The sizzling of bacon and hash browns on the grill, the buttery crunch of those iconic planks of buttered sourdough and the clatter of heavy mugs and plates hitting the tables will return to one of the city’s most historic restaurants after more than a year-and-a-half-long closure. On Nov. 19 the Original Pantry Cafe will reopen under new ownership, with new dishes and a philanthropic focus.
Founded in 1924, the diner famed for staying open 24/7 and serving generous portions began humbly with five employees and a hot plate but grew to a downtown destination serving visiting luminaries like civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. and countless Angelenos through the century. In March 2025, it closed abruptly following pandemic-spurred hardships and an ongoing labor dispute.
But like another historic downtown restaurant, Cole’s, the Original Pantry is coming back.
“I thought it was an L.A. institution, and I invest in downtown L.A., and I thought this was a great opportunity,” said new owner and real estate developer Leo Pustilnikov. “I’m thankful for being chosen to lead it for the coming century.”
The Original Pantry Cafe will return under the management of San Fernando Valley-based nonprofit Hope the Mission with a new goal of making everything in house, a focus on baked goods, fresh merchandise and multiple new chefs ,who will be work alongside some of the Original Pantry’s decades-long staff under a new contract with the labor union.
Pustilnikov, whose record in downtown real estate investments has sometimes been controversial, holds a portfolio of historic properties, including the PacMutual complex, the former Sears building in Boyle Heights and South Pasadena’s Rialto Theater. He had never dined at the Pantry before, but his father often spoke of it fondly. When he learned of its impending closure he began to wonder whether it could become his next investment.
The iconic diner was owned for many years by former Mayor Richard Riordan, who died in 2023 and bequeathed the property to a trust. Pustilnikov purchased the nearly 8,000-square-foot building in September 2025. Weeks after he received the keys, a car careened into the side of the building, which Pustilnikov said spurred six additional months of new permitting and repairs, pushing the planned opening past its original New Year’s Eve opening date. Further permitting delays pushed the reopening into November.
And then there was the question of its labor force.
In 2023, roughly two dozen employees sought protection of their contract rights in the event of a sale by the Richard J. Riordan Administrative Trust. In response the trust threatened to close the restaurant, then followed through on March 2, 2025, to the shock of many of its employees.
“For anyone who comes back to the Original Pantry, they’re going to see some familiar faces,” said Rowan Vansleve, president of the Pantry’s new nonprofit operator, Hope the Mission. “There’ll be enough change that I think people will enjoy it but enough history and familiarity that they’ll feel right at home.”
A representative for Unite Here Local 11, which represents the workers, said all of the Pantry’s recently employed staff were offered jobs at the revived restaurant. Thirteen of the 21 staffers at the time of its closure will return.
“Those workers will go back to work with free family health insurance, a pension and job security,” said Unite Here Local 11 co-president Kurt Petersen. “They deserve it because those workers fought so hard after they were dismissed by the old owner and walked out by the police on the last day.”
Petersen was present on that “really tough, hard day” in March 2025 when the restaurant closed, and said that representatives of the Richard J Riordan Administrative Trust “threw their last [staff] paychecks on a table and told everyone to get out.” Petersen was handcuffed and escorted out of the restaurant by police, but no one was charged. The union engaged in negotiations with the former owners for one to two years. Negotiations with Pustilnikov and Hope the Mission, Petersen said, were resolved in weeks.
“[The staff] is what made it special, and I think that if they built it up for over so many years, they should remain active in it,” Pustilnikov said. “A lot of people that used to visit the Pantry developed relationships with them. It’s a family.”
Hope the Mission, which offers a range of services for the unhoused, including preparing 3.8 million meals each year, was tapped as the Pantry’s new operator by Pustilnikov in part for its ability to cook and serve in high volumes. It will eventually also oversee the adjacent bar and grill formerly called Riordan’s Tavern.
The restaurant will help support the nonprofit monetarily, with all proceeds benefiting its programs, shelters and staffing, while the existing Hope the Mission kitchens and teams will aid the Pantry’s reopening. Unite Here Local 11, which operates its own culinary training system, is in discussions with the nonprofit to help train those in Hope the Mission’s philanthropic programs.
The Pantry’s new slogan: “Come in for the food. Leave having done something good.”
