In his 25 years Original tableware coffee shopAlejandro Ortiz works from cleaners to Prep Cook and most recently servers. Usually, he takes night shifts and two shifts. He worked a lot and he missed the birth of a daughter.
It felt like a punch when the owner of the original pantry cafe announced that they would close the 100-year-old restaurant on March 2 instead of meeting workers’ demands for keeping union protection.
“They just kicked us like dogs,” Ortiz said. “So many years? It’s unjust.”
Former mayor Richard Riordan bought the pantry in 1981 as part of a larger real estate deal and avoided the restaurant’s destruction ball.
Former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan held talks with supporters and customers at the original cutlery cafe in downtown Los Angeles during the 2002 California Governor’s Big Movement.
(Gary Friedman/Los Angeles Times)
back Riordan’s death In 2023, Richard J. Riordan’s Administrative Trust (Richard J. Riordan) owns the restaurant, a Los Angeles historical and cultural monument that opened on May 29, 1924.
Jenelle Castleberry, executive assistant at Richard J. Riordan Administrative Trust, said the trust’s biggest beneficiary is the charity Riordan Foundation, which has a mission to help underserved communities get better preschool-to-grader education and achieve University success.
Castleberry said in a preparation statement to the Times that the trust had been selling food pantry for months.
Castleberry wrote in an email: “The trustees of the mayor’s estate determine that the eventual closing of the pantry and selling the property they are located is the best way to provide the foundation with the largest financial resources to continue its excellent charitable mission. “era.
Unify Local 11 hereRepresenting restaurant staff, attempting to renegotiate the contract, demanding that the trust agree to retain employees and their union representatives even under new ownership. In response, the Trust threatens to close restaurants next month.
On a recent Thursday morning, the counters of the original tableware cafe in downtown Los Angeles were crowded.
(Nick Agro/Times)
Jose Moran, a server who started in the pantry 45 years ago, said he hopes to work another year before retirement.
“I was shocked when they told me to close so soon,” the 66-year-old said. “I was very disappointed.”
Server Jose Moran opened a drink to customers in the original cutlery cafe in downtown Los Angeles on a recent morning. If the 100-year-old institution closes in March, Moran is in danger of losing 45 years of work.
(Nick Agro/Times)
Castleberry said some of the union’s requirements were “completely unacceptable because they would ask the next owner of the pantry to run a restaurant there, ask the next owner not to renegotiate and to the next owner if anything is to be changed , please carry out a tedious process.”
“This would be severely limited if Riordan estate is not completely defeated to find buyers of the location,” Castleberry said in a prepared statement. “The union proposal would seriously hinder any sales and thus unacceptably damage Riordan estate.” and the Riordan Foundation.”
The pantry is a restaurant icon known for plate-sized pancakes and buttery sour toasts. Typically, clients form a queue extending from the front door on the side of the building. The seats extend from the back of the long dining room of the restaurant to the cash-only checkout register in the cage. The restaurant has reportedly served Martin Luther King Jr., Marilyn Monroe and countless other famous figures over the years.
Customers waiting for tables to find shelter under the awning at the original cutlery cafe in downtown Los Angeles earlier this month.
(Nick Argro / Times)
For decades, the pantry was a 24-hour diner, but the tradition ended during the 19th pandemic. The restaurant is now open from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. depending on the day.
Here, Local 11 filed an unfair labor practice charge here, accusing the National Labor Relations Commission of alleging threatening closures violated federal labor laws.
Castleberry said in August that the trust provided “accommodation” to employees who continued to work in the pantry until diners closed or unspecified time in 2026, whichever comes first. Bonus range from $1,500 to $20,000 per person, depending on their years of work.
Marisela Granados, a server who started working as a cashier in the pantry 26 years ago, said she received a price of $20,000, which she said was all she had served for years.
She has no signature.
“If I sign, I’ll have to give up my rights,” she said. “I don’t want to do that. It’s wrong.”
On Wednesday, Granados and dozens of food pantry picketed at the restaurant with the sign “We are the pantry”.
Unite Local 11’s co-president Kurt Petersen called the situation “shocking”.
“Given our knowledge of the former mayor, he will roll in the grave under this situation,” he said. “He loves the workers, his restaurant is part of him, his life and legacy.”
