Clifton's legendary cafeteria reopens in struggling downtown LA

Andrew Meieran is in the process of reopening the doors of one of LA's legendary restaurants to once again make it an edgy dining and entertainment destination.

Meieran is the owner of Clifton's Republic, the kitschy, woodland-themed restaurant on Broadway in downtown's historic core that has served comfort food like pot roast, mashed potatoes and Jell-O for nearly a century. The five-story restaurant and bar complex was closed last year after a burst water pipe caused a flood that destroyed the kitchen and collapsed ceilings on three floors.

Clifton's is set to reopen next month after extensive repairs and renovations. Among the changes chefs will find is a basement venue several years in the making that Meieran says is “dedicated to innovation and the magic of experiences” with “entertainment, cocktails and culinary offerings.”

Meieran is keeping details under wraps for now, but he has demonstrated a flair for creating provocative entertainment and dining venues, obsessively focusing on offbeat details and being willing to spend more money than most real estate developers to realize his vision and preserve the historical integrity of his projects.

A Bay Area native with a background in real estate development and filmmaking, Meieran burst onto the LA scene in 2007 when he opened the Edison, an underground nightclub he founded in a former power plant deep beneath a century-old building on 2nd Street.

In 2010, he took over Clifton's from the family that had operated it since the 1930s, when founder Clifford Clinton purchased the lease on the former Boos Bros. Cafeteria on Broadway and set about creating a space that would evoke the coastal redwoods of the Santa Cruz Mountains, where Clinton spent summers growing up. After taking over, Meieran closed the restaurant for nearly four years for renovations and upgrades, and again during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Times spoke with Meieran about his plans to revive Clifton's after its current closure, as well as his thoughts on evolving the bar and restaurant business during a time of change downtown. The interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, the catering industry has been hit hard idol through changes that have made it difficult for owners to operate profitably. How do you plan to do this?

People need, and I emphasize “NEED” in capital letters, to be able to detach themselves from their devices and balance their lives through physical and social interaction with people present and present around them. We are targeting people who are seeking a much more interactive lifestyle and who crave physical experiences to counterbalance the ubiquitous online presence.

Clifton's exists in LA's collective memory as a giant cafeteria in a whimsical forest setting, but we don't see cafeterias very often anymore. Why is that? Will we return to Clifton's as we remember it?

Cafeterias used to be the dominant form of food delivery and food service, and today, with a few exceptions, that's no longer the case. There are clear, understandable, and reasonable reasons for this: for a cafeteria to work, you need a lot of people in a captive audience. You need volume, and you need stable, reasonable food prices that you can pass on to your guests. That's completely lacking in this era.

So what will Clifton's offer when it reopens?

It will be fully utilized as a restaurant, lounge and nightlife hub and will also include the historic Brookdale Dining Room, which people remember as Forest Glen, Walt Disney's original inspiration for Disneyland. We will also reopen the Monarch Bar on the second floor and the Pacific Seas “adventure bar” on the third floor. The basement will open in mid-summer.

Obviously, downtown has changed a lot since Clifton's heyday in the 20th century, when Broadway was LA's premier shopping and entertainment district. Occupancy Office buildings that used to ensure a stable lunch break Customers, has declined significantly since the COVID-19 lockdown. What are the prospects for inner-city businesses? like Clifton's?

It's obviously a very different environment than before the pandemic. People have changed their habits and patterns and businesses have responded accordingly, with some closing and others shifting their focus. It's a tectonic level shift, something that hasn't been seen for generations, and it's happening very quickly now. The trigger was originally the pandemic, but it was followed by technological changes that transformed the dining experience, such as app-based ordering, touch screens and the potentially revolutionary impact of artificial intelligence.

It's hard for people to see what's coming next and where this is all going. That obviously makes it difficult for a company to respond and for other people to make investments and determine where we're going to be in 18 months, three years, five years, which is necessary in the economy.

Downtown is slower to respond to change than some other, more flexible communities because of the magnitude of the impact and its density. It's like turning a tanker that's not turning around in the blink of an eye. It takes a lot more effort and concerted focus to change direction.

What are the chances that the historic core can make a comeback?

Broadway in particular has all the ingredients that make for extraordinary projects and extraordinary communities sitting here waiting for the right catalyst. It has density, historic infrastructure and buildings that have an intrinsic beauty and an intrinsic connection to guests, residents and visitors. And the location is excellent in terms of accessibility with plenty of parking and public transport links.