The Original Pantry Café will reopen Thursday with its original staff, six months after it closed because of a labor dispute, the union representing its employees announced.
The downtown diner’s new owner, real estate entrepreneur Leo Pustilnikov, and officials with Unite Here Local 11, which represents its employees, will provide details of the agreement that will allow the restaurant that opened in 1924 to reopen at a news conference Thursday.
The union called the restaurant’s reopening, “A ray of hope in a dark time for our city.”
After being in business for more than 100 years, the iconic location closed its doors on March 2. The closure came after a dispute between its owners and the union representing the employees.
Workers were notified about the potential closure as the UNITE HERE Local 11, the union representing the employees, bargained for a new contract with the restaurant’s management.
The demands sought by the union include job security and continued representation if the restaurant changes owners. The union said in response, the owners said they would close instead.
For decades, the Original Pantry Cafe was owned by former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan. Following his death in 2023, the Richard J. Riordan Trust listed the restaurant for sale last August. The trust did not confirm the threat of closing the eatery, but provided the following statement:
“Local 11 has presented two bargaining demands that would make it nearly impossible, in The Pantry’s view, to sell the property. The Union has been on notice that the property has been up for sale since August 2024. The Pantry management finds it sad that, instead of having responsible collective bargaining positions, Local 11 is instead bent on disrupting our customers’ ability to eat at The Pantry today.”
The union credits the restaurant’s reopening to “a community-led campaign, including protests, pancake fundraisers, and public pressure.”
Source: NBC Los Angeles