L.A. chefs have a wish list for 2025: 'Don't just keep restaurants on a list; make a plan and go'
Los Angeles is a resilient town. I don't know that we've witnessed a disaster as catastrophic as these fires before, but I'm hopeful the city will eventually heal and rebuild.
Even before the multiple wildfires, restaurants were struggling. The entertainment industry strikes, increased minimum wage, insurance costs and inflation are creating the perfect storm for an industry that already operates on razor-thin margins. My colleague Stephanie Breijo has been keeping tabs on the tidal wave of closures, including more than 100 restaurants in 2024.
Cafes, coffee shops and restaurants are vital members of our communities that need our patronage and support more than ever. While many are struggling to keep their doors open, these are the places stepping up to feed our city in times of need.
I’ve been struck by how the hospitality industry has set aside its own needs to feed evacuees, first responders and each other. Last week, the team from Howlin’ Ray’s showed up at Jitlada restaurant in Thai Town with hot chicken for the staff. They knew the Jitlada crew had spent the week feeding first responders and wanted to pay it forward. Pizza makers from around the city banded together to form the LA Pizza Alliance and offer free pizza to anyone who needed it. Mary Sue Milliken and Susan Feniger from Socalo, Kim Prince and Greg Dulan from the Dulanville truck and Dulan's on Crenshaw, Evan Funke from Funke and Mother Wolf and a host of other Los Angeles chefs have been preparing thousands of meals for World Central Kitchen, an organization that mobilizes to feed people during times of disaster.
Earlier this month before the fires broke out, we asked more than a dozen restaurateurs and chefs what they need most in the new year. What follows is their 2025 wish list.
Read more: Updated: 47 L.A. County restaurants offering food and relief to fire evacuees and first responders
Don't just post an online review if you have a bad experience — try one when it's good
"It would be great if every happy customer took a moment to reflect on their positive experiences," says Brooke Williamson, chef-owner at Playa Provisions in Playa del Rey. "We do realize that that's never going to be the case, as in general, customers mostly field complaints publicly, but as someone who stands behind the intentions of our staff, this would definitely be in my wish list."
Chef-owner Christian Yang of Yang's Kitchen in Alhambra is grateful for his loyal customers but wishes for more understanding from diners who are quick to leave online reviews.
"Majority of our loyal customers get what we do and don't ever complain, but those who don't even take the time to understand what we're trying to do, and how backwards our business model actually is, are the ones who are the loudest and most vocal on social media and review platforms."
There are also ways to be a better diner in 2025, like committing to never being a reservation no-show and doing your best to avoid last-minute cancellations.
Lien Ta, who runs Here's Looking at You in Koreatown and helped establish the Regarding Her nonprofit for women in the food and beverage industries, hopes diners become regulars at their favorite restaurants, and not just on the weekends.
"Don’t just keep restaurants on a list; make a plan and go," she says. "Like, today. And if you love it, vow to visit regularly. Increased patronage on slower days and nights — any day that’s not Friday or Saturday. Vary your restaurants — for every hot new restaurant you try, return to a restaurant that you love and become their regular."
Read more: These are the top 7 issues facing the struggling restaurant industry in 2025
Retire 'authentic' as a label — for good
Vanda Asapahu, chef and partner of Ayara Thai in Westchester, hopes people stop, or at least think a little deeper before using the word "authentic" to refer to certain foods.
"I think the use of the word 'authentic' to quantify, validate or describe any ethnic cuisine needs to stop," she says. "So much of the motherland's food has changed over time. A lot of our parents' generation came and they hold on to certain things that are kind of a piece in time and is still being used now by Americans to deem any ethnic cuisines as right or wrong. So I hope the use of that word in general, particularly for Asian food, doesn't continue."
Lower food costs
Genet Agonafer, chef and owner of Meals by Genet in Little Ethiopia, is open only three days a week. In her early 70s, Agonafer says being open three days a week is a business model that works for her, but with rising food costs, it won't be sustainable for long.
"Food cost is just out of hand," she says. "Meat for the sauteed beef, sometimes the garlic will go sky high, the tomato will go sky high. You can't raise prices, it's just too much. Three days of work doesn't leave you much, but I don't want to change that. I'm going to be 72 years old and this schedule works for me. I don't mind giving up the money to have these hours, but I still have to survive."
At Friends & Family in Hollywood, owner and chef Roxanna Jullapat says chocolate chip cookies have never been more expensive to bake.
"Can chocolate and eggs get back to normal?" she pleads. "Everything is traumatically pricey right now, but cacao farms and eggs producers are dealing with crazy shortages as a result of crop disease and avian flu outbreaks."
