"Socalo, a modern Mexican restaurant from two of L.A.'s most established chefs, will close next month. Its owners, Border Grill founders Mary Sue Milliken and Susan Feniger, announced plans to shut the Santa Monica business to staff on Friday afternoon citing losses due to the pandemic, the 2025 wildfires and more. "Combined with skyrocketing prices and labor shortages and the immigration raids and the uncertainty and fear of recession, we've been losing money for a year and a half or more," Milliken said in an interview. "We just can't afford to do that anymore.""
"Socalo opened in late 2019 at the base of the Gateway Hotel on Santa Monica Boulevard. Feniger and Milliken considered opening a new iteration of their most famous chain, Border Grill, but opted to launch a new concept instead. Socalo debuted as a more Southern California spin on Mexican food, with executive chef Giovanni Lopez leading the kitchen and a menu that involved crispy chicken skin with house-made Tajin, lamb birria, a range of tacos and ample margaritas."
Socalo will close on Valentine's Day after multiple turbulent years for the restaurant industry. Owners Mary Sue Milliken and Susan Feniger attributed the closure to pandemic-related losses, the 2025 wildfires, skyrocketing prices, labor shortages, immigration raids and recession fears. Socalo opened in late 2019 at the base of the Gateway Hotel on Santa Monica Boulevard as a Southern California spin on Mexican food under executive chef Giovanni Lopez. The menu included crispy chicken skin with house-made Tajin, lamb birria, a range of tacos and ample margaritas. The closure is one of the first notable restaurant shutdowns of 2026 following more than 100 closures the previous year, and the owners are planning future projects with a possible return of a standalone Border Grill in Los Angeles.
Read at Los Angeles Times
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