The Restaurants Los Angeles Lost to the 2025 Eaton and Palisades Fires

On January 7, wildfires broke out across Los Angeles in Pacific Palisades, which spread to Malibu, and in Eaton Canyon, which spread to Altadena. Propelled by extreme winds, the fires quickly grew, resulting in mandatory evacuation orders and widespread structural damage. In the days since, fires in West Hills, Sylmar, and the Hollywood Hills broke out, but firefighters have stopped their forward progress into residential and commercial areas. The Palisades and Eaton fires continue to burn, causing about 100,000 evacuations in the area of the Eaton Fire and 37,000 evacuations in the Palisades Fire. As of January 10, the Palisades Fire had grown to more than 20,000 acres, while the Eaton Fire had grown to more than 13,000 acres.

Among the losses were restaurants in Altadena, Malibu, and Pacific Palisades, including the 69-year-old Fox’s, pizza pop-up gone permanent Side Pie, and iconic seaside restaurant Moonshadows. Each of these restaurants left an indelible mark on Los Angeles, whether they were open for only eight months, like Minik Market in Altadena, or 36 years like the Reel Inn in Malibu.

Everest Burgers

Growing up, any time I had a sleepover at my older sister’s house in Altadena, up on Maiden Lane, one thing was always guaranteed: a trip to Everest Burgers. My brothers and I would clamber into my sister’s car, excited about the prospect of zucchini fries, onion rings, and, most importantly, burgers. It was the first place I ever tried pastrami chili cheese fries — a life-altering experience for a seven-year-old — and we always dunked our fries in tartar sauce, for whatever reason. Beyond the food, which was comforting and emblematic of the culture of local mom-and-pop fast-food diners in Los Angeles, it was the community of people and warm hospitality that continued to bring us back. I will miss enjoying my meal in the Everest Burgers dining room, with the view of the beautiful San Gabriel Mountains as the backdrop of such a special place. — Kat Thompson, Eater at Home associate editor

Cafe de Leche

Mine and my partner’s favorite weekend ritual is visiting Cafe de Leche for an iced horchata con espresso, a cinnamon-kissed drink that marked the beginning of a relaxing weekend. Cafe de Leche is where we picked up all of our coffee beans for home use, as well as my favorite place to meet up with friends — in the backyard sanctuary to share a drink and read books. Every drink here was served with a smile and I’m heartbroken to know that our favorite weekend activity no longer exists in Altadena. A GoFundMe has been set up to raise money for the employees. — Kat Thompson, Eater at Home associate editor

Little Red Hen Coffee Shop

The corridor of Fair Oaks Avenue south of Mariposa Street is best labeled as “Black Altadena.” Within that area are the highest concentrations of Black families, churches, businesses, and Little Red Hen Coffee Shop. This Black-owned business opened in the early 1970s and thrived by slinging its own renditions of soul food classics. On the menu were catfish and cheesy grits, salmon croquettes, homemade sausage patties, and omelets, all served in a cozy and casual room. Many patrons ate there weekly. Sitting outside on a clear day was ideal; the front patio faced the majestic mountains that crown Altadena. Those of us from Altadena know that this was one of the few places where Black families could buy a home in Southern California without restrictive racial covenants and real estate redlining. Little Red Hen was one of the businesses to emerge from the community, and it was a welcome sight for longtime residents. The Shay family still operates Little Red Hen and has launched a GoFundMe for rebuilding. — Mona Holmes, editor, Eater Southern California/Southwest

Fox’s Altadena

Fox’s

Growing up in Altadena, we walked or rode our bikes everywhere. No cell phones existed, so I couldn’t call my mother to pick me up. That left every adventure to include an inclined mile-plus hike up Lake Avenue. But I never minded the trek when dining at Fox’s. This charming spot opened in 1956 and was one of the first places I visited with allowance money and without my parents. I always ordered pancakes, bacon, and tea. Paul and Edie Fox were the original founders before the Bertonneau family operated it for decades. Current owners Monique King and Paul Rosenbluh bought the business in 2018 and made Altadenans proud by making small changes while still honoring the old space. They even kept the old sign intact. But it’s now completely gone. A GoFundMe was set up for Fox’s staff of 15. — Mona Holmes, editor, Eater Southern California/Southwest

