Dear Friend of the Chili Bowl,

Thank you for joining 1210 concerned citizens who have signed the petition urging councilman Mike Bonin to stop the demolition and help to move L.A.’s last Chili Bowl from its longtime home at 12244 West Pico Boulevard to a safe location within the city of Los Angeles.

Sadly, as described in our last update, the Chili Bowl has been cut into pieces by the property owner, and at last report the curved slabs are just sitting in a pile on the property collecting rainwater. There has been no announcement of any plan for the remains of the potential landmark or its original diamond shaped rooftop sign.

And despite the false claims from the Abundant Housing real estate lobby group when demanding that City Council reject the landmark nomination, there is still no new construction proposed for the parcel. The Chili Bowl appears to have been broken up for nothing.

We’ve wondered why the property owner’s attorney Daniel Freedman was so aggressive, suing the city, ignoring the Los Angeles Conservancy and demanding we delete social media posts about threats to the Chili Bowl. We understand him a little better now.

Today, the Cultural Heritage Commission published the agenda for its April 7 regular 10am hearing (PDF link), which includes consideration of landmark status for the Pacific Dining Car and the Philip Ahn-Kurt Cobain Residence in Hollywood. Daniel Freedman represents filmmaker Arthur Jafa, the new owner of the Ahn-Cobain property. Jafa’s plan is to demolish the house and commission a new home from the Ghanaian-British architect Sir David Frank Adjaye OBE RA. This will be harder to accomplish, though not impossible, if the property is landmarked.

In his opposition to landmarking, Daniel Freedman has sent an astonishing letter accusing the Cultural Heritage Commission and City Planning staff of having a corrupt bias in favor of the Los Angeles Conservancy, the author of both this nomination and the Chili Bowl’s.

You can read his letter in the nomination documents, here.

Freedman demands that the Cultural Heritage Commission not hear the matter, but instead send it on to the Board of Referred Powers. We’re local politics nerds and had no idea what he was talking about! So we looked it up.

The Board of Referred Powers is an obscure Los Angeles City Council Committee that rarely meets. BoRP is presently composed of Council President Nury Martinez, Paul Krekorian, Joe Buscaino, Mitch O'Farrell and Gil Cedillo. Three members of this committee are now or have recently been embroiled in attacks on Los Angeles landmarks for the benefit of developers: Krekorian vs. Weddington Golf & Tennis, O'Farrell vs. Taix French Restaurant and Cedillo vs. the Stires Staircase Bungalow Court. They are absolutely unqualified and unsuited to determine the merits of any potential Historic Cultural Monument, and especially one as complicated and contentious as the Philip Ahn-Kurt Cobain Residence. Plus, an election in the coming weeks could remove several of them from office!

The Pico Boulevard Chili Bowl was, it seems, just an appetizer for an unhinged legal main course, as Daniel Freedman unleashes an attack on the city’s historic preservation ordinance, its staff and commissioners and on the Los Angeles Conservancy, the largest member supported preservation nonprofit in the country. So tune in on April 7 and watch the fur fly!

But all the news is not grim or weird. Friend of the Chili Bowl Damian Sullivan recently visited the former Chili Bowl at 6529 San Fernando Road, Glendale, CA 91201, near the Burbank border. This Chili Bowl was mostly recently the office of a used car dealership which has been closed since about 2020. But after a car accident sheared off a hydrant and flooded the building, it was in bad shape without a roof or interior walls and was declining by the day.

Damian was thrilled to see that somebody has been working to secure the wide open building from further trespassing activity, and is hopeful that this means the property has found a new tenant who will again use the little building as an office. He’ll keep an eye on it, and let us know when the westernmost Chili Bowl is back in business.

Meanwhile, you can still eat in a Chili Bowl at Ho Kee BBQ & Noodle at 501 West Valley Boulevard, Alhambra, CA 91803 any day but Tuesday, from 9am to 8pm.

It does seem kind of pointless at this point, but there’s one person responsible for the Pico Boulevard Chili Bowl having been destroyed, and that person is lame duck councilman Mike Bonin. If you’re as mad as we are, you can still call or email and let him know what you think. Call 310-575-8461 and/or email Councilmember.Bonin@lacity.org with the simple, updated message, which you can add to if you like: "I care about the Chili Bowl at 12244 West Pico Boulevard, which has been cut into pieces and is rotting on the ground. Your office has told constituents that you rejected the landmark nomination because the property owner agreed to move it. I am asking the Councilmember to do the right thing and resume discussions with Friends of the Chili Bowl, and to work with the property owner and find the funds needed to move this (now deconstructed) historic Los Angeles treasure somewhere safe, and not to let it be destroyed. Thank you."

This is just a matter of money and real estate and time. Surely the answer can be found to save the only giant Chili Bowl in Los Angeles so it can enjoy another 87 years in the sun. Maybe you’ve got the perfect spot for a (now deconstructed) giant Chili Bowl to call its temporary home? Call us—we want to help if Daniel Freedman will let us!

That’s all the news that fits in a giant Chili Bowl. Please continue to share the petition (http://www.change.org/SaveTheChiliBowl) with friends who love the Chili Bowl and want to see it saved. And stay tuned for additional updates as they happen.

Yours for Los Angeles,
Kim Cooper & Richard Schave
Friends of the Chili Bowl