Iconic Downtown Diner Closes Its Doors After a Century of Service
A landmark L.A. institution served its final plates of hash browns and eggs on Sunday, bringing an end to a century-long legacy. The Original Pantry, the downtown diner that proudly claimed to have never locked its doors or gone without a customer for most of its existence, has closed its kitchen for good.As Patch reports, the restaurant, which opened in 1924, shuttered amid a labor dispute between new ownership and the union representing its employees. The closure came just months after the diner was listed for sale following the 2023 death of former owner and L.A. Mayor Richard Riordan, whose trust had taken over operations.On its final day, customers lined the sidewalk for hours, waiting for one more chance to sit at the worn counters of the South Figueroa staple that relocated in 1950 to make way for freeway construction but never lost its mid-century character."This place is iconic, you know, it's L.A.," Monterey Park resident Wesley told NBC4, choosing not to share his last name. "It is emotional just because it's not going to be here tomorrow. You talk to people in line and they all have stories—it really means a lot to them and that's why there's a line around the corner."The diner that served free coffee and weathered every major event from the Great Depression to WWII, from the L.A. riots to the pandemic, ended its run on a contentious note. After closing time on Sunday, about two dozen workers remained inside, prompting ownership to call police to the scene. ABC7 reported that the union president was handcuffed during the confrontation."They just decided to call the police on us, and escort us out," employee Maricela Granados said.The Original Pantry had been a rare constant in a city known for constant change, serving generations of Angelenos at all hours, from late-night revelers to early morning workers, in a space that felt frozen in time—right down to its cash-only policy and simple, hearty menu that hardly changed through the decades.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
The Game Expresses Solidarity With Fellow L.A. Residents Amid Anti-ICE Protests
As protests against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) intensify across Los Angeles, Compton native and rapper The Game is making it clear where he stands. On Monday (June 9), the veteran artist took to Instagram to voice his support for immigrants and the city's growing resistance against what many residents see as a targeted assault on minorities. 'Ever since I could remember… it's been black & brown in this city,' The Game's message began. 'From the early days of my childhood til now, we've been side by side through it all. All of us. All the time. Not always seeing eye to eye but we've shared Los Angeles for a very long time.' The post included a powerful series of black-and-white photos from recent protests, including one particularly striking image of a protester holding a sign that read: 'BORN AND RAISED IN LOS ANGELES. DEPORT ME??? WHERE YOU GOING DEPORT ME TO??? BACK TO THE HOOD???' The Game continued, emphasizing unity and shared struggle while quoting lyrics from late rapper 2Pac Shakur's 1996 track, 'To Live & Die in L.A.' 'I stand with y'all like I know you'd stand with us. We might fight against each other… but I promise you this… we'll burn this b!%?! down get us pissed !!!!!' He concluded with a familiar sentiment that resonates deeply across generations of Angelenos: 'To live & die in L.A.' The rapper's post comes in response to escalating tensions in Southern California after former President Donald Trump reportedly ordered the deployment of 2,000 National Guard troops to L.A. to bolster ICE's deportation efforts. Protesters and activists have flooded the streets, arguing that the crackdown represents a broader war on marginalized communities. The recent detainment of international TikTok sensation Khaby Lame by ICE agents while in Las Vegas has further inflamed tensions. Despite his global fame, Lame's detention underscores what many view as the indiscriminate and unjust nature of current immigration enforcement, affecting individuals regardless of class or notoriety. See The Game's Instagram post below. More from The Game Loses California Home To Sexual Assault Accuser Over $7M Debt The Game Bombs On Ye For Attempting To Call Him Out: "F**k You!" This Legendary MC Refuses To Guest On 'Drink Champs,' But Watches Faithfully
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
'I hate it': LA residents who surveyed vandalism fear more violence in future protests
LOS ANGELES ‒ A day after downtown protests on the federal immigration crackdown turned fiery, a walk down the typically bustling thoroughfare of Los Angeles Street showed the chaotic remnants. A heavy police presence could be seen stretching for blocks as matching black and white police squad cars from neighboring cities, including Montebello, Campbell and Alhambra, lined up. Profanity-laced graffiti was sprawled on downtown buildings targeting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, spray-painted in different colors. They were mixed in with several "Return the Homies" messages, "Brick by Brick, Wall by Wall, We Will Take This System Down," and "L.A. Loves All Immigrants." Shards of glass were also scattered where windows had been shattered, including at the Los Angeles Police Department Metropolitan Detention Center and a nearby Federal Building. And, not far from where the police fired tear gas and rubber bullets and where protesters hurled rocks and concrete, the remains of five self-driving WAYMO vehicles were charred as passersby took photos with their smartphones. The visual reminders were evident after tensions escalated in Los Angeles between law enforcement and protesters June 8 as National Guard troops arrived to quell demonstrations against President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown. Residents who surveyed the damage and vandalism were disillusioned by what unfolded in their city and feared what might come next. Amid the aftermath on Los Angeles Street, local photographer Raymond Delgado stopped by again this time to take photos of the five destroyed Waymos he compared to "skeletons." Delgado said it's a rarity that so many of the driverless vehicles were parked down the street after police moved protesters