A Greek institution on May 4 will serve its last grilled lamb with the flame, its last pillow potatoes, its song Saganaki Swan. After 77 years, the family restaurant Papa Cristo’s closes, with its building listed for sale.
What started as a Greek market in 1948 spread to a full -fledged restaurant and the community over the decades. These are united generations of Angelenos who flocked to the edge of the Pico-Union for specialized products and Greek festivals of three generations of the Chrys family. The restaurant has become the unofficial heart of the Byzantine-Latin district, a small historic-cultural district, as well as the Greek Greek cathedral of St. Sophia nearby.
“It finally came to a point where we decided that we were going to take our conditions,” said Mark Yordon, the owner of owner Chrys Chrys, and a member of the family business for about 40 years. “We don’t wait for a buyer to say,” Ok, I’m going to make it a hotel. “”
Yordon refused to confirm that rent increases influenced the decision to close, but Chrys Tell Laist This growing rent was the culprit. “The rent has become too high,” he said, “and we can’t do anything about it. … Tenants are pawns to owners.”
Yordon, who works as general manager, said the family came to the decision to learn that the building had been registered for the sale. The batch of Papa Cristo, which is zoned for residential purposes for mixed or high density use, is currently listed at $ 5.2 million.
His inscribing agent could not be joined to comment.
“The corner is for sale, and it is never for sale,” said Yordon. “It belonged to the same Greek family who had associations with the father of Chrys and the grandfather of the current owner.
An institution in Los Angeles
Sam Chrys founded what was going to become dad Cristo as C&K Import Co. in 1948. The market sold imported Greek food and wine, and continues to do it today alongside specialized Mediterranean and European articles.
In 1968, Chrys Chrys bought the company from his father and finally resumed an adjacent hamburger stand to transform it into Papa Cristo taverna.
Annie Chrys, on the left, Chrys Chrys and Mark Yordon at Papa Cristo in 2016.
(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)
The generous parties and the friendly framework contributed to consolidate Papa Cristo as a must in the community of several decades for the neighborhood and far beyond, and in 2010, the youngest girl of Chrys, Annie, joined the profession.
The past few years have not been so easy for Papa Cristo, which, like so many local businesses, have experienced high slowdown during the pandemic. But the market has made it possible that certain sales will continue, and the restaurant restoration operation – which Yordon supervises mainly – helped maintain the family business afloat and its employee staff.
In the following years, inflation has led to thinner beneficiary margins. Now, with prices on the horizon, Yordon has thought about it: “Maybe it was the right time to go.”
Since the news broke out, crowds of fans have rushed into the restaurant and the market. Hundreds of comments online cry about saving the business.
There could be a future where the opening of Papa Cristo in a smaller place elsewhere, although Yordon said that fate would be determined by his cousin and his nieces. It is also possible that Chrys, now 80 years old, take this opportunity to retire.
“He is sort of at his limit,” said Yordon. “The heavy expression is the head that carries the crown.”
But a public statement by Chrys Thursday suggested that it was perhaps not the end of Papa Cristo. “After 77 years at the corner of Pico and Normandy, it is time for me to hang up my apron and for us to say goodbye (for the moment)”, he posted on the restaurant page of the restaurant, adding: “PS the story of Papa Cristo does not end here-exciting things happen.”
More classic restaurants fight
Some of the oldest and most expensive restaurants in the city have announced a fight to survive or have closed in recent weeks. Chili John’s in Burbank, which opened in 1946, recently launched a fundraising to help keep the business afloat. An owner Last month said That without increasing sales, they could close in the coming months.
The special early dinner at DU-SPA in the original farmers’ market.
(Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Times)
Recently, the CEO of Du-Par said that the dinner founded in 1938 famous for its hotcakes in a corner of the original farmer’s market was also in difficulty. Frances Tario said “there in a minute” Podcaster Evan Lovett that immigration repression, Increase in egg prices and a loss of affairs of the January fire fires have injured one of the oldest surviving restaurants in the city. Tario could not be joined to comment.
Last week, the French restaurant of decades Le Petit Four closed its doors for good In the middle of a chain of shutters in West Hollywood. Last month, after 101 years of service, the Garde-garde of closed origin And Leave Angelenos without.
Customers align themselves outside in the rain for a table at the Pantry Cafe of origin in February.
(Nick Argro / For time)
More recent restaurants are also close to a quick clip, with a number of notable closures In the first semester, which included Guerilla Tacos, Cosa Buona, Sage and Wexler’s Deli with Grand Central Market.
“It was a real avalanche,” said local historian and tourist guide Kim Cooper. “Many, many factors accumulate on each other and people make very difficult decisions.”
Cooper exploits the Marche and the Historical Society of Historical Preservation ESOTOURIC with her husband, Richard Schave. The two have been patrons of the restaurant for years.
Above all, given the eruption of closings and the difficulties of some of the oldest restaurants in the city, Schave and Cooper hope to see more local and state programs that help the inherited companies and provide support before it is too late.
The pair suggested two potential scenarios that could save the restaurant. Perhaps, they said, the new SB 4 state law, which is designed to help denominational organizations to build affordable housing, could help the Greek Orthodox community surrounding with deep ties with Papa Cristo to develop the lot.
Or, they said, the restaurateurs focused on history could buy the company from the Chrys family with the promise to guarantee its survival, as Marc Rose and Med Abrous did it for the restaurant of Fairfax Gengis Cohen: an operation now undergo its own sale of land and relocation.
“As people like these places hear that they are in trouble, it is often too far away and they are announcing a closure,” said Cooper. “It looks like Los Angeles disappears. We have to save him. ”
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