The Presidents Day holiday brought a full house to Southern-style brunch spot Gritz N’ Wafflez in Koreatown, with diners braving the rain to join a growing waitlist.
The nine-person staff was rushing to fill orders of chicken and waffles, fried cheese grits, and breakfast sandwiches until wireless emergency alerts started ringing in the dining room around 11 a.m., alerting guests of a flash flood warning.
Five minutes later, the restaurant was flooded with 3 to 4 inches of water, and owner Jurni Rayne was forced to turn hopeful diners away, including over 20 reservations scheduled that day.
“I knew it was going to rain, but I had no idea that was going to happen,” Rayne said.
Heavy storms swept L.A. County last week, flooding freeways, toppling trees and triggering an evacuation warning for burn scar areas due to mud and debris flow.
The storm’s aftermath has resulted in costly damage and thousands of dollars of lost revenue for Rayne and other restaurant owners across the county, from Long Beach to the San Fernando Valley.
Long-range weather forecastspredict more rain in March, which, along with February, is historically the wettest time of year in Southern California.
Rayne now faces $25,000 to $30,000 in water damage repair costs, in addition to an estimated $30,000 loss in revenue after she was forced to close for one week.
Despite her team’s efforts to push water out the door, the flooding damaged the bottom of Rayne’s custom cabinets, which had to be removed, in addition to portions of dry wall from the dining room. Rayne also described a “musty smell” lingering in the restaurant.
For now, Gritz is relying on takeout and delivery orders, although those typically only make up about 25% of the restaurant’s revenue, according to Rayne. Dining is in high demand at Gritz, where guests typically encounter a two-hour wait on weekends.
Rayne was also forced to cut her staff’s hours this week, using a “skeleton crew” of four employees to fulfill the restaurant’s orders while remediation takes place.
“It’s always something,” Rayne said. “There’s always some kind of obstacle … As soon as Gritz N’ Wafflez gets steady and we’re consistent, it’s like we get hit with something else.”
Last year, Rayne said many of her employees lost their homes in Altadena due to the Eaton fires. This came amid a transition from the restaurant’s smaller Pico-Union location to its new spot on Wilshire Boulevard, which opened in May 2025.
“At this point, I’m just riding the waves. … After a while, you kind of just prepare yourself for that,” Rayne said.
Rayne plans to reopen on Wednesday, once the cabinets are reinstalled.
If flooding happens again, however, Rayne said she doesn’t feel prepared.
“I don’t even know where I would start with prevention, just because I think the bigger issue is infrastructure,” Rayne said.
Rayne added that there are multiple drains in front of her building that she believes should have prevented the flooding.
In Long Beach, Sala Wine & Coffee Bar had just reopened the Friday before Presidents Day, after a month of repairs from a car crashing into their building.
That Monday morning, while the restaurant was full of guests getting their daily coffee, water began to seep into the dining room, forcing Sala to close by 11:30 a.m. Although there was no damage, they lost thousands in revenue, according to co-owner Brandee Raygoza.
“We were just getting into the thick of things, and then literally mid-rush we had to stop service,” she said.
Some diners, including local regulars, even offered to purchase mops and sandbags. Raygoza said she and her staff vacuumed 1,500 gallons of water that day.
“As it is, I was already kind of overwhelmed with being closed,” Raygoza said. “And then for that to happen. … It was a shock.”
Jordanna Younger, owner of Valley Grounds Coffee in Sherman Oaks, was on her way to the shop when she received a call from her employee, who told her there was severe flooding on Ventura Boulevard, right outside her business.
Younger was shocked to find water seeping inside, forcing her to close shop for the next two days.
“I was kind of just lost for words. … [Flooding] just never happened here before like that,” she said.
The flooding damaged Younger’s pink LED lights, which are embedded into the wall and serve as a central piece of interior decor.
In addition, Younger lost a major chunk of revenue from being closed for two days and receiving fewer customers throughout the week, due to the rain and speculations that the shop was still closed.
“This is my baby,” Younger said. “I built it from scratch; it took me a year to get done. So, I put a lot of love into this place.”
Younger and Raygoza said they feel more prepared should flooding happen again. Sala has stocked up on sandbags, and Younger purchased sandless bags that fill up with water when it rains, serving as a barrier for flooding protection.
“You have to take the good with the bad … you always just have to power through; it’s kind of part of starting a business,” she said.
Raygoza echoed a similar sentiment and shared that Sala has faced various setbacks during its seven-year history, including a pickup truck crashing into their previous Whittier location in 2020.
“As a business owner in general, you’re always worried about the what-ifs,” Raygoza said. “You just kind of have to figure out how to navigate and just pivot if things don’t go as planned … you just need to be resilient in this industry.”
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