The IHOP on Santa Monica Boulevard has permanently closed, according to its operators.
The only restaurant in town open 24 hours, IHOP’s business prospects stood to be significantly impacted by its future neighbor, the Holloway Interim Housing Facility, which will transform the former motel next door into temporary housing for homeless people.
The location was already a regular haunt for the homeless, many of whom spend nights at the adjacent Sal Guarriello Memorial Park and bathe in its fountain.
The IHOP on Sunset in Los Angeles and on Wilshire Blvd will remain open.
IHOP was founded in 1958 in Toluca Lake. The WeHo restaurant has been in operation since at least the 1970s.
They must have gotten tired of all the pot heads parking in their lot and jaywalking across the street.
Sad to see the IHOP on Santa Monica Blvd. close.It was my back-up place to go in case my favorite place was closed.I never had a problem with them when I visit the city.
West Hollywood seems to be losing its color.You got the Abbey and Micky’s plus all the others,but you need places like the IHOP to fill in the gaps as only 10 years ago,the city had the right balance of businesses to stay local without going far.
The intersection of La Cienega & Santa Monica is zoned for 7-11 stories; making the land far too potentially valuable to developers to remain in use as a single (or two)-story diner with grade-level parking. The expiration of the lease and sky-high rent increases (if lease renewal is being offered at all) are the biggest reason IHOP closed RENTS will be the reason—not shoplifters. And it’s the biggest reason other once-profitable businesses are no longer viable. You can blame the homeless—but you better start looking at landlords and property speculators/developers as well if you want to really understand the problem… Read more »
Housing is just one component. What good is the housing if these people have no job opportunities? How are they supposed to pay rent and live? Many of these people are not simply homeless because of high rent, many are seriously ill people or people with drug addictions. WEHO is not very business friendly and until politicians start looking at ways to encourage businesses to thrive in our city versus drive them out of our city this problem will never get solved. We have an anti-business union mentality right now in WEHO and that will get us nowhere.
The greatest missed opportunity in the history of the City: they should have bought up the Holloway Motel at the same time the IHOP and CVS were rumored to be for sale. The entire property could have been developed into one or two large 11 story towers with lots of million dollar condos, office space, shopping, lots of parking too. Instead, we are inviting more homeless to the City, and will have an empty IHOP for perhaps years and years, and a CVS destined to close (just wait til the homeless turn the whole area into their toilets). Personally I… Read more »
Speaking of the Sal “memorial”, there is a punctuation error in the inscription site. It says “Sal Guarriello Veteran’s Memorial” when it actually should not show ownership or possession but designated as a monument in honor of veterans, thus it should show as “Sal Guarriello Veterans Memorial”. Simply put, veterans do not possess the fountain, it’s a tribute in remembrance of veterans. Such errors seem small, but they can change the whole meaning of a sentence or a whole story.
I’ve noticed that glaring error for years and have always chalked it up to the incompetence that runs rampant at city. hall.
Does the punctuation really matter. Whats important is it honors those who have honorably served.
Yet another affordable restaurant closes. Very sad. BTW – Mel’s on Sunset is still serving 24/7, as far as I know. And now they may truly be the last dining establishment to be open around the clock.
Id bet the city buys the parcel to expand the “homeless” housing project next door. Is CVS still rumored to shutter too?
Hard to believe the city couldn’t support a reasonably priced 24 hour place, with easy free parking too. The Marxists on the City Council, with their vision of a $30 an hour minimum wage for out of town workers, didin’t have the foresight to know this would make them raise their prices to the point of just not being worth it. Pancakes, eggs and a beverage with taxes and tip for around $30 just isn’t going to be sustainable. Maybe Sepi can buy the land cheap, and expand the adjacent homeless shelter, and we can house more people to reward,… Read more »
You have made a bad life choice – karma.
I hear they’re going to turn it into a marijuana shop & lounge & keep the same IHOP logo, but call it International House of Pot. The south side of the street is already all pot shops, then there’s the homeless shelter coming up next to IHOP. I presume CVS will be the next to go. I’m told they’re having big problems with theft & homeless “shoppers” & are about to give up. That area is now a homeless haven & now the abandoned Kitchen 24 has given the homeless even more convenient space to hang out & to sleep.… Read more »
No. The only ones who half-assed encourage the leasing of empty buildings are the RE agents who put up FOR ,LEASE signs that have been in the windows for so long, they’ve been faded away by the sun & deteriorating neighborhoods.
I’ve lived in West Hollywood for almost 10 years and never went. Hope the employees can be transferred to other locations.
How refreshing; this restaurant is going out of business due to yet to open transitional housing facility rather than the increase in the minimum wage and paid time off. Did IHOP operator actually say that?
No, they did not. A lot of conjecture/speculation going on here.
IHOP was plagued by the homeless, both inside & out. I know what I see more than what I’m told. They tried serving outside near the front entrance on nice days, by putting tables outside, which is usually very pleasant. However I very often saw homeless occupying the outside seats, surrounded by bags and/or carts filled with personal belongings, asleep with their head on a table, drinking liquor out of the bottle, etc., not exactly an ideal spot for those paying customers who enjoy eating outside. I’ve also seen them having a problem with a homeless person asleep in their… Read more »
It couldn’t be more obvious except to our council members who are solving the world’s homeless problem at the cost of the WeHo residents.
CVS will be next.
Why is the city converting the motel into a inadequate Homeless Shelter when a large shelter was promised as part of the Development Agreement years ago in the approval process to build the Gateway Project? I also wonder how is the hotel across the street on Holloway going to survive when its guest primary view is a Homeless Shelter?
Wonder what’s next for this space given its new neighbors to the west.