2027 Super Bowl. World Cup. Things to pull us out of what feels like a doomsday year. There\u2019s only good things coming along \u2014 it can\u2019t get any worse than 2025. We started with a burn, and we\u2019re like a phoenix rising from the ashes. \u2014 Rashida Holmes, Bridgetown Roti <\/p>\n

Yakitoriya, Sawtelle Japantown<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yakitoriya on Sawtelle closed after 20-plus years in business. My boyfriend \u2014 who is also a chef \u2014 and I started dining there regularly around 2021. It was our go-to date place since it was open on Mondays, a night off for many people in the restaurant industry. The pace of dining was so special because our high-paced jobs mean we usually find ourselves cramming food into our faces between rushes. At Yakitoriya, the food came out slowly \u2014 something we saw many other customers complain about. But for us, it was the perfect chance to babysit some beers and skewers for two or three hours and catch up on the week. The husband and wife team charmed us with their bickering (as a member of a family business I completely understand) and always greeted us with amazing warmth and hospitality. Yakitoriya was special to us because it was an intimate mom and pop and a dying breed of restaurant in LA where you could experience slow dining. \u2014 Cathy Asaphu, chef at Ayara<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For Los Angeles restaurants, the theme of 2025 has been unshakable resilience. The year opened with the Eaton…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":480471,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[1582,276,2961,24169,224,5337],"class_list":{"0":"post-480470","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-california","10":"tag-la","11":"tag-la-restaurant-closings","12":"tag-los-angeles","13":"tag-losangeles"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115809618826343053","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/480470","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=480470"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/480470\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/480471"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=480470"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=480470"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=480470"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}