Downtown Los Angeles’s Original Pantry Café, the 1924 diner that shuttered in March 2025, is gearing up for a spring comeback under the nonprofit operator Hope the Mission. When the doors reopen, the cash register will be working overtime for a cause: net proceeds are set to flow into the group’s shelter network. Former Pantry staffers have been invited back, and the one-story, historic diner will return after renovations that aim to keep the classic look intact while upgrading the floors and tweaking parts of the menu.
Hope the Mission will run the Pantry as a philanthropic restaurant
Ken Craft, chief executive of Hope the Mission, told the Los Angeles Business Journal that the nonprofit plans to operate the Original Pantry as a philanthropic restaurant, directing its net proceeds to shelters. The organization, which runs dozens of interim housing and meal programs, has dubbed the relaunch “a second serving” and says the revived diner will help fund its shelter network, according to the Los Angeles Business Journal.
Sale, the shutdown and the deal that followed
The diner closed on March 2, 2025, after months of stalled talks between the Richard J. Riordan trust and employees represented by Unite Here Local 11. The building and an adjacent parking lot were later sold to developer Leo Pustilnikov for roughly $5.5 million, according to the Los Angeles Times. Separate coverage noted that the trust argued it was legally required to maximize the property’s real estate value, per Eater LA.
Union workers are expected to come back
Unite Here Local 11 worked with the new ownership, and organizers say many former Pantry workers signaled they would return. Union leaders and long-time servers such as Jesus Moran, who has worked at the Pantry for decades, praised the new arrangement as a win for workers and the neighborhood, according to reporting by NBC Los Angeles…