Los Angeles has long fostered a reputation of not appreciating its past, with historic buildings, restaurants and landmarks shuttered and bulldozed regularly to make way for purportedly bigger, better and more modern additions to the skyline. But The Original Pantry Cafe at the western edge of downtown is, incredibly, still going strong after nearly a century in operation, with lines of hungry patrons crowding the sidewalk out front virtually every hour of the day since it first opened back in 1924. The eatery is so popular amongst Angelenos, it was even selected for a recurring role on Paramount Plus’ new television adaptation of the 1987 classic thriller “Fatal Attraction,” playing the regular hangout of Dan Gallagher (Joshua Jackson).
Initially established by Denver transplant Dewey W. Logan in a tiny one-room storefront consisting solely of a hot plate, a grill, a sink and counter seating for 15, the Pantry became a city staple from the get-go. Offering hearty meals at reasonable prices served by a small team of only five employees, the 24-hour diner even managed to flourish during the Great Depression, with Logan expanding the space to include a dining room in 1934 to accommodate his ever-growing patronage.
The eatery relocated one block east to its current address at 877 S. Figueroa St. in 1950 when the State of California commandeered its original location for the purpose of building an onramp to the Harbor Freeway. On the day of the big move, breakfast was offered at the Pantry’s OG site in the morning, with dinner subsequently served at the new locale that evening. As such, the restaurant adopted the motto “Never closed. Never without a customer.” It carried on with that tradition up until the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, remaining open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year (its doors famously lacking locks), and always chock full of customers.
The pope’s motorcade through Los Angeles in September 1987 posed the only threat to that unblemished track record, with a spokesperson for Mayor Richard Riordan, who purchased the place in 1980, telling the Times, “Everyone ran out onto the sidewalk, except for one man who stayed at the counter drinking his coffee.” As the papal parade moved on, the customers returned to their seats, restoring the restaurant to its natural bustling order. As the paper detailed, “Pantry supervisor Mario Frisan later said he wouldn’t have allowed the cafe to go customer-less and ruin its record. ‘If need be,’ he noted, ‘I’d take off my tie and order myself.'”
The diner was also shuttered very briefly by the health department while under Riordan’s tutelage in 1997, much to his and his many patrons’ dismay. Reopening it required a bit of weight-throwing. As the Times humorously reported, “At 7:30 on Thanksgiving morning, Mayor Richard Riordan was at the Original Pantry dialing an 800 number to county health officials. The mayor was attempting to get an inspector to come downtown and reopen the restaurant, which was closed the previous day for health code violations. ‘This is Dick Riordan from the Pantry,’ said the mayor. He was asked to spell his last name. He was then put on hold for 10 minutes. Then the mayor was disconnected. He called again, and this time he said he was the mayor. Within an hour, a county health inspector had given the approval and, to the delight of many waiting customers, the restaurant reopened.”
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Image Credit: Lindsay Blake for Dirt Riordan (who passed away last month at the age of 92) initially acquired the property, as well as the entire block surrounding it, with the intention of demolishing it to make way for the development of a new office park. But fate quickly stepped in, and Richard and his wife, Jill, became thoroughly charmed by the historic eatery, ultimately abandoning the project. The Los Angeles Times detailed, “The office tower did get built – but by another developer and without the Pantry parcel. In fact, the Riordans spurned an extra $6 million when they sold the block, just so they could save their beloved restaurant.”
Following their acquisition, the couple chose to leave the diner as it was, with the same well-worn counters, Formica tables, linoleum flooring, dated décor and comfort food offerings all firmly intact. In 1971, the Times chronicled its aesthetic, saying, “Its inner look is a mixed batch of counters, partitions, artificial flowers and a man in a cage.” The words might as well have been written today, right down to the description of the man in the cage, i.e., the Pantry’s cashier who still sits inside of a metal-bar-fronted booth to this day.
