The Pacific Dining Car restaurant building, a historical and cultural landmark where the city’s influential figures once dined, has been seriously damaged by fire SATURDAY.
Seventy-five firefighters were called to the blaze that broke out shortly after midnight outside the century-old restaurant and then spread to the building itself, according to Los Angeles Fire Department officials. The fire took about an hour to extinguish.
A tent, mattresses and charred shopping carts were visible along the north side of the restaurant building, located in the Westlake neighborhood of Los Angeles and currently vacant. The cause of the incident remains under investigation, LAFD spokesman Brian Humphrey said.
Humphrey said it was not immediately clear where the fire originated, but firefighters believe it was a debris or trash fire.
“We’ve had calls from a lot of people today. They’re heartbroken. I think a lot of them have loved ones who have been in the same situation at some point,” he said.
A fire damaged the historic Pacific Dining Car restaurant building on Saturday.
(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)
The Pacific Dining Car closed its doors for good in 2020, several months into the COVID-19 pandemic. With its stained glass windows, dark wood interiors and high-backed chairs, the restaurant was a 24-hour fine dining venue for politicians, business leaders, entertainment industry figures and anyone looking to celebrate a special occasion.
“It was the perfect place for the powerful people of Los Angeles,” said Adrian Scott Fine, president of the Los Angeles Conservancy, an organization dedicated to preserving historic sites.
Fine said the Pacific Dining Car is a “traditional business” on the level of Musso & Frank Grill in Hollywood or Dan Tana’s in West Hollywood, serving steaks and other rich dishes — think iceberg lettuce with candied bacon — until late at night.
Last year, the city council designated part of the site as a historic-cultural monument — the section “designed to resemble a railroad dining car,” according to the city’s report on the monument application.
The restaurant opened in 1921 at 7th and Westlake streets and moved to its current location at 6th and Witmer streets in 1923, according to the report. The restaurant was expanded several times over the next few decades.
A video of Saturday’s fire, posted on Platform X, shows flames shooting through the roof of the carriage section.
The property currently has a “for sale” sign outside. In recent years, members of the owning family have been at odds over the future of the site, according to Eater LA.
A firefighter descends an aerial ladder after working on the roof of the burned-out Pacific Dining Car building on 6th Street.
(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)
Over the past century, the Pacific Dining Car has been popular with celebrities such as Mae West and gossip columnist Louella Parsons, while also serving as a backdrop in movies, according to the restaurant’s website.
Mike Hernandez, a former Los Angeles City Councilman who represented the area from 1991 to 2001, said he knew nothing about the Pacific Dining Car before he entered politics. But once he ran for office, he would go there regularly to meet with potential supporters.
In the restaurant’s final years, long after he left office, Hernandez and his family celebrated New Year’s Eve dinner at the restaurant on several occasions.
“The Pacific Dining Car was the place to go if you wanted to be seen and see people,” he said.
