Los Angeles restaurants empty out after destructive wildfires: We cant keep going like this

The devastating Los Angeles wildfires that have killed more than two dozen people and forced more than 150,000 residents from Malibu to the San Fernando Valley to flee are now threatening the local restaurant industry.Several local eateries were wiped out entirely by the Eaton and Palisades fires while others have seen a dramatic fall in business since so many of their usual customers are displaced.“We served 45 to 50 people last night on a shift when we usually have 200,” Tal Ronnen, owner of the upscale vegan fine-dining eatery Crossroads Kitchen in the Beverly Grove section of LA, told Eater Los Angeles over the weekend.“We can’t keep going on like this.”Ronnen said his business will struggle to continue employing the 60 workers who “rely on us to make a living.”“I don’t want to tell anyone what to do right now… But if they have the means, order something to-go,” Ronnen told Eater Los Angeles.Bret Thompson, a Michelin-star caliber chef who owns and operates Pez Coastal Kitchen in Pasadena, said that his restaurant has seen an 85% drop in business in the last two weeks.“It’s been heartbreaking for our staff.We’ve only been able to keep them on for three or four days a week,” Thompson told Eater Los Angeles.Glancing at the empty tables inside his restaurant, Thompson sighed: “It feels like we’ve all been through a war.”Caitlin Cutler is co-owner of Ronan, the Melrose Avenue eatery that has been recognized by Michelin for its hand-tossed Neapolitan-style pizzas.Cutler, who owns and operates Ronan alongside her husband, chef Daniel Cutler, told Eater Los Angeles that the emptiness was as much psychological as it was financial.“Everyone has this eerie sense of wanting to be home, safe, inside, and away from bad air quality… I feel like people have left LA to escape,” Cutler said.According to Cutler, she and her husband closed the restaurant for two days while the fires raged.Once they reopened, “we found that no one was goi...