away from the Federal Building as the protests turned chaotic. "It kind of threw me off. Why were there so many Waymos in this area, on this street, parked like that?" Delgado, 38, said. "I thought (the Waymos) would be ashes − I didn't think it would be bones. I'm surprised to see the skeletons still here." He saw "a group of bad seeds" among the protesters who became violent. According to Delgado, they initially threw things at the police, then destroyed property, including spray-painting, stomping on and eventually setting ablaze the Waymos called to the scene. "A couple of younger kids, just demolishing stuff, just looking for reasons to break stuff," Delgado said. "I don't see the point in that. I think it's frustration, a lot of hatred, just fighting back against the machine, against the system." Delgado said he was struck by a rock during the skirmishes, "dodged a couple of rubber bullets," and missed being tear-gassed as rogue elements were exploiting the protest's premise. He said a young woman who came to protest peacefully was struck with a rubber bullet and may have suffered a broken pinky finger. "I think they were causing chaos and making us Angelenos look horrible," Delgado said. "And that's what we don't want: people getting hurt. I'm glad no one got shot last night, to be honest with you." But he expects more violence. "I hate it," Delgado said. "I actually hate it." Kate Williams, an artist in town for work, was walking the peaceful streets where the protests erupted the night before. She said she approached police officers by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement building and asked if she should be concerned and if they were expecting anything June 9. "And they said: 'I would order in actually. I would order two meals in. It's probably going to be bad tonight,'" Williams said. "I saw they were putting up barricades for the roads around City Hall as I walked over here." Near the intersection of Los Angeles and Arcadia Streets, Williams encountered the burned-out Waymos. All five cars were in ruin and almost perfectly lined up, one after the other, as people took photos with their phones. "I am pretty speechless," Williams said. "I, of course, saw the photos on the news of the car before it was set on fire, when it was all graffitied. And I don't know. I mean, it's crazy times. It's interesting times." Williams said she is a photographer and came to document the aftermath, and that included the Waymos. "So when I saw the heaps of rubble, I was pretty mesmerized at the level of destruction," she said. "I'm just reminded of that when I see something like this that took so much anger, so much passion to get to this point." When does a protest become a riot? Experts weigh in amid unrest in Los Angeles Diana Doo, a nonprofit worker and activist who lives just blocks from downtown Los Angeles, said she initially saw three Waymos before coming to take a closer look as the protesters headed north on Los Angeles Street. "Then I saw there were five … and I was like, 'Uh-oh, they're vandalizing the cars,'" said Doo, pointing to a Waymo that protesters set on fire at about 4 p.m. local time. "I said, 'I hope they don't burn them up.' I was freaking out. "And after they started with the first one, and this one, this one, and they just lit all of 'em on fire." 'People are deeply settled here': Los Angeles, a city of immigrants, fertile ground for anti-ICE demonstrations About 20 feet from the Waymos stood the Chinese American Museum, covered with graffiti and with its windows smashed. But it wasn't the only museum vandalized, said Mariana Gatto, co-founder and executive director of the Italian American Museum of Los Angeles. "We sustained significant damage," Gatto said. "The building is historic. It's listed on the National Registry of Historic Places. So the historic brick, our windows, the entry, are all seriously vandalized. This is the second time in six months." Gatto said the museum is free and open to the public, and it serves marginalized communities. "We appreciate people's right to express their First Amendment freedoms. But this is not peaceful demonstration," Gatto said. "It destroys our communities." Others saw the destruction as a direct message to Trump and ICE. 'My city don't play,' said Trinity Clay, 21, a Los Angeles native who now lives in Woodland Hills. "We didn't play during Rodney King, we went crazy after George Floyd, and now you're sending the National Guard against my people. That's a violation of our civil rights." A second-year sociology major at L.A. Valley College, Clay said she has had to tell her 7-year-old daughter what's going on if some of her Latino classmates don't show up at school. "I had to warn her about ICE and not to be scared if they may come to her school and take her friends away," Clay said. "It's that real." But Clay said she doesn't want to see escalating violence if the protests persist, "because they want us to hurt each other." As a group of masked protesters waving combined Mexican and U.S. flags passed by Clay and the destroyed Waymos, Clay offered them a piece of advice. "Hey y'all," Clay said. "Try to keep it peaceful, OK?" (This story was updated because an earlier version included an inaccuracy.) This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: LA residents fear more violence and destruction in future protests
Yahoo
6 hours ago
- Yahoo
The Los Angeles Protests Are an Act of Self-Defense
