The Original Pantry Cafe, Downtown's landmark diner, turned 100 last year. But its legacy may soon end, as KNX News reports that the iconic, formerly 24-hour coffee shop is slated to close on March 2nd, following demands from a labor union representing the Pantry’s staff and the trust who now owns it not willing to meet those demands.
In 2023, Richard Riordan, former L.A. mayor and longtime owner of the Pantry, passed away. The Richard J. Riordan Trust assumed ownership of the restaurant and listed the property for sale in August 2024.
According to UNITE HERE Local 11, the union representing workers at the Pantry, demanded “job security and continued representation” if the restaurant changed ownership. The Riordan Trust responded with two weeks’ notice that the restaurant would close.
The Pantry has long been famed as a diner that never closed, maintaining 24-hour service for over 90 years. However, the restaurant has struggled to reassert itself after the COVID pandemic, cutting service to just eight hours a day and closing its doors entirely on Monday and Tuesday. According to comments on the Pantry’s Instagram page, the reason isn’t simply operating costs but an inability to maintain a staff late at night.
The Pantry is not a struggling business. There are lines out the door every hour it’s open these days. This dispute essentially comes down to the Trust, which is not interested in operating a restaurant long-term after Riordan’s death and wants to get this property off its hands as soon as possible.
They have no inherent interest in the future of The Pantry. But this isn’t how Riordan would have wanted this to turn out. His wish was for the restaurant to continue unchanged and indefinitely.
That’s what the Pantry workers want as well. Many have worked at the diner for decades, with one dishwasher celebrating 45 years of service. It matters to them that The Pantry carries on as The Pantry, a classic diner where the citizens of Los Angeles can come together over a stack of pancakes, marveling that a place like this can stay the same in a city that’s always changing.
We need places like this to keep sight of who we are. This isn’t just about a physical landmark. It’s about the lives and the community that people have made here.
And it matters that this place stays The Pantry, an authenticly classic diner in an area that is otherwise devoid of them. Diners are part of the heritage of Los Angeles. They are part of what visitors from abroad come here to see: Pann’s, Norm’s, Bob’s Big Boy, and The Pantry.
And there isn’t an older diner in the city than The Pantry. It comes from a pre-Googie cultural landscape when Art Deco was all the rage and Downtown was actually the cultural and economic hub of the city, if only for a while longer.
What do you, Los Angeles citizens of 2025, have in common with the Angeleno of 100 years ago? Maybe not that much. But there's a good chance you both ate at the Pantry while living here. And that’s why these places are so important. They are sites of continuity between the city’s past and its future.
The diner is a great equalizer. You might rub shoulders with a member of every conceivable social stratum in the city. And you’re all on equal footing when you belly up to the counter, watching the cooks crack eggs, fry hash browns, and flip pancakes. The waiter or waitress looks you straight in the eye and asks, “How’s the family?” if you go often enough.
How many Angelenos have fond memories of heading to The Pantry, late at night, after a show at the Staples Center or after bar-hopping Downtown? How many have been served at The Pantry at 2 or 3 in the morning, down on their luck and lonely, soul-searching at the counter stools, or just looking for a sympathetic face and a warm pot of coffee? How many layers of linoleum near the cash register have been worn through over the years by generations of Angelenos? (Answer: About five.)
There is not much space in the law for how a culture or a community feels about places like The Pantry closing. The Trust has the right to do what it wishes with its property. But maybe the law isn’t all that matters regarding what makes a city and a culture like Los Angeles what it is.
This isn’t just about nostalgia. It’s about the kind of place this city is becoming.
Do we want to live where every bit of real estate with any history at all is gutted or bulldozed for profit with hardly any notice? Where are there no more places for all types and classes of people to gather and share a space besides the DMV?
What do you, Los Angeles citizens of 2025, have in common with the Angeleno of 100 years ago? Maybe not that much. But there's a good chance you both ate at the Pantry while living here. And that’s why these places are so important. They are sites of continuity between the city’s past and its future.
There is not much space in the law for how a culture or a community feels about places like The Pantry closing. The Trust has the right to do what it wishes with its property. But maybe the law isn’t all that matters in shaping what makes a city and a culture like Los Angeles what it is. I hope that the guardians of the Trust can see that and make sure the workers who built their lives at The Pantry can continue to serve this community for many years to come.
“Through the door with no key, enter the cafe that never closes.”
So the saying used to go about The Pantry, which famously never put a lock on its door. But the Riordan Trust holds the key now, and unless something changes, they’re closing the door on The Pantry for good.
