Clifton’s Brookdale cafeteria, a downtown Los Angeles landmark, is being sold by the Clinton family to Andrew Meieran, a developer and nightclub operator “who vows to preserve its comfort-food menu and kitschy charms,”
the
Los Angeles Times
reported.
The sale of a 40-year lease to the building at Broadway and 7th Street marks the end of family operations of Clifton’s cafeterias in Los Angeles dating to 1931.
Robert Clinton, grandson of founder Clifford Clinton, and his father, Donald, are selling the business. Robert Clifton told the
LA Times:
“We are excited that Clifton’s will be in Andrew’s hands and have a more secure future. Andrew respects the Clifford Clinton legacy that is very much a part of this business and he wants to respect our principles.”
Meieran, co-founder of the hip Edison lounge in downtown Los Angeles, plans to convert a banquet space on Clifton’s second floor into a separate cocktail lounge and restaurant, the article said. He will also remove a metal façade that dates from the 1960s and restore the original exterior.
But the cafeteria, where diners select from familiar foods such as pot roast, turkey, enchiladas and Jell-O, will remain, albeit with some additions to the restaurant, Meieran said.
The Clintons had owned eight cafeterias in the Los Angeles area since 1931; the Brookdale location, which dates from 1935, was the only one remaining, the report noted.
After being tenants for decades, the Clintons bought the downtown building in 2006 because the owners were anxious to sell it. But business has been challenging. In its heyday in the 1940s, lines would form on Broadway as up to 10,000 customers came to eat on a busy day. Now the restaurant serves 1,000 to 2,000 a day on a street that has changed significantly from the postwar era.
(Source:
Los Angeles Times,
Sept. 21, 2010.)
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