Covid claims an L.A. restaurant

Pacific Dining Car (The Santa Monica location) is closing because of the Covid lockdown made it impossible for them to survive. I know they aren't the only ones who will suffer this fate.

The downtown outpost is an institution founded in 1921. the Santa Monica one came later but it is no less tragic.

Despite having lived here a decade, it was only last year that I got around to going there and that was because of a different restaurant's indifference. Celebrating my birthday once night, a usual standby gourmet Italian restaurant did everything they could to rush us out the door. So we went to Pacific Dining Car for dessert.

Stepping into the restaurant was like stepping back in time, even though the place had been renovated in 2004. It still felt old and authentic. There were numerous rooms with nooks and hiding spaces and the type of booths were you can sink into. It was so inviting and familiar.

The fact it was open 24 hours a day was amazing. Few restaurants are open 24 hours a day in L.A. so it was amazing that one of them was high end and could easily serve eggs as much as filet mignon and lobster tail at all hours of the day.

Perhaps that was the problem, though. Our food habits have changed so much that we aren't interested in fine dining, let alone late night eating, unless it's a drunken falafel or Taco Bell run. If Pacific Dining Car wasn't profitable during normal hours, extending it to round-the-clock surely didn't help the situation.

Covid in some ways is the final nail in the coffin of some aspects of our culture. It's sad to think that some things have become a vestige in a blip of time. At least we were able to get a vicarious thrill out of baby girl enjoying her midnight chocolate soufflé.

It's still sad, though.