2024 was brutal for Los Angeles restaurants. Here are some notable closures

Good morning, and welcome to the Essential California newsletter. 滨迟’蝉 Sunday. I’m your host, Andrew J. Campa. Here’s what you need to know to start your weekend:

• More than 100 notable L.A. restaurants closed in 2024.
• Shock after Fullerton plane crash kills 2, injures nearly 20.
• How to watch the 2025 Golden Globe Awards today.
• And here’s today’s e-newspaper.

There’s a good chance your favorite eatery closed in 2024

Restaurants throughout Los Angeles suffered a trying 2023, with dozens closing amid inflation and pricing concerns.

Hope for a smoother 2024 fizzled fast and by December there were more than 100 notable closures tracked by the L.A. Times tally.

The shuttered list included a few from the L.A. Times 101 Best Restaurants List and multiple Michelin-starred tasting-menu restaurants up until the New Year.

The difficulties affected businesses at every level.

My colleague Stephanie Breijo tracked the culinary carnage earlier this week and offered some reasons for what happened, what may follow and highlights some of the fallen from 2024.

What led to these closures?

Restaurateurs point to several contributing factors — some of which began in 2024, and some of which continue to reverberate from the pandemic.

An increased minimum wage, a rise in the cost of insurance, pandemic-era loans and back rent coming due and sustained fallout from 2023’s entertainment-industry strikes have affected restaurants throughout the region.

Inflation not only for food but the cost of goods and services, such as kitchen repairs or equipment replacement, hurt the bottom line. And while inflation has slowed, food prices still rose 25% from 2019 to 2023, according to the USDA.

Many of these factors are expected to remain problems in 2025.

“Costs are higher than ever, risks are higher than ever,” Wax Paper co-owner Lauren Lemos told The Times. “I always want to have some kind of optimistic outcome for the future, but I do really worry, ‘Is it going to be sustainable?’ I’m not sure we’ll have mom-and-pop restaurants for a long time more.”

(Mariah Tauger / For The Times)

Silver Lake’s Alimento bid farewell in September

After a decade of fresh pastas, photo-worthy fried chicken sandwiches and some of Silver Lake’s favorite Italian food, Alimento closed in September.

Chef-owner Zachary Pollack decided to shutter the cozy neighborhood restaurant after “a rollercoaster of challenges and steeper challenges” that included COVID pivots, entertainment-industry strikes and inflation.

Pollack’s pizzeria, Cosa Buona, is open in Echo Park.

Atla concludes brief run

Enrique Olvera’s Venice version of Atla, one of the global chef’s modern Mexican restaurants, was more than twice the size of its New York City counterpart when it debuted last summer.

A follow-up to Olvera’s Arts District spots Damian and Ditroit, Atla was highly anticipated and served casual, health-minded salads, tacos and other dishes, some of which were unique to L.A., while others, like Atla’s fan-favorite chicken soup, made their way to the West Coast.

It closed quietly in September but remains open in New York. Damian and Ditroit remain open in L.A.

Cypress Park’s B’ivrit’s goodbye

After years of pop-ups with herbaceous falafel, fluffy pita and fresh hummus, chef Amit Sidi finally launched a space of her own on a small patio in Cypress Park last year.

After a tumultuous split with her business partners in the space, B’ivrit closed its patio in the spring, but Sidi and her restaurant can still be found popping up in L.A.; follow on Instagram for updates.

(Shelby Moore / For The Times)

Beverly Hills’ Bicyclette padlocks

Celebrated French restaurant Bicyclette, from the chef-owners of République, closed in March along with its adjacent tasting-menu restaurant, Manzke.

“Our partners along with Marge and I have decided it is best to close Manzke and Bicyclette,” Walter Manzke told The Times in a statement earlier this year.

He declined to provide a reason for the closures, but a representative for the restaurant group Sprout L.A. told Eater L.A., which first reported the closures, that it was “due to financial losses.”

Venice’s Blue Star Donuts

After nearly a decade, popular doughnut shop Blue Star Donuts closed abruptly in Venice in July.

The chain, founded in 2012 in Portland, Ore., remains open there with multiple locations. The chain specialized in 18-hour brioche-style doughnuts.

These were just a few of the restaurants and eateries that closed. Check out the full list here.

The week’s biggest stories

Fire Department personnel respond to plane crash near the Fullerton Airport on Thursday.

