I’m with you… Love Charcoal. Under the radar and a solid value.
Dang, that sucks. Another decent westside option going away. We ordered take out a few days after the palisades fire and it was completely dead.
Bummer. Hated the indoor environment (way too loud), but loved the food.
They’re open through Feb. 22, 2025: Eater LA article about Cassia closing
This Eater LA article also references the Ng’s forthcoming “fast-casual Chinese American” restaurant.
It is a bit like sitting in a concrete bunker as it is shelled, but I mourn their closing. I hope the other restaurants in the Rustic Canyon group survive. I’m particularly concerned about Birdie G’s, given its size, and which has gone to a five-day operating schedule.
Chef Fox was pretty open about their struggles. I hope they make it. He is one of my favorite Chefs.
Yeah, mine too.
I don’t recall a prolonged period of closures here like we’ve been seeing and will likely continue to see for the foreseeable future. Very troubling. Very sad.
As sincerely sad as the current state of affairs is for Los Angeles restaurants, part of me wonders if this tragic contraction we are seeing is “the market speaking,” allowing supply to dwindle to a level at which those who survive can (hopefully) thrive — and that, at least, would be a silver lining.
Not to derail, but I can only assume that the death in the entertainment/advertising industry has had a big effect. I say this as someone who’s day job is in that field, so I have front row seat to it myself.
Covid killed all, then the strikes put it over the edge (but decline had started way before the strikes, to be honest). Changing market, changing preferences and unaffordable LA locations and labor laws etc has proven the perfect storm.
We forget how many people here are in this industry and all the ancillary ones relying on it. Some say close to 300-500.000 people are directly or indirectly involved. I can’t tell you how many creative and crew people I know who haven’t worked in years and are scrambling to survive or leaving town. You can’t afford dining out when you have to drive Uber just to put food on the table.
And unfortunately it won’t recover.
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This absolutely is a big part of it.
And Sadly I don’t see it getting better.
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Not to mention not being able to afford a meal that costs hundreds of dollars per person. Just to put things in perspective.
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As another guy in that industry, I agree with this.The confluence of Covid/strikes/fires on a business model that was already untested - and, turns out, based on check-kiting, smoke and mirrors - is going to keep shaking out for another decade or more. I have friends who are A-level directors (in other words rich) who lost their houses, which means that their housekeepers, nannies, handymen, Pilates teachers, etc have also lost their jobs. And there’s one more little bonus we’re starting to get, ICE raids, which means for instance that the gardener who worked at my house for 35 years is now gone. Mrs. Doubtfire, our mayor, is not exactly racing to get anyone out of this.
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While it won’t help the restaurant industry much, most of the time, local economies eventually rebound after a catastrophe due to the massive injection of insurance and other funds into local mitigation and construction.
Won’t make the city whole and many are under/uninsured, nor will the new jobs be similar to the lost jobs, but the overall economic outlook for LA isn’t quite as dire in my eyes.
However, it won’t be quick and perhaps this time will be different due to the high inflatoon I anticipate due to tariffs, labor shortages, and what will be extreme demand for building materials.
Admittedly, there are studies on both sides -and New Orleans is an exception.
cater to the uber rich Chinese and you’ll survive - basically how many of the top restaurants in LA are packed. Local economic factors don’t apply when all your money is coming from China/Taiwan.
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And that begs the questions,
– “How many restaurants can/will the uber rich Chinese keep open in L.A.?” (Certainly not all, right?);
.
and
.
– "What does “cater to the uber rich Chinese” look like / entail?
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On a more positive note, has anyone been to Ki yet? I’m wondering how it compares to Kinn.
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if it hits the right notes, they’ll keep them all open. You’d be surprised.
It needs to feel intimate and exclusive. Food needs to be delicate and refined. Sake/Wine need to be available. Service needs to feel personal, easily offended if not.
It’s a recipe for success - I legit considered opening something with someone with this ideology but the chef decided he didn’t want a restaurant.
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I haven’t been but more courses and higher end ingredients and more $$$. It looks really cool if you like this sort of thing.
Is it fair to say your “standard middle ground stuff” wouldn’t/doesn’t fly, then? Seems like the vast majority of LA restaurants, as they currently exist, do not fit the bill.
I had a lovely dinner a couple of weeks ago with a friend visiting from Italy. We went to Urban Hearth in Cambridge, MA. This is a favourite restaurant of mine, and meets all the criteria listed above. It is tiny and intimate (reservations a must), the food is inventive and emphasises nose-to-tail/sprig-to-root use of local ingredients (this last visit blew me away with the house-made garum and the locally foraged chestnuts), the wine list (ask for the full book) is interesting, and the service warmly attentive. The chef was recently named a regional James Beard semifinalist (finals are in April)–well-deserved recognition.
Oh, and including three courses each, cocktails and a bottle of nebbiolo, our bill including tip came to about $250 for two very happy guests.
If that isn’t enough to make someone happy, I suspect the criteria are incomplete.
Restaurant is too large. I’m talking 12-14 people max. Even smaller better. And food while looks good doesn’t fit the profile. It’s not a knock on a place. It’s just not what I’m talking about for this clientele.