LA's iconic Sunset Boulevard faces decline as businesses flee
One of America's most famous streets is facing an undeniable decline as longtime businesses once central to its character are fleeing. As recently as ten years ago, Sunset Boulevard, also known as the Sunset Strip, was one of the top places to go in California for dinner and drinks. That's according to Chris Leonard, who told SFGate that when he moved to the Sunset Strip in West Hollywood about a decade ago, every single bar and restaurant would be packed by 9:30pm.
However, recent social media posts decrying the lack of activity, city leaders putting out statements about a declining number of tourists and at least five businesses permanently closing since February all point to the waning influence of the iconic two-mile stretch of strip mall. The most recent restaurant to shutter its Sunset Strip location was Chin Chin , a well-known Chinese restaurant made popular by the Kardashians and other celebrities. It has been in business there since 1983 and announced at the end of May that it would close on July 27.
Rock & Reilly's Irish Pub suffered a similar fate. After 14 years of operation on the strip, the well-known establishment shut down in March just before St. Patrick's Day, one of the biggest days of the year for Irish pubs. Both Chin Chin and Rock & Reilly's have other locations throughout Los Angeles that are still thriving. Rock & Reilly's even has plans to open a new bar in LAX. West Hollywood Mayor Chelsea Byers explained that a lack of foot traffic post-COVID has made some businesses think twice about staying on the Sunset Strip.
'For us as a city, it's about what we can continue to do to make sure that West Hollywood reads as a business-friendly community, has people walking around, coming out, wanting to spend their dollars,' Byers told KABC . 'It's not up for every business to have to stay open forever and ever.' Le Petit Four, a popular French restaurant on the strip, announced it would close on March 31. The casual bistro, which started out as a pastry shop in 1981, cited 'rising costs' and 'a decline in foot traffic' as reasons it was forced to shutter.
One of the key rising costs for restaurants in West Hollywood is the extraordinarily high minimum wage. The municipality has hiked the minimum wage more than 30 percent since the start of the pandemic, with it now settling at $19.65 per hour for non-hotel employees. 'It's absurd,' Le Petit Four's general manager, Luc Mena, told NBC4 in March. 'In order for us to survive, we would have to sell $80 steaks.'
Labor costs are often one of the biggest expenses for restaurants, and that burden is certainly felt in West Hollywood, where the minimum wage is nearly $2 higher per hour than what Los Angeles County has stipulated. Other popular eateries on the Sunset Strip that have closed this year include Hudson House and The Den, though neither shared why they shut down. Other than astronomical labor costs for businesses, some have theorized that the strip has slowly lost its identity over the years, which has contributed to its decline.
It has undergone a transformation from a place known for dive bars and laid-back concert venues to an area that almost exclusively caters to luxury-minded customers and rich celebrities, according to SFGate. 'There is a transition, just in terms of how costly everything is, into something more luxury-driven,' Genevieve Morrill, the president of the West Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, told the outlet.
She said this has happened because 'the land is so expensive.' Because commercial rents are high and the clientele is wealthy, developers have turned their attention to extravagant new projects. The Viper Room, an iconic night club and live music venue once owned by Johnny Depp, was set to be demolished to make way for a 90-room five-star hotel and roughly 28,000 square feet of restaurant, cafe and bar space.
That particular development failed because the owners went into foreclosure , but other luxury experiences are making their way through the approvals process. For example, the Sunset Strip could eventually welcome a Las Vegas-style sphere, which would set up shop right across the Saddle Ranch Chop House, according to the plans under review.
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