Share your
Pantry Story
Over the years, the Pantry has been part of family traditions, birthdays, late nights, and everyday Los Angeles life. We’d love to hear what the Pantry has meant to you.
Memories shared by our guests
Pantry Stories
New Year’s Eve, 1933
By Peter Vincent
Winner of the Pantry’s “My Favorite Story” contest, held in celebration of its 75th anniversary under owner Richard J Riordan, former mayor of Los Angeles.
I was 75 years old on March 12, 1999. This means that I was born a few days before The Original Pantry opened its doors in 1924. When I was 8 years old, I came to Los Angeles to live with my mother at 316 Valencia St. and 9th. It was in the middle of the Depression and to help out at home I was selling Liberty magazines and The Los Angeles Examiner. My walking route consisted of east on 9th to Broadway…
The Stolen Mug, 1971
By an Unknown Author
In 2013, an anonymous sender confessed to a crime committed at the Pantry 42 years earlier. The confession arrived with $20. The stolen property did not.
The writer had enjoyed many meals at the Pantry between 1968 and 1971. After their final dinner, they removed a coffee cup. The confession was more direct: they “stole it actually.” The mug subsequently traveled with them through several states and two foreign countries, becoming a treasured possession they continued to use every day.
Lunch at the Pantry, 1967
By Neal Flaster
Long before becoming a chef, restaurateur, food writer, and critic, he found refuge from a grueling downtown summer job over lunches at the Pantry.
It was another sizzling, smoggy July day in 1967 downtown Los Angeles. My first grown-up summer job pulling racks of dresses through the gutters of L.A.’s garment district was a misery of buckets of sweat, aching muscles, blistered feet, and Popeye-sized forearms. Was it worth the promised building of character? I didn’t think so at the time, but the car I bought was every SoCal teenager’s dream.
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