all is lost. alas. Clifton Cafeteria in downtown LA, open since 1935, has closed for good. Along with 117-year-old Coles, who supposedly invented the French Dip, has gone with them. So much history left in the dust, due to downtown decay
does anyone remember them?
The Original pantry Cafe also.
Yes, when i worked at the LA Herald Examiner I ate at both, plus several others.
I mean, I can’t rule out downtown decay, especially since I’m not living in the same state, but I’ve seen lots of restaurants loosing ground in the battle between stagnant wages cutting costs on luxuries like eating out, gentrification pushing them out of old locations because the land under them became too valuable and never reconnecting if they even opened a new location, and countless other issues. Not to mention Covid pushing down on the accelerator to a head-long collision of many long-standing food service issues!
Doesn’t mean I don’t sympathize with everyone loosing that sense of continuity with the old places, fond memories, and favorite food.
For me, even time I visit my folks in Las Cruces NM and see how many businesses and restaurants of my childhood are just gone… yeah. I get the pain. When an institution (Hebert’s Steak Fingers, I call out to thee!) is suddenly gone between my annual trips…
Not that Las Cruces had a particularly noteworthy or historic tradition of eateries compared to frikkin’ Los Angeles, but the feeling is the same.
Personally, I’m in the “Philippe’s invented the French dip, not Cole’s” camp. And theirs is better anyway.
If you really want to see urban decay, go to western New York! After four hellish months there, I managed to get out of the shithole known as Buffalo by taking a trip to Poland, and I ain’t never going back! Hochul is seriously delusional if she thinks she can stop people from fleeing the state.
I’ve never been there, but this makes me sad just because I love those sorts of time-capsule restaurants that somehow manage to buck the trends and unchanged for decades.
Similarly, Sacramento lost Jim-Denny’s last year, apparently because the owner wants to redevelop the site (see @ParallelLines post above re: gentrification / the land under them has become too valuable). The business has moved to a new location, but IMO it just won’t be the same without the 80 year old lunch counter with wooden signs advertising things like “Fancy Jumbo Hot Dogs 10¢”.
This 2018 blog post showcased the place during their glory days:
It’s reopening next month.
Regarding Clifton’s…
Clifton’s died well-over a decade ago not due to “downtown decay” but because the cafeteria model hadn’t been viable for years before that. Nostalgia eventually was going to run out.The pivot into a weird nightclub kind of thing was valiant but… eh, I went twice after the initial reopening and it wasn’t for me. I am bummed I never got to go to South Seas before I moved.