Early Sunday evening in Los Angeles, as the city was under siege by federal anti-immigration forces, aided by local law enforcement, Mayor Karen Bass was holding a press conference. Out in the streets, a reporter noted, it appeared that the Los Angeles Police Department was 'cooperating' with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and 'using flashbangs and less-lethal munitions' to push people engaged in 'peaceful protest' away from a federal building being used as an ICE detention center. The reporter asked if Mayor Bass would comment on this cooperation, which is against city policy. 'What happened there,' Bass began, 'is that when one branch of law enforcement says they need help, another branch of law enforcement is going to respond.' In this case, she said, LAPD's aim was to control the protest. She distinguished their actions from the department's 'coordinating with ICE in terms of raiding workplaces or arresting people who are undocumented.' The Los Angeles mayor was trying to draw a line: While the LAPD is not supposed to be directly raiding workplaces or arresting undocumented immigrants alongside ICE, it is free to police the public so that ICE can raid workplaces and arrest undocumented immigrants. For those in the streets, choking down tear gas and dodging disabling 'less-lethal' bullets as they try to defend themselves and one another from violent raids, this is a distinction without a difference. Angelenos mobilized this weekend, after ICE descended on their city and over several days began making very public arrests. Last week, people arriving at their mandatory ICE check-ins at a federal building were instead quickly locked up in a makeshift detention center, where as many as 200 people were being held in basement rooms. ('No food. No water. Locked in holding rooms for over 12 to 24 hours,' said Democratic Representative Jimmy Gomez, who represents parts of Los Angeles.) Dozens of people were arrested at a Home Depot on Friday by masked agents in tactical gear. Multiple federal agencies assisted ICE. One witness described such unidentified agents descending on food vendors nearby: 'They were just grabbing people. They don't ask questions. They didn't know if any of us were in any kind of immigration process.' Another witness said that he was in his car when ICE stopped traffic, 'in all their military gear.' People in the traffic jam could see ICE putting people into vans. 'We weren't there to protest,' the man told KCAL-TV, but when people got out of their cars and began to record with their phones, they were teargassed. As ICE raided a business in the Fashion District, footage of some community members challenging them indicates, LAPD was apparently stationed outside. And as the news of the raids spread, and more people came out to witness and protest, LAPD was there to push back, to control, to demobilize. For Bass, it seemed, the problem was not that the LAPD was violently policing those protesting ICE raids; the problem was Trump's calling in the national guard to do the same thing. By this logic, the ICE raids, conducted with the support of myriad federal agencies, are a terrifying abuse of power that police should not collaborate in—but it's fine for them to collaborate by keeping protestors and witnesses away. The upside-down thinking goes even further: It's wrong for the National Guard to put down protests against the will of the governor and city officials, but it's fine for state and local law enforcement to do it, so long as state and local officials want them to. The line of reasoning is maddening, seemingly designed to scramble and demobilize support for the people of Los Angeles. Accept the terms of the debate, and you end up in a bizarre argument about how much violence from which armed agents of the law is acceptable. Those with the clearest view are the ones bearing the brunt of such attacks. Whether it's the sheriffs, police, or Border Patrol, 'it was brutal violence,' said Ron Gochez, a community organizer, who was part of the protests. 'What they didn't think was going to happen was that the people would resist.' Over eight hours on Saturday, he said, after a battle with Border Patrol—'and it was a battle, because there were people throwing back tear gas, people throwing anything that they could to defend themselves and to defend the workers that were being surrounded'—the Border Patrol retreated. 'And the hundreds of workers that were in the factories around them were able to escape,' Gochez recounted. 'They were able to go to their cars and go home. That was only thanks to the resistance that allowed them to go home that night.' If any community was going to fight back without apology, it was this one. 'ICE raids in LA are a declaration of war,' longtime immigration reporter Tina Vásquez wrote at Prism on Monday. Los Angeles was built by communities who have survived and fled political persecution and state violence, she pointed out, and who have faced it again—including from police—in their new homes. 'When you are an Angeleno and this is your lineage, you are fully aware of what local law enforcement is capable of,' she added, and when the LAPD attempts to distance themselves from ICE raids, 'you know better.' No one outside of Los Angeles should be surprised: 'ICE sent the city of Los Angeles a message when its agents showed up in full force and in broad daylight, and that message was responded to in kind by the people.' Bass might say that she supports the people's right to respond, but she wasted little time before admonishing her constituents for not responding in the right way. 'The most important thing right now is that our city be peaceful,' Bass said at the Sunday press conference. 'Expressing your fears, your beliefs, is appropriate to do, but it is just not appropriate for there to be violence.' Drawing lines between 'peaceful' and 'violent' is a common move for politicians amid popular protest. They continue to urge so-called nonviolence even as such directions can feel quite difficult to follow in a cloud of tear gas you did not set off. It's nearly impossible to figure out what compliance is supposed to look like when police are launching weapons of war on the public. In such a gross imbalance of power, the police are the ones really drawing the lines. No matter what a peaceful protestor may intend, it's police who are deciding when to use violence and whom to use it against—and nothing we saw this weekend indicates their violence was confined to those who were not 'peaceful.' It is very difficult to believe that Los Angeles' political leadership—or California's governor or other state officials—truly wish for ICE raids to end when they are willing to arrest the only people who are actually standing in ICE's way. The politicians want to define protest as merely voicing a demand without disrupting anything; they don't want to recognize the value of putting one's body between the state and the scapegoated. There is apparently no 'peaceful' way to do that in Los Angeles. And for those of us elsewhere, who would like these raids on immigrants to end, who want to end Trump's abuse of power—we will fail if we defer to such 'leadership' and line-drawing. What we are witnessing in Los Angeles is not only a protest; it is self-defense.
