L.A. has always been a restaurant town. Now restaurants are in trouble

Good morning. It’s Thursday, May 23. Here’s what you need to know to start your day.

• The L.A. restaurant industry is facing another harsh year as new legislation, inflation, higher wages and pandemic fallout are creating obstacles.
• EVs and hybrids are twice as likely to hit pedestrians as gas cars.
• 24 superb things to do around L.A. to kick off the summer of 2024.
• And here’s today’s e-newspaper.

The year that altered L.A.’s restaurant scene

Los Angeles’ restaurant scene changed dramatically in 2023. Restaurateurs managed inflation of ingredient prices, staff shortages, maintenance costs and pandemic-era loan repayment deadlines, all while those relying on catering, industry meetings and private events were hit by the massive strikes in the entertainment industry.

By the end of 2023, at least 65 notable L.A. restaurants had shut down.

2024 is already proving to be another difficult year for the restaurant industry: New state and local laws are transforming how restaurants charge customers and pay their staff.

The minimum wage for all employees in California increased in January to $16 per hour. A separate law raised the minimum wage for fast-food workers to $20.

On July 1, California will outlaw hidden fees or surcharges, which restaurants often use to fund employee benefits and help compensate back-of-house employees. Restaurants will need to factor those costs into menu prices, which could surprise customers as we wrote about in this newsletter back in February.

And costs continue to rise. Over the last four years, food prices have increased by about 25%, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Consumer Price Index.

How has the industry changed? How are restaurateurs coping? What do former owners have to say about life after restaurants? The Times’ food team explored these questions in their new package, What will save L.A. restaurants? Here is what some restaurateurs had to say.

Closing is sometimes as costly as staying open

For the Chinatown sandwich shop, Wax Paper, to make sense, owner Lauren Lemos (who owns the restaurant with her husband Peter) estimated they would need to make between $4,000 and $8,000 in sales daily. But before the pandemic they would barely break $2,000 in sales, and last year, some days, breaking $1,000 in sales became a challenge.

So they shut down in October. But the bills kept piling up. In March, they reopened. Here’s how Lauren explained it to my colleague Stephanie Breijo:

“We still have our lease, we still have our [federal] loans from the SBA, from COVID, the bills are still coming in. We can’t even afford to close. We can’t afford to be open, we can’t afford to be closed.”

Innovating might require doing more with less

Andy Kadin’s bakery, Bub and Grandma’s distributes bread loaves to many of the city’s favorite restaurants, cafes and markets every day. But rising gas prices and surging drivers’ insurance rates for his five delivery vans have forced him to increase delivery fees and consider partnering with delivery companies.

And if the war in Ukraine continues to affect the cost of flour in the U.S., Kadin said he will have to raise his operation’s prices.

Here’s how he put it to Stephanie:

“There are thresholds that once they go over that, people aren’t going to pay $12, $15 for a single loaf of bread. I hope we don’t get there. If we do, we’re going to have to get very creative and have to do more with less.”

Andy Kadin at Bub and Grandma’s.

(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)

The industry continues to draw restaurateurs back — just not in L.A.

Spencer and Sabrina Bezaire closed down their Silver Lake restaurant Eszett in January 2023. They had opened in December 2019, right before COVID-19. Their vision for the restaurant was altered by the pandemic, so they pivoted to easy takeout items like sandwiches.

COVID mandates eased, wages increased and their landlord told them they couldn’t use a part of the parking lot for outdoor dining anymore. So, they closed down, packed up and moved to Orcas Island in Washington state.

Spencer and Sabrina Bezaire pose for photographs outside of their restaurant, Eszette, which they closed in 2023. They now live in Washington state.

(Brittany Brooks / For The Times)

Now, they are opening a new restaurant there. Their latest culinary venture will be a small lunch deli with pantry items called Lone Pine Larder. Spencer said that when the opportunity came, he couldn’t pass on it.

This time, they’re only hiring a few employees and limiting hours to lunch four days a week, so they can relish the outdoors.

“I don’t know if it’s fate or just really dumb,” Spencer told Stephanie.

Read more:

• Five former restaurant owners share why they left ... some for good.
• Heather Sperling, the co-founder and co-owner of Botanica, explained where every cent of $1 goes at her Silver Lake restaurant and market.
• 15 L.A. restaurants and chains where a $15 budget goes far.

Today’s top stories

LAPD officers patrol the UCLA campus in the aftermath of the pro-Palestinian encampment being dismantled.

(Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

Campus unrest

• UCLA’s police chief is reassigned after security failures over pro-Palestinian protests.
• UCLA Chancellor Gene Block to tell Congress ‘we should have been prepared to immediately remove the encampment.’
• ‘A really scary feeling’: A private security firm is accused of using force against UCLA protesters.
• UC seeks injunction to halt strike as academic workers threaten to expand walkouts.
• Divestment from Israel roils universities. Would it work? Some are dubious.

Climate and environment

• Solar eclipses are so last month. Get ready for a “planetary parade.”
• EVs and hybrids are twice as likely to hit pedestrians as gas cars, a study shows.
• Gas stoves may contribute to early deaths and childhood asthma, a new Stanford study finds.
• How much worse will extreme heat get by 2050? A new report outlines worrisome future.

Crime

• One victim of brutal Venice attacks is declared brain-dead, sources say.
• Jealousy of porn actor led to murder attempt with a golf club, LAPD says.
• A group allegedly stole and cashed checks throughout L.A. and Orange counties — then posted it on Instagram.
• California dreams end in nightmare for woman charged in violent wrong-way 405 Freeway crash.

Arizona and abortion

• Newsom turns to suburban moms to bankroll Arizona abortion initiative.
• Meet Arizona’s most powerful political couple, who are on opposite ends of an abortion ban.

Memorial Day

• Don’t go into the ocean at these Los Angeles County beaches this Memorial Day weekend, experts say.
• Traveling for Memorial Day? Expect 3 million on the road and gas over $5 a gallon.

More big stories

• In a final round of gig drivers’ fight over Prop. 22, California Supreme Court to decide if it stays.
• Bakersfield legislator Vince Fong wins special election to replace Kevin McCarthy in Congress.
• He picked up a package and found a live rattlesnake inside: “Do I have any enemies?”
• TikTok is expected to make job cuts amid a wave of tech industry layoffs.
• Who supplied Matthew Perry ketamine? Investigation aims to find out.
• Ex-Metro security chief says police patrols were so lax, they didn’t notice a dead man at the station.
• California could boot thousands of immigrants from a program that aids the elderly and disabled.
• Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani buys La Cañada Flintridge mansion from Adam Carolla for $7.85 million.

Get unlimited access to the Los Angeles Times. Subscribe here.

Commentary and opinions

• Carla Hall: Looks like there’s a new mountain lion in Griffith Park. Let’s try not to kill him.
• Editorial: Israeli and Palestinian leaders once shared a peace prize. Now they may share war crimes charges.
• Harry Litman: Trump’s hush money trial will go to the jury soon. What’s the most likely verdict?
• Jackie Calmes: Will voters get the message that our judicial system is on the 2024 ballot too?

Today’s great reads

(Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times)

Why some of California’s most outdoorsy people are moving to ... Las Vegas? It’s one of the indoors-iest places on the planet. But just outside the city, about 20 minutes from the bachelor parties and slot machines, a growing number of elite outdoor athletes are buying homes, starting families and declaring Las Vegas the adventure sports capital of the United States.

Other great reads

• Hijacked: A renter turned L.A. home into an illegal Airbnb from 5,000 miles away, a lawsuit says.
• The quest to alter our “last toxic act”: Inside the rise of human composting.
• Would you pay $400 for this designer pineapple?

How can we make this newsletter more useful? Send comments to essentialcalifornia@latimes.com.

For your downtime

(Los Angeles Times photo collage; photos by Adam Tschorn / Los Angeles Times, Calvin Alagot / Los Angeles Times, Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times, Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times, Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times, Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times, Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times, Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)

Going out

• 🚴🏽🏖️24 superb things to do around L.A. to kick off the summer of 2024.
• 🎆 Disneyland’s “Fantasmic!” returns after fire — without a dragon. Here’s a first look.
• 🎶 Shakira to headline Besame Mucho Festival 2024 at Dodger Stadium.

Staying in

• 📚Six essential collections to celebrate short story month.
• 🧑‍🍳 Here’s a recipe for panes con pollo.
• ✏️ Get our free daily crossword puzzle, sudoku, word search and arcade games.

And finally ... from our archives

(Los Angeles Times)

On this day 55 years ago, the Apollo 11 crew rehearsed nearly every aspect of the moon landing — which happened two months later — with the exception of the landing itself, flying to within 9.4 miles of the lunar surface.

Have a great day, from the Essential California team

Defne Karabatur, fellow
Kevinisha Walker, multiplatform editor and Saturday reporter
Christian Orozco, assistant editor
Karim Doumar, head of newsletters

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