THE RIOT’S AFTERMATH : Slow Day for Movies, Eateries and Malls

Restaurants, theaters and shopping centers throughout Los Angeles reported lighter-than-usual business Monday and Tuesday, sparking concerns that it may be weeks or months before business returns to normal--even in areas not primarily affected by last week’s rioting.

Merchants said residents remain nervous and uncertain about leaving their homes, even to engage in their favorite pastimes of dining out, watching movies or shopping--despite Mayor Tom Bradley’s decision Monday to lift the curfew that had kept residents indoors and forced merchants to shutter their shops after nightfall since last Thursday.

“It was slow Monday,” said Greg Rutkowski of AMC Theaters, the operator of 186 movie screens in Southern California. “I would have thought that there would have been a lot of pent-up demand from people who needed a movie fix, but people are acting with caution.”

Predicted Jack Kyser, an economist for the Los Angeles Economic Development Corp.: “Routine business, especially at night, will be off for at least the next few weeks. People’s confidence needs to be rebuilt. Lifting the curfew is a favorable sign, but it’s not the signal that all is well and it’s just back to business as usual.”

Kyser said that while he is confident that residents will soon return to their normal habits, he fears that tourism, which contributes about $7 billion to the local economy, will be irreparably harmed for the remainder of the year.

“Let’s face it,” said Michael Collins of the Los Angeles Visitors and Convention Bureau with a bit of hyperbole, “it’s difficult to sustain enthusiasm to visit a destination that is still principally populated by soldiers.”

Collins said that although current tourist traffic is lower than usual--the cause of a significant vacancy rate in many of the city’s hotels--no major conventions have as yet canceled reservations for future events.

And on Monday night, motorists cruised heavily patrolled Sunset Boulevard, past the open-for-business night spots such as Coconut Teaszer, Rainbow Club and the Laugh Factory. Spago’s was filled with diners, and the Rage club was jammed, music blaring.

But many residents, whose neighborhoods were largely unaffected by the turmoil, appear anxious to stay close to home for the time being.

At Louise’s Trattoria, a popular restaurant in Larchmont Village on the fringe of tony Hancock Park, orders for take-out and home delivery dinners this week are “brisk” and lunch business is “tremendous,” reported manager Ron Bryman.

But there have been only half the usual number of dinner patrons, despite the fact that the area was spared any direct impact from the riots.

At Lawry’s Prime Rib at La Cienega and Wilshire boulevards, a bit closer to some of the riot-struck areas, business was off 40% Monday night, according to general manager Brian Monfort.

“We had expected that it would take time to get back to normal,” he said. “We even feared that all of May could be hurt.”

However, Monfort and other restaurant managers said early reservations for Mother’s Day and upcoming high school and college graduation celebrations are encouraging, and have led some to believe that the worst may have passed for businesses outside the directly affected areas.

While restaurateurs look forward to Mother’s Day and graduations, theater operators are pinning their hopes on the upcoming release of “Lethal Weapon III” on May 15 and “Aliens III” on May 22 to get moviegoers back into their usual habits.

Expected to be blockbusters at the box office anyway, theater operators say they could be just the shows to spur traffic at the local movie houses.

At the Century City Mall, in an area spared direct impact of the riots, foot traffic was down 30% on Monday and Tuesday from normal levels, according to manager Steve Sumell, who nevertheless expressed confidence that business will soon resume its routine pace.

“The people will be back,” he said. “This is L.A. You just have to take the good with the bad.”