Et tu, Weho City Council – After 10 long years, Chop Stop West Hollywood is closing.
To our loyal clientele, thank you so much for your patronage over the years. The good news is that you can still get Chop Stop delivered to you from our Studio City location on any of the big food delivery platforms 😊
Chop Stop is a thriving business with 26 locations in three states. No Chop Stop restaurant has ever closed before, even during the pandemic. So why is this location closing today, June 30th?
Because tomorrow, July 1st, a punishing ordinance passed by the West Hollywood City Council will make the economics of running a small business impractical. The timing of this ordinance is especially perverse, considering our hard-working business community is already combatting:the highest inflation in 40 years; the tightest labor market in decades; disruptive supply chain shortages; and an intractable homeless problem that affects both our employees and our customers. To paraphrase Julius Caesar: “Et tu, Weho City Council?”
On the bright side, Chop Stop will continue to serve fantastic chopped salads, provide terrific customer service with a smile, and to expand and open new restaurants in nearby cities.
“Et Tu” The quote appears in Act 3 Scene 1 of William Shakespeare’s play Julius Caesar, where it is spoken by the Roman dictator Julius Caesar, at the moment of his assassination, to his friend Marcus Junius Brutus…
[…] West Hollywood’s minimum wage ordinance, adopted on November 15, 2021, applied the minimum wage that was adopted for hotel workers to all employees within the City of West Hollywood. However, it has led to many business closures, including one outspoken business owner of the Chop Stop ETVUD. […]
[…] West Hollywood’s minimum wage ordinance, adopted on November 15, 2021, applies the minimum wage for hotel workers to all employees within the City of West Hollywood. It includes phased increases for hotel workers as well as for all workers. However, it has led to many business closures, including ETVUD. […]
I’m sorry to see your business fall to irrational or hidden big money influencing.
No disprect but the threat That El POLLO LOCO will be opening in WeHo.
The hold up for a major chicken franchise who has their system to opening now refined an efficient fast opening.
The location below Trader Joe’s last business was a pre-Made selection of food,/meals.
What’s the hold up wit El POLLO LOCO.
Maybe because Gwyneth Paltrow is only person with the skills to get new places done & open as fast as she is doing
If the employees believed they could make more money working elsewhere without this ordinance, presumably they would have left for better opportunities.
How do we vote out these delusional politicians?!? People can’t seriously be voting for these people over and over again. I refuse to believe that that’s what’s happening in the world because there can’t be a level of cluelessness that base. It’s stunning that a handful of people can change what West Hollywood was in a very short period of time. It went from being a Utopia to being a hell hole in a very short period of time. If the truth hurts, then feel free not to post my comment here.
Joe, you nailed it. My sentiments exactly. WeHo was the ultimate Place to live in Southern California especially if you are LGBTQ. Now the short sided have invaded and taken over our place. It’s absolutely disgusting what they are doing.
Here’s all you need to know. When Brandon was given the presidency everyone took to theirs cars and drove up and down Santa Monica Blvd booting and hollering and blowing their horns. And now we have $7+/gal gas. $4 avocados and $20 burgers. You vote democrat you get democrat policies. I can withstand all of this hyperinflation but many cannot. It’s pretty simple.
Exactly. So proud of themselves like when they spread HIV and made other great life choices like pronouns, sexualizing 4 year olds in Florida, eliminating Sheriffs when crime is up 137%, my body my choice by people that will never have children and demand you get a failed vaccine that keeps giving its victims Covid over and over again or be shunned from society. The good decisions and choices just never end in WEHO.
It breaks my heart what these insane politicians are doing to small restaurants. Those that made it through the pandemic were hanging on by a thread. Now this. It’s outrageous.
If ever there was a time for a curse on public officials, it should be directed to the West Hollywood City Council. Not on Meister, but on the other four. These people, these four, D’Amico, Shine, Horvath, Erickson, could not last one minute sweeping a bar like in the Abbey. They’re all on the public dole or some foundation or some state institution. Except for Shine who supposedly is a lawyer plus mind reader. They’ve turned Boys Town into a big boring danger going broke town reflecting their Woke political hack pay 4 play left agendas.
