LA's historic Cole's and Taix restaurants close after decades of service
A confluence of circumstances made 2025 a brutal year for the restaurants in Los Angeles and many other California communities. And, now, as a confirmation that conditions remain challenging in 2026, L.A. will lose two of its most venerable and beloved institutions in a single weekend.
Come closing time Sunday night, both French dip and craft-cocktail favorite Cole's in downtown L.A. and frowsy and delightful French-food mainstay Taix, in Echo Park, will close their doors for the final time - at least in the incarnations that made them favorites among cops, teachers, poets, screenwriters and, well, most everyone.
Twin wakes have been underway at the two restaurants. Cole's plans a weekend of special events to celebrate its 118-year history and to raise money to go to a nonprofit that supports other independent restaurants. A three-mile drive away, on Sunset Boulevard, Taix (pronounced Tex), which opened in its current location in 1962, has been packing its vast dining rooms, with some patrons unable to resist filching photos, posters and even light fixtures as souvenirs, as my colleague Stephanie Breijo reported, in a lovely ode to the restaurant.
This has been a tragic trend in the restaurant business since the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown. San Francisco, alone, lost a wave of mainstays in 2025, including Sushi Zone in the Mid-Market neighborhood and Fog City Diner in the Embarcadero. The demise of the latter caused a local writer for the San Francisco Standard to ask: "Is it possible that San Francisco just isn't fun anymore?"
The financial blows that are closing Cole's and Taix
Cole's owner Cedd Moses cited a litany of travails hurting his eatery and many other restaurants. Patronage took a hit because of strikes in the entertainment industry, while labor costs continued to rise, along with other necessities, such as meat. This year's raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents presented another challenge to both employees and customers. All that is in addition to the strain, for some, to pay back rent and loans they took out to stay alive during the pandemic lockdown.
Neither Cole's nor Taix plan to go quietly into the good night. Cole's will team with other marquee L.A. establishments - Jitlada, Father's Office, Little Fatty, Guelaguetza, Found Oyster and Bay Cities deli - on special menu items for Saturday and Sunday. As for Taix, Breijo described the closing-days scene this way: "Servers ferry platters of frog legs swimming in cream sauce, mountainous portions of duck l'orange, crocks of French onion soup and the iconic chicken pot pie that spells 'TAIX' in pastry through a sprawling maze of dining rooms, banquet halls, roomy circular booths and tables under dark wood beams."
Writer Ruby Zuckerman told another writer: "Taix is the only restaurant in L.A. that doesn't lose its mind if new friends drop in halfway through dinner or if you stay at your table for hours after you stopped ordering. That kind of flexibility leads to spontaneous nights where what started off as an intimate hang expands into an all-out party. Love that."
Taix may return in another iteration
Owner Michael Taix sold the site to a developer, who plans to build 170 apartments on the property and to leave a space for a new version of Taix, which will mostly be devoted to lounge space, but with a dining room and outdoor seating.
Cole's owner Moses, son of the artist Ed Moses, said he is "still negotiating, trying to finalize a deal with one party" interested in buying his restaurant. Moses said he hoped a deal can be signed in the next few weeks, but said it was impossible to say how likely that is.
The French dip haven (which maintains a friendly rivalry with Philippe the Original downtown over who invented the sandwich) has seen late reprieves before. After announcing a closure last summer, a flood of customers packed into Cole's. The surge helped delay the closure for about eight months.
"It's very tough to make money," Moses said. "Since COVID, the cost of running a business has skyrocketed. And business has not really, really come back in Los Angeles like it has in other cities."
