The Original Pantry Cafe
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THE ORIGINAL PANTRY CAFE Y R T N A P L A N The patrons can be as passionate as the choices are writ- I G I R High-Calorie History That Never Missed a Meal O E H T employees. On the Pantry’s 75th anniver- ten in chalk each F O Y S E The restaurant has hardly changed since it T R Never Closes sary, a woman who had been a customer day on boards U O C O T was opened in 1924 in its original home. Its O H At the foot of a 35-story building in a forest for 62 years said she was dating a man along the walls. P founder, Dewey Logan, a dishwasher from of soaring high-rises, the Original Pantry who once had dinner at the Pantry, “and Denver, started with five employees and a Café looks as humble and plain as the food he said he didn’t care for it. I dumped him.” In 1980, downtown’s hot plate. it serves. redevelopment threatened once again Its only brush with extinction came in1950, Ray Addington The landmark downtown eatery, open to obliterate the diner when the new Harbor Freeway roared around the clock and famed for its long and scatter its regulars like so much through the original location on lines and enormous portions, is an spilled table salt. But Richard Riordan, the Ninth Street. Logan claimed anachronism both for what it serves city’s future mayor, was charmed by the he had served lunch at and the clientele it attracts. place and decided to save it, buying the Y R T N the old building and A P Pantry and several other adjoining parcels L A N I G I R dinner at the new, O It opened for business in 1924, E for $3.5 million. He didn’t change a thing. H T F O Y without interruption. S and on any given night its E T R U O COLLECTIONS C O T high-calorie comfort-food fare O ANGELS WALK H SPECIAL P USC FIGUEROA CORRIDOR OF draws patrons of all sorts, at SECTION 1 – METRO FIGUEROA COURTESY all hours: urban professionals, 1 Wilshire Boulevard PHOTO truck drivers, artists, teenaged The A.W. Francisco House looking north on Figueroa and Ninth Streets, c. 1881. 2 California Club hipsters, police officers, theater- 3 Jonathan Club 4 Engine Company No. 28 goers and suburbanites looking Big-name guys with big appetites once Employees as Loyal as PANTRY 5 7th + Figueroa Plaza frequented the place — actors Humphrey OLD for an urban thrill. THE 6 The Pantry OF Dewey Logan Bogart, John Wayne, Henry Fonda, and the Customers 7 Variety Arts Center COURTESY The Pantry is not the place for haute mobster Mickey Cohen. A signed photo- The people who work there like the place 8 PHOTO Staples Center COLLECTIONS cuisine with fancy names. Its only sauces graph hangs in the Pantry’s bake shop: and tend to stick around. Harvey Lamb Marilyn Monroe with bodyguard and Hall of Fame boxer Joey Barnum. 9 Convention Center SPECIAL USC come in Tabasco bottles. The Pantry is 10 OF “To the Pantry, great food, laughs! Patriotic Hall began work in 1929, and labored on about basics, traditional foods to give a COURTESY H. Bogart.’’ In 1956, the year For all the Pantry’s heavy fare, founder SECTION 2 – HISTORIC ADAMS for 54 years. He didn’t like taking 11 heart specialist heart failure: PHOTO before Bogart died, night vacations and wouldn’t stand Logan, worried about diners’ health, Stimson House Birdseye view of Los Angeles from 9th Street looking northwest 12 Historic West Adams T-bone steaks, stews, roasts, and from Figueroa Street, c. 1906. waiter Rene Frisan started refused to serve soft drinks or beer and Y for retirement talk, working full- R 13 T Automobile Club N A P L lamb chops. work here. He resembled A offered only milk, juices and coffee. After N I time as a cashier until he died 14 G Orthopaedic Hospital I R O E H The Pantry’s front doors have no keyholes Bogart so strikingly that T he died in 1972, the new owners finally 15 Fatty Arbuckle House F in 1983, at age 93. O Y S E T 16 or locks. Even after a 1994 earthquake everyone called him Bogie. R allowed Coca-Cola on the premises. Doheny Mansion & Chester Place U O C O T 17 O St. James Park H knocked out power before breakfast, P Lamb lived three blocks employees worked by candlelight. A rumor that has refused away — he never learned to The Original Pantry still retains its origi- 18 Tracy Clinic to die still lends the Pantry a drive — and enjoyed banter- nal ambience and original recipes. Menu 19 Sunshine Mission 20 Frothmann House curious mystique. It began in ing with the regulars, and SECTION 3 – USC/EXPOSITION PARK the 1950s, when a Midwestern Harvey Lamb treated the ladies with old- 21 USC #1 reporter covering the Rose Bowl fashioned courtesy. 22 Shrine Auditorium game dropped in. A couple of the waiters 23 Felix Chevrolet had some fun with the out-of-towner, Lamb’s picture graces the Pantry’s 24 Exposition Park telling him that all the employees were ex- wall, as does that of counterman 25 Natural History Museum 26 California Science Center/Armory convicts. He duly wrote it up - and the leg- Ray Addington, a former vaude- 27 EPICC end, for that’s all there is to it, circulates to ville hoofer so light on his feet that 28 Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum PANTRY 29 this day. (For years, management received no one could match his moves, and African American Museum OLD THE 30 USC #2 dozens of letters from paroled prisoners waiter Bobby Pavilas, the “fastest OF plate-carrying human.” COURTESY across the nation asking for jobs.) YOU ARE HERE PHOTO PANTRY Stnchn 1 Stnchn 2 Stnchn 3 Stnchn 4 Stnchn 5 Stnchn 6 Stnchn 7 Stnchn 8 Stnchn 9 Stnchn 10 Stnchn 11 OLD Robbie Eisenberg celebrating his 101st birthday at the Pantry which had its 75th THE anniversary on the same day. Present are: Joachim Splichal, Wolfgang Puck and Mayor 25 min 20 min 15 min 10 min 5 min HERE 10 min 15 min 20 min 25 min 30 min OF The old Pantry and staff. Richard Riordan. COURTESY PHOTO 006_THE6_THE PPANTRY_MAIN_04.inddANTRY_MAIN_04.indd 1 99/26/05/26/05 55:10:22:10:22 PPMM.