The famous diner had already given up on its 24/7 format before last year’s closure; its new operators will initially serve from morning to dinner and hope to eventually return to its always-open hours.
The diner’s cash-only days are also over. Though most guests will likely pay checks from their tables, a cashier will work the iconic caged cash register near the front door for those wanting to pay the old-fashioned way.
“We’re really trying to keep the history and the heritage of the Pantry,” said Ken Craft, the founder and CEO of Hope the Mission.
When new general manager Kenneth Small was cleaning, he unearthed a trove of original menus, photographs, brochures and line drawings. Many of these are now framed and hanging on the walls, some possibly for the first time ever.
The team wanted to maintain the Pantry’s original tables and chairs — the former being described as “held together by a little bit of 50-year-old chewing gum” — but newer, vintage-inspired versions will allow for more seating in the main dining room. What’s to become of the Pantry’s furniture of yore? Hope the Mission’s team is considering auctioning it off to raise money.
“One of our mottos is, ‘Hope the Mission: where everybody and everything gets a second chance,’ ” Craft said. “So when this opportunity presented itself, we said, ‘Let’s give this restaurant a second chance. Let’s give it a second serving.’ ”
The new countertops, flooring, tables, chairs, kitchen equipment and maintenance totaled roughly $800,000, according to Craft, while some repairs required months of work. As the space underwent its overhaul, the Pantry’s new chefs were cooking.
One late-October morning, in a large prep space hidden from view of the dining room, Hope the Mission senior director of food services Jason Moniz sprinkled salt onto oversized peanut butter cookies. He oversees the foundation’s preparation of more than 10,000 meals a day and is helping to guide the new culinary program and chefs at the Original Pantry.
With his own extensive background in baking, Moniz hopes they’ll begin making their own sourdough onsite, but for now they’ll still source that famous sourdough from Frisco Baking Co., just as the diner did for decades. For months, he and Original Pantry executive chef Daniel Hur have walked the line between modernization and nostalgia.
“No decision here has come lightly,” Hur said.
When they conceptualized the new menu, they veered far from traditional diner dishes and leaned into more global inspiration. They’ve gradually dialed it back and plan to launch with a more familiar menu that features a few ingredients and flavors found in L.A.’s diverse culinary scene. In lieu of milder bell peppers in the Denver omelet, it features poblanos. The fried chicken sandwich will now feature kimchi. Cinnamon toast involves fluffy milk bread, orange-zest sour cream and pepitas.
The chalkboard of specials is where guests can find some of their more adventurous dishes, which could make their way onto the permanent menu someday.
Hur asked longtime fans and consulted old menus to ensure many of the signature dishes will return, including the coleslaw and the pancakes. But the pancakes, more recently made using a mix, would need to be rebuilt from scratch. The current version is eggy and even more crisped at its edges.
“Certainly you’re going to face some pushback from some people, but as long as you’re producing quality and you’re doing a good job, if you’re trying to make the product better than it was before, I think you’re OK,” Moniz said. “The focus now is scratch cooking. It’s local, and I think that’s what people actually want. The nostalgia goes so far, but being able to produce the food and really have control over it makes a lot of sense. I think people will appreciate that.”
Bakery manager and Milk Bar alum Natalie Barcena will helm the pastry case and other desserts, including chewy blueberry pie cookies, vanilla cheesecake, apple crumble pie, miso-laced coffee cake and cinnamon rolls.
“I used to come to the Pantry as a kid, so it’s kind of a full-circle moment for me that I get to produce the desserts for it,” she said. “I’m born and raised in L.A. so I know it’s a big deal.”
Back in the main dining room, curious fans open the glass front doors and ask if the Pantry is coming back. Drivers stopped at the adjacent intersection crane their necks to peer through the windows.
Soon they’ll be able to slide onto a stool at the long counter or a chair in that familiar dining room and hear the clatter of heavy Pantry mugs and plates landing on new tables — maybe not at all hours of the day or night, but hopefully that famous 24/7 format will return soon enough, just like the Original Pantry itself.
The Original Pantry Cafe is at 877 S. Figueroa St., Los Angeles. It’s scheduled to reopen Nov. 19, with a ribbon cutting ceremony at 10 a.m.
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