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Welcome to the Year in Eater 2024 — our annual tradition that looks back at the highs, lows, and in-betweens of Los Angeles’s restaurant scene. Today, LA’s finest food writers, editors, reporters, and a few select others with strong opinions share some of the year’s toughest restaurant closures. Farley Elliott, SFGATE SoCal Bureau Chief Alimento.
Rarely the Silver Lake star, but always a stalwart for me and my friends. A true neighborhood restaurant. Bill Esparza, Writer, Eater I was really disappointed that Muelle 8 closed so fast.
They had a level of Sinaloan seafood LA hasn’t been able to sustain; the same thing happened to Mariscos El Paradero. Muelle 8 was the real deal, more expensive production due to staff, but ultimately the LA partners weren’t able to make it work. But, even more devastating is the loss of Poltergeist.
I barely got to know it in all its beautiful, emotional tapestry of anarchy covered in glitter. Poltergeist was a one-of-a-kind, the Jimi Hendrix of restaurants, forever young, rebellious, and magical. Gary Baum, Senior Writer, The Hollywood Reporter Son of a Gun.
RIP to that shrimp toast. Kristie Hang, Eater LA Contributor Frenchifornia Cathy Chaplin, GastronomyBlog.com All Day Baby in Silver Lake, Poltergeist/Button Mash in Echo Park, Mel’s Fish Shack in West Adams Elina Shatkin, producer, Good Food All Day Baby, Poltergeist, Tempura House, Otoño, Mandrake, Banh Oui Nicole Adlman, Eater cities manager All Day Baby’s closure was a gut-punch.
The Westside equivalent to it is losing the Rose in Venice, which also closed, coincidentally, on December 15. For years, both restaurants delighted daytime diners with dishes that felt important to the neighborhoods they communed in. Karen Palmer, Contributing Los Angeles Food Editor, SFGATE Seeing closure after closure was massively saddening, of course, but I’m going to say All Day Baby was the most heartbreaking, especially given the passing of Jonathan Whitener earlier this year.
I respect and admire owner Lien Ta so much. Jean Trinh, freelance food reporter It was so sad to see All Day Baby close. I had so many joyful and delicious memories there.
L.A. was lucky to have had such a special place.
Hadley Tomicki, Co-Founder, L.A. TACO I was bummed to see Piknik close in Echo Park.
The food was beautiful, unique, and so good it was practically subversive, given it was all hiding inside of a place designed for picking up a quick bite before getting on the swan boats. Rebecca Roland, Editor, Eater Southern California/Southwest It was heartbreaking to see All Day Baby go — I’ve sat in that restaurant countless times, poring over plates of loco moco and biscuits. It’s hard to think about what that stretch of Silver Lake will look like without it.
Joshua Lurie, FoodGPS.com founder Lien Ta is incredibly resilient, and my visits to her colorful Silver Lake corner were consistently memorable, but All Day Baby ultimately couldn’t survive mercurial market forces and the heartbreaking loss of her co-founder, chef Jonathan Whitener. Thankfully sister restaurant Here’s Looking At You is still alive and a destination in its own right.
Lesley Suter, Special Projects Director, Eater Alimento was a neighborhood favorite of mine. I loved how you could roll in for a glass of wine and a pasta at the bar, or a more substantial date night, and be equally charmed. It was accessible, but ambitious, and reliably great.
That’s hard to do, but Zach Pollack pulled it off. The recent closure of All Day Baby feels like a similar blow to Silver Lake, and the city as a whole, too. Thank god Here’s Looking At You lives on.
And this wasn’t a closure, per se, but I lost and old friend and we all lost an incredible butcher when Jered Standing passed away this year. He’s sorely missed, though his huge impact on our food scene lives on. Patricia Kelly Yeo, Food and Drink Editor, Time Out Los Angeles Manzke/Bicyclette, by a long shot.
Mona Holmes, Editor, Eater Southern California/Southwest Jewel, Poltergeist, Bloom & Plume, Wine House Kitchen was quite special and missed. I’ve been eating at Patrick’s Roadhouse for decades and was sad to see it go. I still can’t talk about All Day Baby and how much I’ll miss it.
Matthew Kang, Lead Editor, Eater Southern California/Southwest I’ll miss Otium, one of Downtown’s best-ever restaurants that ended with a sour note due to delayed final payments to its employees. The space was iconic, one of the most gorgeous in the city’s history. It deserved to exist for much longer.
I’m also sad to see Maude close. It was such an ambitious, exciting restaurant and remained that way for years. Maybe we’ll look back and credit Curtis Stone for bringing a new energy to LA’s fine dining scene (he’s still thrilling diners at Gwen in Hollywood).
I think Manzke could’ve been a two- or even three-Michelin-star restaurant if it stayed open. I was most saddened to see the Dragon close in Koreatown. I probably visited dozens of times growing up in LA.
It was a true community hub for Korean Americans. I’ve heard that another restaurant has opened there, but unless it’s also called Yung Gung (its name in Korean), it’s just not the same. Related Sign up for our newsletter.
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