I don’t live in West Hollywood but I am a property owner. I love the returns I am getting on my investment. West Hollywood is unique in that it truly is a city for the young. I get great joy walking on Santa Monica Blvd. on the weekends and watch all the young people having lots of fun, socializing. It is truly a unique city. One of the problems that some of the commenters have is that the parade has passed them by. When you reach a certain age you have to accept that life then is for the young.… Read more »
Your discriminatory views are showing. Your message to people who are old (what is “old” anyway?) to live elsewhere and get to Denny’s–heaping stereotyping onto your arrogant message–is apalling. Being “old” yourself doesn’t dismiss anything you write. I hope you don’t apply your age discriminatory views to those who help you to “love the returns (you are) getting on (your) investment.” That would be illegal in addition to being wrong.
what a repulsive elitist you sound like- FOR THE YOUNG? CREEP……wait till it’s your turn….no amount of MONEY from your return is going to help…you know what’s wrong with the world- LOOK IN THE MIRROR.
So it’s started. All those employees that the Council were lifting out of poverty are now getting pink slips. No impact studies, just ignorant council members pounding they’re chests full of platitudes and no information. Thank you city council. How many more businesses will follow suit?
I’m sorry that this CEO of a thriving business with 26 locations in three states is having a tough time with one city’s ordinance to try and keep employees’ wages in line with inflation. And I doubt that this CEO of a thriving business with 26 locations in three states would go to the poor house over giving each of his employees a perfectly reasonable 96 hours or less of paid vacation/sick leave per year. Since he has a thriving business with 26 locations in three states, it might have been worthwhile to take a chance and see if this… Read more »
Exactly! Contradictions up the yin yang with this explanation. Just another fat cat at the top with 26 locations kvetching about those earning a little more for a minimum wage. Poor guy!
I work for that “poor guy” you are talking about, and he does this all on his own. No banks, investors or loans. Because a business has had some success doesn’t mean the owners are rubbing elbows with the 1%. I’ll be happy to keep that location open, if you are willing to pay the prices I will have to charge to operate it. Nothing is more disheartening than walking away from something you spent a decade trying to build. Would you change your mind if you knew that out of those 26 locations he owns 5 (4 now) the… Read more »
Ok, thank you for filling in some further information, but the guy owns four restaurants, and franchisees always have to pay fees, so he would be collecting that as well. Sounds like a great gig still here. Now if the guy who is in that position can barely get by according to you, what does that say about how the minimum wage worker below him is getting by then? See how that begs the question?
Joey, obviously you have never owned a business. You have no idea what owners go through. It is a big sacrifice to invest your money, heart, and soul into something that has a a 50/50 chance of making it through its first 5 years. People like you are clueless, but that’s ok it’s a hard thing to wrap your head around until you have to do it. It’s about numbers and your bottom line. If something is dragging you down with no future of improvement it has to be cut loose. But please realize this, if someone is a small… Read more »
He’s closing because the increase to his prices made the product unattractive to customers. If people choose not to sell things here because the prices are too high, workers won’t have to worry about their wages. They’ll have to worry about having a job. And residents will have to worry about inflation, closed businesses and increased taxes when revenues from businesses dip. You aren’t slaying the 1% with your ideology. You’re hurting everyone below them.
Did you have those same comments for the six other restaurants ON THE SAME BLOCK that closed before us?
7 closed restaurants on one block.
But yeah go ahead and blame those of us who chose your city instead of blaming the people of your city who obviously can’t support the businesses that choose your city.
We did the best we could. How about you just say thank you.
The tough fact is that the entire business model which relies on wages that are unsustainable is no longer realistic. You are saying it yourself and I am agreeing with you, we just disagree as to whether it should continue anyways. It shouldn’t, and it’s lasted way too long. It’s you who should be saying thank you for the run while you had it because it was overly generous. The economy has to evolve into something that’s not obsolete.
You know who is laughing at all this bickering? The people who own the buildings that have been raising rents. Those are the people that have life changing wealth but thier greed makes them want more. The rents are drving these companies under as much as the min wage is yet they get none of the blame. They are also the ones putting all these council members in place.
Here’s how it works in WeHo and the USA 🇺🇸 in general. If you don’t like your job for any reason you are free to get another. No one owes YOU a thing bub.
Did Chopshop even apply for a 1 year waiver? Or a 3 month delay at least?
https://www.weho.org/business/operate-your-business/minimum-wage
Also, why isn’t the rent increase being mentioned? How much is the landlord increasing rent by? Is it an unreasonable amount? Do they want chopshop out of that space so they can charge more?
Our “leaders” have no clue what they’re doing. People have lost their jobs, more closed storefronts…more to follow. VOTE. THEM. OUT.