Iconic Original Pantry Cafe in downtown LA closes after 100 years

DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- The Original Pantry Cafe, the historic downtown Los Angeles diner, closed its doors for good on Sunday.

The beloved restaurant first opened in 1924 and was once owned by former L.A. Mayor Richard Riordan. The restaurant has been at Figueroa and 9th streets since 1950. Customers had been coming for decades for its old-school flair and breakfast dishes.

An Instagram story posted Sunday by the diner showed a huge line that wrapped around the block.

After Riordan's death two years ago, ownership shifted to the Riordan Trust.

Longtime workers at the restaurant say the new owners decided to close the restaurant rather than try to meet the demands of the workers' union. They held protests in hopes of saving their jobs.

On Sunday, 25 workers stayed well after the last customer was served, which apparently upset ownership.

"They just decided to call the police on us, and escort us out," employee Maricela Granados said.

The union president was briefly handcuffed and detained for trespassing at the downtown diner - a bitter end to a contract negotiation that never came to fruition.

"They demanded that the new owner would rehire them. Many of them have been here decades," said Kurt Petersen, the co-president of Unite Here Local 11. "We thought that was a reasonable ask. The owner said 'If you don't take that off the table we will close the restaurant.'"

Employees say they feel like they're being left high and dry.

"They didn't even say thank you," Granados said. "They just came and dropped our envelopes with the last paycheck."

The support from the public has been overwhelming, but for the workers, it'll feel even better if the doors reopen and customers can return.

"It is shameful," Petersen said. "It's morally repugnant, and we're going to keep fighting until this restaurant reopens with these workers because magic happens here, and it's only because of those workers."

Eyewitness News was unable to reach any representative for the ownership for comment.