During his 25 years at the Original Pantry Cafe, Alejandro Ortiz worked his way from cleaner to prep cook and, most recently, server. Often, he pulled night shifts and double shifts. He worked so much, he missed the birth of one of his daughters.
When the owners of the Original Pantry Cafe announced they would close the 100-year-old restaurant on March 2 instead of meeting workers’ demands to keep their union protections, it felt like a gut punch.
“They’re just kicking us like dogs,” Ortiz said. “After so many years? It’s unjust.”
Former Mayor Richard Riordan bought the Pantry in 1981 as part of a larger real estate deal and to spare the diner from a wrecking ball.
Former Los Angeles mayor Richard Riordan talks with supporters and customers at the Original Pantry Cafe in downtown Los Angeles during the 2002 primary campaign for governor of California.
(Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times)
After Riordan’s death in 2023, the Richard J. Riordan Administrative Trust assumed ownership of the restaurant, a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument that opened its doors on May 29, 1924.
The trust’s largest beneficiary is the Riordan Foundation, a charity organization with a mission to help underserved communities receive better pre-K through 12th grade education and achieve collegiate success, said Jenelle Castleberry, executive assistant of the Richard J. Riordan Administrative Trust.
For months now, the trust has been in the process of selling the Pantry, Castleberry said in a prepared statement to The Times.
“The trustees of the Mayor’s estate have determined that eventually closing the Pantry and selling the property upon which it is located is the best path to provide the Foundation with the most financial resources to continue its wonderful charitable mission,” Castleberry wrote in an email to The Times.
Unite Here Local 11, which represents the restaurant workers, tried to renegotiate a contract, demanding the trust agree to keep on the employees and their union representation even under new ownership. In response, the trust threatened to shutter the restaurant next month.
On a recent Thursday morning, the counter at the Original Pantry Cafe in downtown Los Angeles was packed.
(Nick Argro / For The Times)
Jose Moran, a server who started at the Pantry 45 years ago as a dishwasher, said he was hoping to work one more year before retiring.
“I was in shock when they told me they would close so soon,” the 66-year-old said. “I feel so very disappointed.”
Server Jose Moran brings out drinks to customers on a recent morning at the Original Pantry Cafe in downtown Los Angeles. Moran is in danger of losing his job of 45 years if the 100-year-old institution shuts down in March.
(Nick Argro / For The Times)
Castleberry said some of the union’s demands were “totally unacceptable because they would require the next owner of the site of the Pantry to operate a restaurant there, would require the next owner to take the labor contract with no renegotiation, and would subject the next owner to a cumbersome process if it wanted to change anything.”
“This would severely limit if not completely defeat the ability of the Riordan estate to find a buyer for the location,” Castleberry said in a prepared statement. “The union’s proposal would severely impede any sale and therefore unacceptably injure both the Riordan estate and the Riordan Foundation.”
The Pantry is a diner icon known for its plate-sized pancakes and buttery sourdough toast. Often, customers form queues that stretch from the front door down the side of the building. Seating stretches from the back of the diner’s long dining room to the caged, cash-only checkout register. The restaurant has reportedly served Martin Luther King Jr., Marilyn Monroe and countless other famous figures through the years.
Customers waiting for a table at the Original Pantry Cafe earlier this month in downtown Los Angeles find shelter under awnings.
(Nick Argro / For The Times)
For decades, the Pantry was a 24-hour diner but that tradition ended during the COVID-19 pandemic. Now the restaurant opens from 7 a.m. to either 3 or 5 p.m., depending on the day.
Unite Here Local 11 filed a pending unfair labor practice charge with the National Labor Relations Board alleging that the threatened closure violates federal labor law.
In August, Castleberry said the trust offered a “stay-bonus” to employees who continued to work at the Pantry until the diner’s closure or an unspecified time in 2026 — whichever came first. The bonuses ranged from $1,500 to $20,000 per person, depending on their years of employment.
Marisela Granados, a server who started working as a cashier at the Pantry 26 years ago, said she was offered $20,000, which she said was a pittance for all her years of service.
She didn’t sign the letter.
“I would have to give up my rights if I sign it,” she said. “I don’t want to do that. It’s not right.”
Wednesday, Granados and dozens of Pantry workers picketed the diner, holding signs that read, “We Are the Pantry.”
Kurt Petersen, co-president of Unite Here Local 11, called the situation “appalling.”
“Given what we know of former Mayor Riordan, he would be rolling over in his grave over this situation,” he said. “He loved those workers and his restaurant was part of him and his life and legacy.”
