"Last year was difficult for Los Angeles chefs and restaurateurs. Many entered 2025 hoping for reprieve from previous setbacks and pitfalls: years of inflation, diminished business due to local entertainment-industry strikes and fewer productions, COVID-era back rent coming due, increases in the cost of labor and rent. But 2025 proved to be even more disastrous, compounding existing issues. It started with wildfires across the region, which destroyed thousands of Southern California homes, restaurants, bars and other businesses."
"The closures were indiscriminate: Michelin-starred fine dining restaurants like Gucci Osteria and Shibumi shuttered alongside more casual mom-and-pop operations, including some of L.A.'s most celebrated. Guerrilla Tacos, Here's Looking at You, Cassia, Post & Beam and many others closed their doors in 2025. Some single closures marked the end of multiple restaurants at once, such as Culver City's food hall Citizen Public Market, which until November housed food stalls and pop-ups from some of the best chefs in the city."
Los Angeles restaurants faced escalating hardships in 2025 driven by inflation, lingering COVID-era debts, rising labor and rent costs, tariffs raising ingredient prices, and reduced business from entertainment strikes and lower tourism. Widespread wildfires destroyed homes, restaurants, bars and other businesses across the region, compounding financial strain. Immigration raids and diminished sales further pressured operators. Closures affected both high-end Michelin-starred restaurants and casual mom-and-pop establishments, with some single shutdowns ending multiple venues. Several closures were announced for early 2026 and additional shutdowns were rumored but not confirmed by year-end.
Read at Los Angeles Times
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