Side Pie

Mona Holmes

When I first met Side Pie owner Kevin Hockin, he was a partner at Collage Coffee in Highland Park. He was always friendly, and we stayed in touch. While dining rooms were closed during the pandemic, I watched his pizza backyard pop-up get so popular that a disgruntled neighbor called city officials to shut it down. But Hockin persevered, eventually opening a charming shop on the southwest corner of Lake Avenue and Altadena Drive. Side Pie’s blistery pizzas were worth every bite. Hockin obsessed over his crusts and topped them with unique, Angeleno-inspired flavors — think pies swathed with queso Oaxaca — to pair with exceptional wines. It wasn’t uncommon to see families with dogs sitting on the rear patio watching a baseball game or listening to live music. He had plans to expand to the adjacent businesses to meet the demand for this true neighborhood restaurant. Hockin hopes to rebuild and has set up a GoFundMe to assist with the effort. As a former Altadena resident, let’s hope he can. — Mona Holmes, editor, Eater Southern California/Southwest

Amara Kitchen

After operating for years in Highland Park, Amara Kitchen owner Paola Guasp opened a second location in Altadena in 2021. The mostly residential neighborhood embraced her casual menu with all-day breakfast items, whether the cardamom date granola, vegan breakfast burrito, almond-flour pancakes, or green eggs with potatoes. Those hoping for lunch could do the same at any time of the day with salads, bowls, and sandwiches. One of Amara’s secret weapons was its extensive coffee, tea, and fresh juice menu. Regulars also visited for the oat crumble bar, lemon poppy muffin, or pumpkin seed miso cookie — all made in-house. Amara resided next door to the 80-year-old Altadena Hardware, which had been operating for over 80 years. Drone footage after the Eaton Fire shows Amara Kitchen and the surrounding neighborhood in a devastating ruin. Paola started a GoFundMe to help with recovery. — Mona Holmes, editor, Eater Southern California/Southwest

Minik Market

Altadena’s Minik Market opened in May 2024, only eight months before the Eaton fire swept through the neighborhood, leaving destruction in its wake. Even in its few months open, it quickly became a community space and a local favorite for its Californian bodega-style offerings of sandwiches, fresh produce, pastries, and dry goods. Minik also hosted local pop-ups in its space like Tomorrow Bagel and Nylette. The market is raising funds to support its staff, pay vendors, and work out the next steps. — Rebecca Roland, editor, Eater Southern California/Southwest

Rancho Bar

As an Elliot Junior High student, one of my friends became infinitely cooler when I learned that her stepfather owned Rancho Bar on Lake Avenue. I was 13 years old and not interested in drinking alcohol, yet knowing that she was associated with something like a bar fascinated me. But when I visited Rancho Bar as an adult, it just fit. Perhaps it was because this business (with new owners) was so centrally placed on North Lake Avenue — next door to Cafe de Leche and a block away from El Patron restaurant. It was an ideal dive bar but, more than that, it was a neighborhood spot where people could walk from their adjacent homes. People like me, who moved away from Altadena in adulthood, could find a grown-up spot that reminded us of home while sipping a beer, downing a shot, or taking in one of Southern California’s best bloody marys. — Mona Holmes, editor, Eater Southern California/Southwest

Pizza of Venice

Pizza of Venice

My one and only visit to this funky little Altadena pizzeria was for an Eater LA story where we attempted to eat every single pizza on its menu at the time. I had pitched the idea to my editor at the time, Kat Odell, of trying every pizza and documenting the journey. I remember seeing quirky cooks and co-owners Sean St. John and Jamie Woolner stretching out their pies in oblong, irregular shapes because they wanted to just go wherever the dough led them. Inspired by the LA neighborhood of Venice, not the sinking island city in Italy, St. John and Woolner saw the pizza as an ever-changing canvas, a place where, I wrote, “traditionalists would cry.” Those combinations included brie, blue cheese, and Brussels sprouts or the fajitas-inspired carnitas, pico de gallo, and mushrooms, though they also had more familiar margherita. That afternoon in 2014, I ate bits of 18 different pizzas, finishing with a Nutella-and-berry number that actually made sense as a dessert. I remember feeling so stuffed that I couldn’t imagine wanting food again for a week, but I was happy I got through the challenge. The restaurant managed to endure another decade before this week’s fires took them out, and even had plans to introduce barbecue. But with so many people displaced, Woolner said he wasn’t sure what reopening would look like. As one of Los Angeles’s most innovative pizzerias, I hope Pizza of Venice does come back. — Matthew Kang, lead editor, Eater Southern California/Southwest

Vittorio’s

Vittorio’s has been the go-to restaurant for old-school Italian food in the Palisades since it opened in 1984. The interior held memories of families and friends that had dined there, splitting plates of chicken piccata, crackly pizzas, and ravioli. The story of Vittorio’s as a family-owned restaurant mirrors that of many who have called the Palisades home for generations, with homes being passed down within families for decades. — Rebecca Roland, editor, Eater Southern California/Southwest