(KTLA)

Air disasters and airline ratings

• Shock, questions after Fullerton plane crash kills 2, injures 19.
• Badly burned workers, ‘chaotic’ scene inside O.C. warehouse where plane crashed.
• South Korea air crash investigators extract black box data as families mourn.
• When it comes to arriving on time, these are the best (and worst) airlines.

Terrorist attacks in Las Vegas, New Orleans

• Column: What I learned from watching Fox News after the New Orleans terrorist attack.
• Driver of exploding Cybertruck left letters of anguish: ‘I needed to cleanse my mind.’
• An aspiring nurse, a football star, a single mother and a father of 2 among dead in New Orleans.
• Tesla Cybertruck attacker in Las Vegas identified as decorated Green Beret: What was his motive?

Dodgers, Lakers and sports

• Dodgers sign Hyeseong Kim, finalize Teoscar Hernández return as roster takes shape.
• LeBron James breaks another Michael Jordan record in Lakers’ win over Hawks.
• Prep talk: Dan Maye, Tom Dill showing longevity as baseball coaches.

Insurance and health news

• Liberty Mutual declined to renew this Southern California homeowner’s policy. Now she’s suing.
• New law increases California’s auto insurance minimums.
• Why the U.S. surgeon general wants cancer warning labels on alcoholic drinks.

Death and marriage

• Brenton Wood, ‘Oogum Boogum Song’ crooner who captivated Latino listeners, dies at 83.
• Owner of two cats that died after drinking H5N1 recalled milk threatens to sue.
• MrBeast Jimmy Donaldson gets engaged to influencer Thea Booysen.

More big stories

• With negligible rain in 8 months, Southern California swings toward drought.
• Northern California man arrested on suspicion of starting fire that ravaged historic Bidwell Mansion.
• SoCal woman fights off brutal kidnapping attempt by former housekeeper in disguise.
• ‘Temporary fix’ gets L.A. County sheriff’s computer dispatch system back online.
• How much does the new Congress look like your state?
• Biden to create two new California national monuments protecting tribal lands.

Get unlimited access to the Los Angeles Times. Subscribe here.

Column One

Column One is The Times’ home for narrative and long-form journalism. Here’s a great piece from this week:

(Focus Features)

Although “Conclave” takes place in Vatican City, director Edward Berger and production designer Suzie Davies didn’t want to get overly caught up in the minutiae of the actual location. The film, about the fictional selection of the next pope, needed to feel like a thrilling drama, not a documentary. “You research it, you acknowledge it, and then it inspires and informs your design or your storytelling,” Davies says.

More great reads

• Surfer rides a monster wave at Mavericks. Will it bring the world record back to California?
• How ‘Saturday Night’ editors dialed up the anxiety as their own deadline approached.
• The long, painful decline of the L.A. hotel made famous by the Doors: Can the Morrison rise from the ashes?
• A rose’s journey from a Colombian farm to a parade float in Pasadena

How can we make this newsletter more useful? Send comments to essentialcalifornia@latimes.com.

For your weekend

(Illustrations by Lindsey Made This; photograph by Michael Tullberg / Getty Images)

Going out

• ? Actor and comedian Joel McHale prizes his rare Los Angeles’ Sunday Funday, which includes hitting up the Studio City Farmer’s Market.
• ? Looking for a comforting bowl of pho? Here are 11 must-try spots in L.A.
• ? Bring more joy into your life with a 2025 calendar of activities and events perfect for Californians.
• ? Celebrating El Día de los Reyes? Here are 10 L.A. panaderias that sell rosca de reyes.

Staying in

• ? Comedian Nikki Glaser gets her chance at glory, hosting today’s Golden Globes at 5 p.m. on CBS.
• ?? Author Matthew Pearl tells of a shipwrecked family in, “Save Our Souls: The True Story of a Castaway Family, Treachery, and Murder.”
• ??? Great dips are must as college football winds down and the NFL variety heat up. Here’s a recipe for tasty Pickley Cheesy Greens.
• ?? Get our free daily crossword puzzle, Sudoku, word search and arcade games.

L.A. Affairs

Get wrapped up in tantalizing stories about dating, relationships and marriage.

(Diana Branzan / For The Times)

She married later in life, while he wed young. She considered herself the unconventional creative type with tattoos, while he was a clean-cut professional. She was a lover of trendy clothes and a free spirit, while he was an impeccable dresser and watched no television. Do opposites really attract or was this love affair a passing fad?.

Have a great weekend, from the Essential California team

Andrew J. Campa, reporter
Carlos Lozano, news editor

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