The mayor did make one significant change in 2007, however, opting to turn the restaurant’s large anteroom, which had previously been used for spillover patronage, into a separate eatery he dubbed Riordan’s Tavern. The following year, he explained to the Times, “The motivating thing was we weren’t doing quite as much business at the Pantry as we had in previous years, and the best marketing tool we had was that line of customers that was always outside.” Closing off the spillover space, he hoped, would cause greater demand. The plan worked. As he touted to the paper, “We’ve had lines outside ever since.” Riordan’s Tavern didn’t fare nearly as well, closing its doors for good in 2020.
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Image Credit: Lindsay Blake for Dirt A Los Angeles institution and Historic-Cultural Monument, The Original Pantry Cafe “specializes in gigantic portions of American home cooking,” as noted by Elliott Koretz and Michael Nankin in their 1982 book Fantastic Dives: A Guide to L.A.’s Best Hole-in-the-Wall Dining. Down-home classic offerings include fried chicken, BLTs, country fried steak and fish and chips. Koretz and Nankin assert, “There is not a bad entrée, but the steaks and chops take the lead. They are cooked on a grill that is probably half a century old and has accumulated the essence of decades of cooking in just the right balance. Mud cooked on it would be delicious.”
The place is best known for its breakfasts, though. Served daily until 1 p.m., regulars line the block for such favorites as biscuits and gravy, Irish steel cut oatmeal, steak and eggs and the Pantry’s famous pancakes served piping hot and loaded with butter and syrup.
The Times once heralded the establishment as “one of the world’s busiest short order counters,” but, in truth, “busy” doesn’t even begin to cover it. Though it boasts a capacity for a mere 84 patrons at a time, the diner serves upwards of 2,500 to 3,000 customers a day! As chronicled by L.A. Weekly, “The quantities of food consumed each year [are] all measured by the ton! Ninety tons of bread, three tons of Icelandic codfish, and even 17 tons of soap to wash the dishes.”
Beloved by tourists, locals and celebrities alike, just a few of the greats to have graced its tables include Marilyn Monroe, Sammy Davis Jr., Bill Clinton, Martin Luther King Jr., Humphrey Bogart, John Wayne, Henry Fonda, Peter Falk, Bruce Willis, Clark Gable, Anthony Quinn, Betty Grable and Howard Hughes.
Numerous stars have also walked across the restaurant’s storied floors to film scenes for both the big and small screens.
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Image Credit: Lindsay Blake for Dirt Playing itself, The Original Pantry Cafe pops up throughout multiple episodes of “Fatal Attraction” as Dan’s favorite breakfast spot, where the Los Angeles Major Crimes Bureau prosecutor is regularly seen meeting with members of his team, including chief investigator Mike Gerard (Toby Huss).
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Image Credit: Lindsay Blake for Dirt As such, it isn’t long before Dan’s obsessive paramour, Alex Forrest (Lizzy Caplan), begins showing up there, as well. One of the show’s prominent locations, both the interior and exterior are featured onscreen.
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Image Credit: Universal Pictures Ben Stone (Seth Rogen) and his dad (played by Harold Ramis) also dine on the premises, discussing fatherhood over lunch, in the 2007 hit comedy “Knocked Up.”
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Image Credit: FX Network And in the season six episode of “Snowfall” titled “The Sit Down,” Franklin Saint (Damson Idris) meets his uncle, Jerome (Amin Joseph), for a tense tête-à-tête that quickly turns violent at the eatery.
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Image Credit: NBC Before becoming Riordan’s Tavern, the Pantry’s former anteroom was also the site of several filmings. It is there that Josh Lyman (Bradley Whitford) and Mandy Hampton (Moira Kelly) grab lunch in the groundbreaking pilot episode of the hit Aaron Sorkin hit series “The West Wing.”
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Image Credit: Lions Gate Films The anteroom is also where Detective Skinner (Mel Gibson) comes to blows with a witness he is interviewing as part of a murder investigation in “The Million Dollar Hotel.” Haven’t heard of the 2000 drama? You’d be forgiven. The film grossed a mere $52,000 in box office sales worldwide, according to The Numbers, with Gibson, who also served as a co-producer, later famously calling the production “as boring as a dog’s ass.” Ouch!