The Reel Inn

As someone who grew up in Los Angeles, but didn’t spend a lot of time in my childhood going to Malibu, the area became somewhere I explored once I went to college. I was one of the lucky ones at USC to have a car, and I ventured out to Pepperdine frequently, where some friends attended. Turning the corner onto PCH, one of the first restaurants would be the Reel Inn, a dusty roadside shack welcoming diners with punny signs and a towering neon pylon sign. While Neptune’s Net and Malibu Seafood were probably the more popular seafood spots in Malibu, I always favored the food at Reel Inn. Stepping up to the counter felt like going to a real seafood market, with sliced fish filets in the large refrigerated displays, chalkboard menus, Christmas lights, and other beach-related kitsch hanging from the rafters. As poor college students, Reel Inn was a way for us to experience Malibu without having to shell out for somewhere like Geoffrey’s. Even though the area was filled with upscale places, the Reel Inn reminded us of Malibu’s approachability.

The last time I went, on a gorgeous spring day in 2019 before a hike in the local hills to see Escondido Falls, I dove into a nourishing plate of blackened salmon, a heaping pile of Cajun-seasoned rice, and an equally large mound of crisp coleslaw. Depending on the weather, you’re inside or on the dusty patio where red checkered picnic tables await. Everyone left the Reel Inn ready for a day at the beach or a long drive out into the rest of Malibu. For 36 years, it was the quintessential stop for affordable seafood and wind-swept lunches. It was where, as a college student and later as a food writer, I realized not everything has to be fancy to be good, not everything has to be perfect to be great. — Matthew Kang, lead editor, Eater Southern California/Southwest

Owners Andy and Teddy Leonard have a GoFundMe to help support staff for three months of wages and benefits. The Leonards have promised to rebuild and reopen the restaurant.

Rosenthal Wine Bar

Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

One of Malibu’s most relaxed patios made its name being an outdoor haven for wine lovers who might come to share a bottle or few with friends; to perch on gigantic, glossy lifeguard chairs for a quintessential Instagram moment; or to listen to live music while swirling a hand-selected tasting flight pour just steps from the iridescent Pacific Ocean. Rosenthal was accessible and gregarious. I remember it as a late-pandemic beacon to those searching for outdoor pockets to safely gather in off PCH. The wine bar, connected to its own estate vineyard and winery, wasn’t a time capsule, but it was a place where people made memories — where partners got engaged or told friends and family about their engagement, where low-key birthday and anniversary picnics (it was a bring-your-own-food situation) could be spent whiling away the hours as your shadows grew longer in the sun. — Nicole Adlman, Eater cities manager

Moonshadows

Universal Images Group

It’s devastating to picture the winding backbone of Pacific Coast Highway without Moonshadows. Sitting on the water’s edge, just around the bend from the rocky beaches of Las Tunas, the restaurant has kept watch of the tide lapping at its wood risers since 1966. For those who grew up here, Moonshadows felt like a signifier of a special occasion; dinner with a sunset close-up, a brunch accompanied by sea air, or a night spent dancing to house music as boats drifted by. But more than that, its presence marked a reassurance that even though things in the area were constantly changing, some remained the same as they existed in childhood memories. Now that it’s gone, the preservation of those memories in its dining room feel all the more vital. — Rebecca Roland, editor, Eater Southern California/Southwest

Cholada Thai

Nothing quite embodies teenagehood in the Valley greater than getting your driver’s license and, immediately, driving through Topanga Canyon with the windows down, playing music a little too loudly. Going down the canyon, the focus is on nimbly steering around bends as Cafe on 27 and Topanga Lumber whiz by in a blur of oak trees. The canyon opens directly to a view of the Pacific Ocean, glinting prismatically as tanned surfers bob on its surface, patiently waiting for waves. Cholada Thai Beach Cuisine had stood around the bend from the entrance to the canyon since 2000, serving a classic slate of Thai dishes like larb and pad see ew. It was a restaurant for everyone; it wasn’t uncommon to see celebrities, neighbors who had become regulars, and beachgoers saunter up after a day in the sun. The owner is raising funds to help rebuild the restaurant. — Rebecca Roland, editor, Eater Southern California/Southwest

Caffe Luxxe

Sitting at the heart of Palisades Village, Caffe Luxxe was a go-to for warm service, fresh pastries, and excellent coffee. The small cafe, with its baby blue marble-topped coffee bar, was often busy with a flow of guests from the neighborhood and beyond filtering in for a morning cappuccino or to catch up over tiny cups of dark espresso. Although other locations for Cafe Luxxe are currently closed due to the ongoing impacts of the fire, they plan to reopen as the situation allows. — Rebecca Roland, editor, Eater Southern California/Southwest

This story is evolving and will continue to be updated.