04-03-2025
Downtown L.A.'s Original Pantry Closes After 100 Years
The Original Pantry Café, an iconic Downtown L.A. landmark featured in Knocked Up, Snowfall, The Million Dollar Hotel and many of Michael Connelly's bestsellers featuring Detective Harry Bosch — later portrayed by Titus Welliver on Bosch — has closed after more than 100 years.
The closure is a result of a dispute between new owners and the union representing the employees. The owners decided to close the restaurant after the two sides could not reach a labor agreement.
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Customers waited for hours in line for a table on Sunday to get one last meal at the famous eatery, which was named Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument No. 255.
The coffee shop was located at the corner of 9th and Figueroa near L.A. Live and Arena. It served coleslaw to all patrons no matter the time of day. The bread was delicious. Coffee was free until 2011.
More about the food from an L.A. Weekly tribute:
'Order a stack of wheat cakes or buckwheat cakes — serious pancakes, as big as Kojak's head. The home fries here are not the pallid, shoddy examples you find elsewhere: They are proper home fries, with small bits of crunchy crust. Breakfast (you may also order eggs, as you like them) is offered with your choice of ham slices that fill half a plate, or equally generous portions of sausage or bacon.'
The Pantry long claimed to never have closed or been without a customer, including when it changed locations in 1950 to make room for a freeway off-ramp. Management kept the streak alive by serving lunch in the original location and then serving dinner at the new location on very the same day.
That that streak ended when the restaurant closed briefly at the order of health inspectors in November 1997. It reopened the following day. It was later closed during Covid, as well.
Former L.A. Mayor Richard Riordan once owned the cafe. After he died in 2023, his trust took over and listed the diner for sale in August.
City News Service contributed to this report.
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