LA’s restaurant and bar apocalypse as 300-plus spots close this year over red tape and insane bills

详细摘要

From legacy Beverly Hills dining rooms to legendary Sunset Strip hangouts, the city is undergoing a hospitality bloodbath.

It’s last call across Los Angeles as hundreds of dining destinations have shuttered so far this year — blaming everything from skyrocketing minimum wage and insurance costs to endless red tape.

From legacy Beverly Hills dining rooms and legendary Sunset Strip hangouts to beloved neighborhood dive bars and pillars of the craft cocktail scene, the city is undergoing a hospitality bloodbath.

At least 301 restaurants, bars and cafes have closed in LA alone since the beginning of 2026, according to a California Post analysis of city data published Oct. 16. That’s a staggering 25% more than the 241 recorded closures in all of 2025.

The figures cover businesses within LA city limits, meaning the carnage across the broader county and in neighboring hot spots like Beverly Hills and West Hollywood aren’t counted in the true total.

Among the high-profile losses are Sushiya, Crustacean, Pineapple Hill Saloon, Sycamore Kitchen, Connie and Ted’s, Everson Royce Bar, The Misfit, Employees Only and The Belmont — all familiar names to scores of Angelenos.

For Tom Sopit, managing partner of West Hollywood cocktail mecca Employees Only, which shuttered in September after eight years, the decision to close came after what he described as a “death by a thousand cuts.”

“From 2021 to 2025, our liability insurance premium increased by 120 percent,” Sopit told the California Post, adding that state regulators have some control over rates. “That’s before anyone steps through the doors. That’s before anything even happens.”

He also pointed to West Hollywood’s $20.25-per-hour minimum wage and paid time-off requirements, as well as the exodus of entertainment industry jobs.

Even though the cocktail bar and restaurant remained busy, guests were spending less while the cost of doing business continued to climb.

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