The original pantry, an iconic restaurant in downtown Los Angeles that closed earlier this year, will make a comeback.
The diner has been bought by real estate developer Leo Pustilnikov this week and has served hot coffee, burgers and breakfast trays for more than 100 years.
Pustilnikov bought the nearly 8,000-square-foot building of the original pantry on James M. Wood Boulevard, and the blessing of the Hospitality Alliance unites here. The union representing the workers of the pantry, reached a deal with Pustilnikov with Pustilnikov, secured the union representatives of the restaurant, and brought back all the jobs of all 25 workers and lost all jobs in March.
Pustilnikov has a range of real estate interests, thus accumulating high-end properties Beverly Hills Go to Redondo Beach and a group of Supportive housing units on Skid Row. If he can get the necessary permits and permits in time, he plans to reopen on New Year’s Eve.
“I want to buy a pantry because it’s part of Los Angeles’ history,” Pustilnikov told the Times. “Some of these employees have been there for nearly 50 years and I hope they can complete their careers where they like.
Richard RIORDAN TRUST, the former owner of the restaurant, suddenly closed the restaurant in March after a labor dispute. He said Pustilnikov acquired the restaurant’s building and a customer’s parking lot for a total of $5.5 million in sales closed on Thursday.
On Thursday morning, the shutters were decorated with festive red, white and black balloons. The decorated cake looks like a pile of pancakes dripping with maple syrup dripping onto a nearby folding table. Workers and their families, union organizers, labor leaders and Los Angeles City Council members Ysabel Jurado and Curren Price gathered outside for the ribbon cutting ceremony.
“Now we can breathe,” said Diana Garcia, who has worked in a restaurant for 17 years. “We are all very happy to be back.”
Unite Local 11’s co-president Kurt Petersen praised workers for protests and fundraising to keep restaurants open.
“There are more than 300 years of service between the dishwasher, chef and server in the pantry – never giving up,” Peterson said in a statement.
The original pantry opened in 1924 and established the Los Angeles legacy in its 24-hour service, becoming a familiar plague for night owls. The restaurant changed its location in the 1950s, when highway off-road increasingly forced it to move. Then, former mayor Richard Riordan took over the restaurant in 1981, part of a larger land deal.
Tensions between ownership and workers began in April 2023, when the pantry filed a lawsuit alleging overtime, rest and meal breaks. Two weeks later, Lildan died. The restaurant’s ownership was then transferred to the Riordan Trust that attempted to sell the business.
Earlier this year, Local 11 was united here in an attempt to negotiate terms that would require any new owners to commemorate the workers’ existing union contract. But afterward tumInstead, ownership closed the restaurant and fired the workers. The property was listed for sale two months later.
Some of Pustilnikov’s other assaults in downtown Los Angeles have caused controversy. In 2011, he and two wealthy investors tried to buy six aging buildings worth more than $100 million. But less than a year later, in the fraud charges, the deal failed.
Since then, Pustilnikov has built its own portfolio and took action to buy 1,500 Skid Row Apartments last year. His efforts to run one of Los Angeles’ largest collections of housing units in support of housing units Facing some difficulties. But he has said that through the project, he hopes to meet Skid Row’s overwhelming housing needs by filling hundreds of vacancies in the unit.
Times worker Paige St. John and Liam Dillon contributed to the report.