Restaurant-specific financial relief
Chef Brandyn Powell has been frustrated by the lack of financial assistance available to independent restaurants. He is the owner and chef at Oh My Burger, a small burger restaurant in Gardena.
While most restaurants operate as for-profit businesses, their existence in neighborhoods is often invaluable. Restaurants create safe spaces, employ community members and help support an entire socioeconomic system that starts on farms.
Powell intends to use any grant money he receives to firm up his operations with training and hire more staff.
"It would be great if we had access to grants that were easily obtainable," he says. "I think what's out there is tailored to every business. There needs to be more restaurant opportunity grants."
Chefs Keith Corbin and Daniel Patterson are also hoping for some much-needed financial assistance in the new year. The two run Locol, a soul food restaurant they operate as a community-minded nonprofit in Watts. The two employ Watts' residents and trainees from a nearby youth center.
"For Locol, we would wish for success with the grants we're applying for, and to find an executive director to help us grow," says Patterson.
"My wish for 2025 is that owner-operators like myself can finally find some financial relief," says Caitlin Cutler, who opened Ronan Italian restaurant on Fairfax with her husband, Daniel Cutler, in 2018.
Though stretched thin themselves, the couple frequently offers assistance to other business owners and restaurant organizations in the form of fundraisers and collaborations. After Jonathan Whitener, the chef at Here's Looking At You died last year, Daniel stepped in to help lead the kitchen team at the restaurant.
"Constantly worrying about day-to-day survival leaves little room for the creativity and passion that are essential to running a successful restaurant — or really, for doing anything creative at all," says Caitlin. "I know many people in creative fields are struggling right now. While I’m not sure I fully believe in manifesting, I’m willing to give it a try. I’m manifesting abundance and prosperity for all of us in 2025."
Boost no-waste and sustainability practices
Sustainability has been central to the core mission at the fine dining, seafood-focused restaurant Providence in Hollywood. Chef and co-owner Michael Cimarusti pioneered a sustainable seafood program called Dock to Dish, and his kitchen attempts to utilize every piece of every fish. There are herbs growing on the rooftop, beehives that supply honey to the restaurant, and executive pastry chef Mac Daniel Dimla introduced no-waste chocolate to the Providence experience in 2022.
Co-owner Donato Poto hopes more people focus on sustainability and less food waste. To start, he wants to have more involvement with the city of L.A. in organizing a food bank of sorts. "With food left over from the restaurants at the end of every workday and pass it along to the city's many unhoused residents who are in dire need of food, nourishment and care," he says.
Poto also hopes for "a better initiative from our industry to reduce food waste, use eco-friendly packaging and less waste as a whole."
Lower fees and taxes for small businesses
While credit card fees and taxes hit every business, they're especially daunting for restaurants, with profit margins that typically hover around 6%. Lowering certain fees or a break on taxes could be the difference that keeps a restaurant in business.
Yang is hoping for lower payroll taxes, insurance fees and credit card fees. He spends 3% to 4% of revenue on credit card processing fees, fees for multiple types of insurance and sizable payroll taxes.
"One of the largest prime costs for restaurants is labor," he says. "We pay a ton of taxes on employment that customers don't even see. How can independent restaurants get labor down to manageable levels when minimum wage and taxes continue to increase? Otherwise, the only other fix is charging more, which presents the risk of angering customers and decreasing revenue.
Food should be about the food
"One of my biggest wishes for 2025 is that food goes back to being food, not just about the biggest mess of some mash-up or something covered in a ton of cheese so it produces a stupid cheese pull," says Thomas Ortega.
The chef operates the Amor y Tacos and Sunny on South restaurants in Cerritos.
"I hope cooks would actually learn to cook food properly and learn how to run an efficient kitchen before calling themselves chefs ... I guess I just miss the old days when food mattered and chefs had a love for the battle; the days before we lost to the cheese pull and people smashing their faces full while sitting in the driver's seat of their cars while videoing themselves."
Among the many things Linden chef Jonathan Harris wishes for are more "cooks who love the art of cooking, menu growth and food storytelling."
In other words, it wouldn't hurt for guests to be more open to adventurous food options.
Better communication with city government
"In 2024 we dealt with street closures due to city works, a reduction in available parking, and a construction of a bike lane in front of our business," says Jullapat. "We love to see more investment in our community but wish we had an open line of communication with city officials about how all of this affects our small businesses. We've tried reaching out, but no one ever calls back."
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
