There are stories that seem endless. They are linked to people and especially to places. In smaller neighborhoods or in big cities. Landmarks that remain beacons for thousands of people, who maybe even come from the other side of the world because they want to feel at home. Well, somehow a restaurant in L.A. has represented that for many people. We are talking about Taix, a historic French restaurant that after 99 years has closed its shutters. And many people have been talking about this story, including the Los Angeles Times, which tried to explain what this place in the city represented to the whole world.
The emotional detachment may not have happened at all, because the closing occurred yesterday, March 29, 2026, when the venue, which originally opened downtown in 1927 and then moved to Sunset Boulevard in 1962, put an end to its history. “Since the closure was announced, I have tried to visit as often as possible to bid farewell, not only to the charming and somewhat shabby 1920s-style interior, but also to the many lives I have lived at its tables,” writes the LA Times reporter, who like so many mourns the end of a glorious history.
The restaurant’s farewell represents the end of an era for many, triggering long lines in the streets and full reservations in recent days, with many loyal customers wanting to take home menus and memorabilia of the place. But actually more than goodbye we should speak of a farewell. Because the space where the restaurant stands will make way for a brand-new apartment complex, where the French restaurant should rise again on a smaller scale. Eater reports that the reopening could happen as early as within a few years, in the 2030s. But certainly the pain of a place of the heart for so many Los Angelinos closing gives pause. Because it is not the first closure, but also because the effects of the crisis continue to be felt.
The Guardian tried to explain this renovation, pointing out that AI, inflation, the declining entertainment industry, and expensive real estate are changing the city. And in this scenario, the newspaper further explains, “the Taix restaurant is closing mainly because its large facility is simply too expensive to maintain. The current space is 15,000 square feet (about 1,400 square meters) and much of it, including the huge banquet rooms that occupy 50 percent of the building, is usually empty. It requires 55 employees to run it on a normal evening. The new restaurant will be more modest in size, 4,000 square feet (about 370 square meters).” The hope of many is that Taix’s dishes will soon be able to be re-tasted. But who knows, in 2030, what Los Angeles will look like. And especially if there will still be room for such glorious institutions in such a shifting and changing global scenario. The response from loyalists, we are sure, will not be long in coming.
[📸 Instagram: vittaquinn]
