After almost a decade, a Michelin-starred izakaya closes in downtown L.A.

Los Angeles Times

3 days ago

Renowned for its elegant izakaya-style dishes and tasting menu served counterside, Shibumi earned its first Michelin star in 2019. Now, nine years since the restaurant's opening, it will close on July 19, chef-owner David Schlosser wrote in an Instagram post last week.
'We embarked on a journey fueled by an outpouring of love, passion and curiosity from an extraordinary community,' Schlosser wrote. 'We dared to be different, reviving ancient recipes and time-honored techniques that carried the weight of centuries.'
When Shibumi opened in 2015, Schlosser aimed to bring both Japanese classics and upscale tasting menus, sometimes with centuries-old recipes, to downtown L.A. Now, as business dwindles for many restaurants and other establishments and citywide crises such as homelessness pervade, even award-winning restaurants like Shibumi are struggling to keep doors open.
'In the end of 2023 to 2024, things really flattened out — the staff is the same, the recipes were the same. The only thing that wasn't the same was people just weren't coming in,' Schlosser said. 'Any business owner invests in a community. And when you see that same destruction and graffiti 10 years later, it's sad.'
Shibumi joins a growing crowd of recent restaurant closures in L.A., including the 117-year-old Cole's French Dip downtown, soul food bistro My 2 Cents on West Pico Boulevard and natural wine bar Melody in Virgil Village.
'Shibumi, a modest, season-dependent izakaya on a lonely block downtown, feels like a Tokyo restaurant in important ways, which is probably kind of the point,' Jonathan Gold wrote in 2016. 'Schlosser's smack of pure obsession may be precisely what downtown needs.'
Shibumi is open Wednesday through Sunday from 6 to 9 p.m.
815 S. Hill St., Los Angeles, [phone], shibumidtla.com
Cabra, opened in 2022 by Girl & the Goat chef and 'Top Chef' winner Stephanie Izard, will close on July 31. The Peruvian restaurant and bar is located on the rooftop of the Hoxton hotel in downtown L.A., which is finding new leadership for its two restaurants — Cabra and Moonlark's Dinette, the latter of which will remain open during the transition.
'We're incredibly proud of what we built together at the Hoxton, Downtown L.A.,' said Kevin Boehm and Rob Katz, co-founders of Boka Restaurant Group, which operates Cabra, in a statement to The Times. 'It's been a privilege to be part of this community, and we're excited to keep doing what we love at Girl & the Goat, just around the corner.'
The Peruvian-inspired restaurant, known for its array of ceviches, skewers and tropical cocktails, is open Sunday through Thursday from 5 to 10 p.m., Friday and Saturday from 5 to 11 p.m. and for Sunday brunch from 10:30 a.m. to 3 p.m.
1060 S Broadway, Los Angeles, [phone], cabralosangeles.com
Chef Michael Mina's health-minded and globally-influenced Mother Tongue, located on the rooftop of a members-only fitness club in Hollywood, closed in late June. The rooftop restaurant opened in 2022 with the aim of highlighting non-processed, whole ingredients on its menu, which offered a variety of Mediterranean-inspired dips, appetizers and mains, along with veggie-forward pastas and sides.
'It's really about how you take the best dishes and prioritize a health and wellness component from start to finish, from the products to the techniques,' Mina, chef and owner of Orla in Santa Monica and Bourbon Steak in Glendale, told The Times before Mother Tongue opened.
When Verve Coffee Roasters first arrived in L.A. in 2015, the third-wave coffee shop became known for its roasted beans and a juice bar inside its modern industrial cafe on Spring Street. Over the next ten years — during which the Santa Cruz-based chain opened four more cafes in L.A., one of which contains a roastery, along with several shops in Japan, and more recently launched its own line of matcha — Verve earned a reputation as one of the city's most reliable coffee spots, adapting to customers' changing preferences with more unique teas and coffees on the menu.
On June 1, Verve closed its Spring Street coffee shop, its first in Southern California, citing downtown L.A.'s 'evolving landscape' as the reason for closure in an Instagram post.
'Like many businesses in downtown L.A., we saw lasting changes in foot traffic patterns that deeply affected day-to-day operations,' a Verve spokesperson told The Times in an email. 'While we worked hard to adapt — through programming and optimizing operations — the level of consistent foot traffic simply didn't support what is needed to sustain the cafe in a high-overhead environment like downtown.'
Verve Coffee Roasters will continue to operate at its other L.A. locations in Manhattan Beach, West Hollywood and the Arts District.