One of L.A.’s oldest restaurants is at risk of closing. Could a new bar save it?
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After an onslaught of recent restaurant closures, one of L.A.’s longest-running restaurants might join the ranks. Owners of Chili John’s, a Burbank institution since 1946, say they’ll have to close or sell the restaurant if business doesn’t increase. But a new, adjacent bar could help the legendary chili diner stay afloat.
“People will tell me, ‘Oh, you guys can’t go out of business because you’ve been here so long,’ but it doesn’t actually work that way,” said co-owner Steve Hager. “It is a business and it needs to make money and sustain itself in order to stay. …You can’t keep a restaurant open when people only come once every year.”
According to Hager, who owns Chili John’s with his wife, Claudine, the business never recovered from COVID losses; currently they’re grossing only 20% of pre-pandemic sales.
Chili on the menu of a white-tablecloth joint might be the equivalent of hand-tooled cowboy boots on the feet of a Texas millionaire, a sign that the owner is really a regular guy even if he does sling a whole lot of raie en vinaigrette .
Guests have dined on the famous chili for decades at the diner’s U-shaped counter, at times flocking to try the long-simmered stew or sample the lauded icebox pie — both of which were served at the first Chili John’s (and original bar) in Green Bay, Wis., before making their way out west.
“We have amazing chili in my opinion,” Hager said, “but people aren’t coming in to buy amazing chili — at least not enough in order for us to stay.”
That chili recipe was written down by founder John Isaac roughly 130 years ago, a spin on chuck-wagon meat preservation that he served at his Wisconsin bar and restaurant. In 1946 his son moved west and opened his own outpost in Burbank.
Claudine Hager’s uncle, Gene Loguercio, purchased the business in the ’80s as a longtime family friend to the Isaacs. In 2016 she and her husband began helping Loguercio’s widow and Claudine’s cousins with the business, and around 2019 they formally took the reins.
Today she and her husband grind beef suet in-house, clarify it for four to six hours, then add the meat and simmer for an additional 16 to 20 hours. The tart but creamy icebox pie, another signature, is the same as it was in 1900 when it was served in Isaac’s Wisconsin bar.
“It is wonderful chili, dense and comforting, lean and hearty, with a cumin wallop and a subtle, smoky heat that creeps up on you like the first day of a Santa Ana wind,” Jonathan Gold wrote in 1991. “It’s the kind of stuff that stays with you for a while, flavoring your breath for half a day even if you don’t pile on the onions.”
From 2017 to 2019, Hager remembers a line of guests out the door and down the block, there to buy chili and sit at the restaurant’s U-shaped counter. Now, he said, he’s lucky if 10 people are filling the 25 swiveling orange stools along the horseshoe.
On March 20 the Hagers launched a GoFundMe campaign, hoping to crowdsource finances to keep the historic restaurant afloat. They’re also banking on the launch of the Taproom at Chili John’s, an adjacent bar that’s taken four years to open. But, he said, they might not have enough funds to last through the bar’s opening.
A Thursday Instagram post announcing the fundraiser elicited concern from fans and community members, including longtime supporter and comedian Patton Oswalt.
“The only thing that can tame the summer heat of Burbank are the harsh chilies and creamy pastas on hand at Chili John’s,” Oswalt wrote in a message to The Times. “Once that place goes, it’s the apocalypse.”
A 2021 appearance on reality show “Restaurant Recovery” helped diversify the menu with burgers, specialty hot dogs, chicken sandwiches and fries, and began the bar’s renovation next door. It also provided a bump in business due to the exposure, but those visits have come and gone.
“We’re doing worse now than we did during COVID,” Hager said.
Many L.A. restaurants trying to remain afloat from pandemic losses continued to struggle during the 2023 entertainment industry strikes. Many still have not recovered from the ripple effects of the strikes and the general downturn in local production. For a frequent filming location like Chili John’s — which has appeared in “Once Upon a Time ... in Hollywood,” “Twin Peaks,” “Star Trek” and “I Am the Night,” among others — the drop in business proved devastating.
For years, the restaurant served as a filming locale once or twice a month. Last year, it wasn’t rented for filming at all. Hager said that the previous year it was rented for two commercials, which typically do not pay as much as a feature film or miniseries.
He added that the restaurant’s clientele primarily work in the entertainment industry at nearby studios; without a pickup in production, its client base nearly vanished.
The cityscape just behind the Hollywood sign keeps the early to mid 20th century alive, thriving and center stage.
The restaurant might have already closed had it not been for Hager’s disability pension from his years in the military. Last year he received a retroactive deposit for two years’ worth of payments; without much income from the restaurant, the Hagers have been putting the pension money into paying staff and the restaurant’s bills.
Recently, they ran through their retroactive lump sum. Soon their property taxes will come due. There’s not much more they feel they can do to sustain, and Hager told The Times he hasn’t paid himself in years.
“Right now is basically when all my savings went to zero,” he said.
They’re hoping that the adjacent Taproom at Chili John’s — which is currently soft opening on weekends and set to fully debut in April — could change their future and be more relevant for the neighborhood.
Chili fans, fear not: Bowls of the signature beef chili will be available at the bar alongside the chicken chili and the organic lentil-and-quinoa versions — even in flight, or sampler, form — alongside the chili spaghetti, chili dog and chili burger.
But the taproom also will serve new burrata salads, charcuterie boards, a salmon plate, a steak sandwich and gourmet s’mores, with dishes inspired by Hager’s 15 years spent traveling in the Coast Guard through Sonoma County, New Orleans, New England and beyond. (A favorite of his, a beloved New Orleans peanut butter burger, also is planned to make an appearance.)
Local craft beer, calimocho and wine — keeping glasses around $10 — also can be found at the taproom.
“We’re excited, it’s just that we don’t know if we’re even going to be able to [financially] last through the opening,” Hager said. “We’ve been putting a lot of money out for equipment and the kegs of beer for our tap system, our cases of wine and the food. We have reached a point where we’re almost completely out of money, and we’re not going to be able to pay the property taxes or the mortgage.”
The Hagers hope to not only maintain the cherished restaurant for history’s sake but to keep the restaurant in the family.
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The restaurant is set to turn 80 next year. With renewed support from the community, they’re hoping guests will be able to gather around that horseshoe counter for from-scratch chili made from a century-old recipe at Chili John’s 80th birthday, and for years to come.
“Even if people don’t want to give us donations for the GoFundMe, I was hoping that maybe that would just make people aware,” Hager said. “The problem would fix itself if we can just have enough people come and enjoy our food.”
Chili John’s, 2018 W. Burbank Blvd., Burbank, open Monday to Saturday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
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