Gentle reader,
Have you heard the red hot rumor that has lovers of old Los Angeles restaurants all aflutter? We did, and while we have not been able to confirm or deny its veracity, the rumor gave us hope and so we’re sharing that hope with you.
Thoughts have wings.
UPDATE 9/9/2025: The rumor was true: the Original Pantry is coming back!
UPDATE 9/10/2025: We went downtown to find someone who knows what's going on with the Original Pantry, and we did. Yes, the sale looks to be going through, but the shuttered diner will need time to restore service. And the hope is that the 40+ year core team will return.
UPDATE 9/11/2025: At a press event this morning, it was announced the Original Pantry will reopen on December 31.
Late night, classic American diners are suddenly all the rage. Down in old Skid Row, Cole’s French Dip has announced a temporary reprieve and will not close this week after all. You can still drop in for a French Dip sandwich, sides and a pickle back through the middle of September... and maybe, just maybe, longer still.
Down in Santa Monica on old Route 66, the magnificent Penguin Coffee Shop (Armet and Davis, 1959), presently operating as Mel’s Drive-in, has just been listed for sale for about the price of a small island.
And down on Santa Monica Boulevard, also on old Route 66, Elon Musk’s simulacrum of a retro drive-in is the subject of Jennifer Swann’s KCRW piece At the Tesla Diner: Burgers, robots, and misgivings, in which we and our preservation pal Damian Sullivan weigh in on what it all means.
On the radio version, Damian reminds listeners that as the centennial of Route 66 is set to occur next year, there’s no Federal funding to help small operators welcome the world, thanks entirely to Musk’s brutal DOGE cuts. Phooey!
We’re also in the Times of London talking with Keiran Southern about how the Tesla Diner emulates Southern California building types that shaped our culture for a century. Because when you cruise and connect, "you feel like an Angeleno... everybody wants that.”
So we’re making an exception to our usual policy of not amplifying unsourced rumors to amplify a particularly hopeful one, because Los Angeles needs all the good legacy business news it can get, and it can’t hurt to put some positive prayer energy into the thrilling rumor that the Original Pantry Cafe might return some time soon.
And wouldn’t that be something worth shouting about? So give us a shout if you know anything about it.
There’s no tour this weekend, but we’re back next Saturday, August 9 with a Hotel Horrors & Main Street Vice time travel trip through the tenderloin, in search of the giddy spirits of a lost Los Angeles. And by popular demand, we just listed a date for the Franklin Village Old Hollywood walk on Saturday, September 13. Join us, do!
Yours for Los Angeles,
Kim & Richard
Esotouric
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Our work—leading tours and historic preservation and cultural landmark advocacy—is about building a bridge between Los Angeles' past and its future, and not allowing the corrupt, greedy, inept and misguided players who hold present power to destroy the city's soul and body. If you’d like to support our efforts to be the voice of places worth preserving, we have a tip jar, vintage Los Angeles webinars available to stream, in-person tours and a souvenir shop you can browse in. We’ve also got recommended reading bookshelves on Amazon and the Bookshop indie bookstore site. And did you know we offer private versions of our walking tours for groups big or small? Or just share this link with other people who care.
UPCOMING WALKING TOURS
• Hotel Horrors & Main Street Vice (8/9) • Weird West Adams / Elmer McCurdy Museum (8/16) • Christine Sterling & Leo Politi: Angels of Los Angeles (8/23) • Evergreen Cemetery, 1877 (8/30) • Raymond Chandler’s Noir Downtown Los Angeles (9/6) • Franklin Village Old Hollywood (9/13) • Film Noir / Real Noir (9/20) • Angelino Heights & Carroll Avenue (9/27) • Charles Bukowski’s Westlake (10/4) • Know Your Downtown LA: Bradbury Building, Basements, Dutch Chocolate Shop (10/11) • The Run: Gay Downtown History (10/18) • Evergreen Cemetery, 1877 (11/1) • Highland Park Arroyo Time Travel Trip (11/8) • Richard’s Birthday: Alvarado Terrace & South Bonnie Brae Tract (11/15) • The Real Black Dahlia (11/22) • Hotel Horrors & Main Street Vice (12/6) • Westlake Park Time Travel Trip (12/13) • Miracle Mile Marvels & Madness (Sunday, 12/21) • Human Sacrifice: The Black Dahlia, Elisa Lam, Heidi Planck & Skid Row Slasher Cases (12/27)
CLOSELY WATCHED TRAINS
This is something of a miracle. The derelict, long vacant 2040 Rodney, 29 RSO units in the heart of Los Feliz designed by master architect Edward Fickett, has a new owner! It sold earlier this month, with the buildings next door. Thanks to Empty Los Angeles for getting the word out, after a neighbor reached out asking for coverage of the strange situation of these prime Los Feliz apartments that nobody has been able to rent for years. Hopefully the new owner will stabilize the structure and pool, fix up the apartments and make them available for Angelenos to rent once again. Great location, and despite the neglect, it's really a beautiful!
Awkward! The 2023 motion from Paul Krekorian and Marqueece Harris-Dawson to suspend councilmember Curren Price due to his public corruption charges has now expired with no action. And Price will be in court on August 14 as his case finally gets moving.
Whoa, this heartbreaking story about estranged step-siblings and Rod Steiger's awards does not reflect well on Hollywood memorabilia auctioneer Julien’s.
Landmark nomination submitted for Tujunga's Elmer Reavis Home, built entirely by hand from local arroyo stone by the blind amateur architect in 1924.
Holy cats: Karen Bass has nominated a preservationist to the City Planning Commission! As a Beverly Hills planning commissioner, Brian Rosenstein helped craft that city's landmarking ordinance in 2012. Could cultural resources get a fair hearing in L.A.?
The state of the Second Street Tunnel: the glazed tiles putting on a show in spite of the city's whitewashing.
Inland Empire history reporter David Allen joined us on a Highland Park Arroyo walking tour starting from Lummis House (next scheduled for November 8), and later got a behind the scenes tour of the city landmark stone castle. Lucky duck!
