L.A. Weekly
It's unfortunate that we sometimes lose our most beloved and most frequented neighborhood restaurants. Why does a well-established eatery, with years of operating experience and a loyal customer base behind it, simply close? Sometimes gentrification in a neighborhood makes the rent skyrocket to a price the owner can longer afford. Owners sometimes wish to retire and there's no family to pass the business on to. What may be harder to answer is why some of these long-standing (some historic) Los Angeles restaurants sit empty and vacant for months, sometimes years. It's a rare thing to find in a city that's not particularly known for preserving the past.
Here's a look at some such restaurants we've lost: Buggy Whip Steakhouse, El Conquistador, Bahooka, Fung Lum Restaurant and Rubin's Red Hot. All photos by Jared Cowan.
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