Edward L. Rausch, 87; Restaurateur Believed in Old-School Service

Edward L. Rausch, whose Edward’s Steak House near MacArthur Park was a Los Angeles landmark for more than three decades before he reluctantly closed it in 1990 amid the neighborhood’s rising crime rate and deteriorating conditions, has died. He was 87.

Rausch died April 24 of respiratory failure at St. Mary Medical Center in Long Beach.

Born in Conejos, Colo., in 1916, Rausch moved to Los Angeles in 1938 and worked as a butcher before operating Edward’s Coffee Shop on Grand Avenue downtown from 1943 to 1945.

He then became a real estate broker but returned to the restaurant business in 1946 after purchasing one of his own listings: a coffee shop on South Alvarado Street, a block south of MacArthur Park in the then-fashionable Westlake district.

Rausch grandly renamed the coffee shop, which boasted three tables and a counter, the House of Edwards. He was the cook and his young bride, Lynette, was the waitress.

Seven years later, Rausch razed the coffee shop and the house behind it and opened a larger restaurant, which retained the name the House of Edwards. But in 1959, after adding a bar and giving the restaurant a Victorian decor, Rausch gave it a new name.

Edward’s Steak House was the kind of place that had sawdust on the floor, turn-of-the-century brocade-embossed wallpaper, dark-paneled booths and glowing Tiffany lamps, with portraits of everyone from Teddy Roosevelt to Lillian Russell on the walls. A wooden Indian stood sentry near the door.

From 1959 on, Rausch served as host, escorting customers to their tables but also helping bus tables, cook, cut meat and even wash dishes.

“He was your classic old-school restaurant guy. He did everything,” said Rausch’s son, Ken, who grew up in the family home three blocks from the restaurant and began working with his father as a teenager, washing dishes and doing prep work in the kitchen.

Specializing in reasonably priced steaks and ground beef, Edward’s Steak House typically had lines out the door for lunch and dinner, its success reflecting the unprecedented economic growth of Los Angeles after World War II.

Over the years, the restaurant received numerous awards, including those from the California Restaurant Writers Assn. and the city of Los Angeles. Restaurant critics praised its old-fashioned American comfort food and colorful ambience.

Ken Rausch, who is now president of Edward’s Food Service, parent company of Edward’s Steak House in El Monte, as well as chairman of the board of directors of the California Restaurant Assn., described his father as “very outspoken and right between the eyes: You always knew what he thought.”

That was never more evident than in 1990 after the area around MacArthur Park had become crime-ridden.

“I can remember when you could take your kid boat riding in MacArthur Park,” Ken Rausch lamented to The Times. “In those days, a lot of the old houses around here were rooming houses. Pensioners lived there. They played checkers in the park. The grass was green, the flowers were planted -- it was beautiful.

“Now, it’s a human toilet.”

In May 1990, Ed Rausch stood at the entrance of his restaurant and, flanked by City Councilwoman Gloria Molina and other officials, announced in a voice breaking with emotion that Edward’s Steak House would be sold “because our most dreadful nightmares have come true.”

By then, business at his restaurant had fallen off by 40% in the previous five years.

Three months later, after 44 years in the same location, Ed Rausch donned a starched white shirt and tie and warmly greeted each customer with a handshake and what a Times reporter described as “a sad smile” as his landmark eatery served its last meals.

The Rausches sold their restaurant and adjoining parking lots for about $2 million to a developer who converted the 7,500-square-foot property into a swap-meet arcade with a Korean restaurant in the rear.

After the restaurant closed, Ed Rausch began working full time at the Edward’s Steak House in suburban El Monte, which the family had opened in 1973.

He quit working about 10 years ago, his son said, “but he was always there for me.”

In addition to his son, Rausch is survived by Lynette, his wife of 57 years; daughters Denise Scandura and Linda Delaive; and four grandchildren.

Contributions may be made in Rausch’s memory to the Robert Lugliani Fund at the St. Mary Medical Center Foundation.