Historic Original Pantry Café Reopens Under Nonprofit, Profits to Fight Homelessness

The more-than-100-year-old diner on Figueroa Street is reopening under a nonprofit model that channels all profits into homeless services, with unionized workers returning to their previous positions after a landmark labor agreement secured the deal.

Hope the Mission, the North Hills-based rescue mission that operates 33 homeless shelters with 3,000 beds across Los Angeles, will run the Original Pantry Café as a social enterprise. Every dollar of profit goes directly to the organization's shelters, services, and meal programs. "Not only will you get an amazing meal and a wonderful experience, you're going to be actually investing back into the community," said Ken Craft, the organization's founder and CEO.

The arrangement follows a tumultuous closure. The Pantry shuttered last March amid union disputes, drawing thousands of multi-generational regulars for a final meal before the doors closed. Real estate developer Leo Pustilnikov subsequently purchased the property, and a partnership with Hope the Mission emerged from negotiations that also resolved the labor standoff. UNITE HERE Local 11 co-president Kurt Petersen confirmed that all staff who lost their jobs when the Pantry closed will be able to return to their previous positions. Among those coming back is José Moran, a server with more than 45 years at the restaurant. The union's announcement was blunt: "WE SAVED THE PANTRY."

The September 11, 2025 celebration outside the restaurant drew Los Angeles council members Ysabel Jurado and Curren Price, along with community allies and longtime customers. UNITE HERE noted that some workers had served Angelenos for more than 40 years.

Hope the Mission is targeting a spring reopening. Craft told reporters officials are working to open between May 1 and June 1, consistent with the organization's own fundraising materials projecting an April or May 2026 launch. To fund the relaunch, Hope the Mission is running an $800,000 capital campaign to cover kitchen equipment upgrades, site refurbishment, initial staffing, and food inventory. Donors contributing $5,000 or more will have their names permanently displayed on a marquee inside the restaurant.

Craft is branding the revived diner with a deliberately double-edged tagline. "It's going to be called the Original Pantry Cafe, but the tagline is 'a second serving,'" he told the Los Angeles Business Journal, invoking Hope the Mission's core philosophy that "everybody and everything gets a second chance."

The nonprofit is not entering food service cold. Hope the Mission already serves roughly 8,000 to 9,000 meals daily to its sheltered community through its own kitchen staff, and it operates five shelter sites within a few miles of the Pantry's downtown location. The organization describes itself as the largest provider of interim housing in Los Angeles, with plans to add 11 more shelter sites this year, bringing an additional 650 beds online.

Guests can expect the same menu that built the Pantry's loyal following, with some healthier additions. For a kitchen that has fed Angelenos through more than a century of the city's history, the model has simply changed: breakfast and dinner now come with a direct line to the city's homelessness response.