So, El Chavo is closed for good, and a new multi-use development featuring blond wood and microgreens will take its place. Actually, the blond wood and microgreens are guesses, but they're pretty safe ones.

When El Chavo, on the Los Feliz/Silver Lake border, closed in 2015, residents lost both the best chance they had to run into Dolly Parton (she was sometimes spotted there) and the strongest margaritas around. “They were these short glasses, basically just liquor,” Timothy Franks remembers. He grew up in the neighborhood and was a fan of El Chavo.

Basically, the 50-year-old restaurant was an institution. The shuttered building, which recently housed a pop-up concept, is next to Tiki Ti and across from Dinosaur Coffee on Sunset Boulevard.

Franks was at a community meeting last night, hosted by developer South Park Group, to introduce the project to the community. There wasn’t a lot of information available, but construction is scheduled to wrap up next spring. South Park Group also completed Blue Bottle on Beverly Boulevard, so you know it’s going to be fancy.

The indoor-outdoor complex will include a garden area with a bridge that connects two separate buildings and will house retail, two restaurants and a coffee shop. (El Chavo was a multi-use space itself, with hotel rooms above its restaurant that no one was quite sure how to rent out.) No business names are confirmed yet.

The new space is sure to be beautiful, but we’re not quite over the loss of El Chavo yet. R.I.P.

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