Fire Hits Historic Pacific Dining Car Restaurant in Los Angeles

The Pacific Dining Car restaurant building, a historic-cultural monument where the city's movers and shakers once dined, was heavily damaged in a fire on Saturday.

Seventy-five firefighters responded to a blaze that broke out shortly after midnight outside the century-old restaurant property, then spread to the building itself, according to officials in the Los Angeles Fire Department. The fire took about an hour to extinguish.

A tent, mattresses and charred shopping carts could be seen along the north side of the restaurant building, which is located in L.A.'s Westlake neighborhood and is currently vacant. The cause of the incident is still under investigation, said LAFD spokesperson Brian Humphrey.

Humphrey said it was not immediately clear where the blaze originated, but firefighters believe it began as a debris or trash fire.

"We've received calls from many people today. They're pretty much heartbroken. I think many people have had family who have been there at some point," he said.

Pacific Dining Car closed permanently in 2020, several months into the COVID-19 pandemic. With its stained glass, dark wood interiors and high-backed chairs, the restaurant had been a 24-hour fine-dining spot for politicians, business leaders, entertainment industry figures and anyone seeking to celebrate a special occasion.

"It was the place to go for power brokers in Los Angeles," said Adrian Scott Fine, president of the Los Angeles Conservancy, an organization devoted to historic preservation.

Fine said Pacific Dining Car was a "legacy business" on the level of Musso & Frank Grill in Hollywood or Dan Tana's in West Hollywood, serving steaks and other rich fare — think the wedge of iceberg lettuce with candied bacon — into the night.

Last year, the City Council designated a portion of the site as a historic-cultural monument — the section "designed to resemble a railroad dining car," according to the city's report on the monument application.

That structure opened in 1921 at 7th and Westlake streets and was moved to its current location at 6th and Witmer streets in 1923, according to the report. The restaurant was repeatedly expanded over the following decades.

Video of Saturday's fire, posted on the platform X, showed flames burning through the roof of the rail car section.

The property currently has a for-sale sign on the exterior. In recent years, members of the ownership family have been at odds over the future of the site, according to Eater LA.

Over the past century, Pacific Dining Car was popular with celebrities such as Mae West and the gossip columnist Louella Parsons, while also serving as a backdrop in films, according to the restaurant's website.

Former Los Angeles City Councilmember Mike Hernandez, who represented the area from 1991 to 2001, said he knew nothing about Pacific Dining Car before entering politics. But once he ran for office, he went there regularly to meet with potential supporters.

During the restaurant's final years, long after he left office, Hernandez and his family celebrated New Year's Eve dinner at the restaurant several times.

"Pacific Dining Car was the place to go if you wanted to be seen and you wanted to see people," he said.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.