Roughly one year after closing its doors, the Brite Spot diner on Sunset Boulevard in Echo Park has a new owner.
Restaurateur Stuart Weisfeld, the owner of Burbank's Lancer's Family Restaurant, and a former owner of the Brite Spot himself, confirmed with L.A. TACO over email that Breakfast Republic, a chain of restaurants that serves breakfast and booze, is the new owner of this beloved local diner.
The 70-plus year-old restaurant has traded hands three times since businesswoman Dana Hollister sold it in 2018 to an investment group after owning it for more than a decade. A couple of years later, the business was sold to Weisfeld during the pandemic. He was able to keep the lights on as Brite Spot for a year before closing last summer.
Breakfast Republic is a modern chain of restaurants specializing in "the most important meal of the day," and owned by Rise & Shine Hospitality Group. Currently, they have more than a dozen locations in the Southern California area, and in Los Angeles County, they have locations in West Hollywood and Culver City.
Reached for comment via Instagram, Johan Engman, Rise & Shine Hospitality's CEO, confirmed that the location will be rebranded into a Breakfast Republic. When asked if the interior would be "gutted and redesigned," Engman responded, "not gutted."