I was driving through Echo Park in Los Angeles on a Saturday afternoon after finishing a series of errands. With just two cups of coffee to fuel my energy for the day, I was starting to feel quite hungry and my first thought was to make a brief stop at a bagel shop and then continue my drive home. While waiting for the traffic lights at the corner of Sunset Boulevard and Park Avenue to turn green, I looked to my right and saw an old French Revival building I had visited and driven passed many times. It was the legendary Taix French Restaurant which was just opening for dinner at 5:30pm. My thoughts shifted to some recent community preservation efforts I had attended to petition landmarking the 95 year old restaurant, which was at risk of being demolished for redevelopment. When the light turned green, instead of continuing west on Sunset Boulevard, I made a right turn into the restaurant's parking lot and parked my car near the entrance of the restaurant. I stood outside my car and reminisced about my visits to the Taix.
The Taix French Restaurant opened in 1927 by French-Americans whose family had immigrated to Los Angeles in the late 1800s. The first restaurant was located in downtown Los Angeles and then moved to its current location on Sunset Boulevard in 1962. The restaurant has remained family-owned and operated by the Taix family and some of the employees have worked at the restaurant for fifty years! The restaurant has been a charming and festive place where many generations of Angelenos have gone to enjoy French country cuisine and celebrate holidays, birthdays, anniversaries, and many more happy events.
Unfortunately, the public's efforts to landmark and preserve this historic building were unsuccessful because the city council approved the new property owner's plans to demolish and replace the restaurant with a massive mixed-use building that will include residential and business units. While the new owner has allocated space for the Taix French Restaurant in the new building, locals and preservationists argue that the 1962 French Revival building has historic, architectural and cultural significance, and preserving the building also preserves a part of Los Angeles history. The Los Angeles Conservancy made significant efforts to appeal the demolition and asked the owner to reconsider a creative design that includes the historic Taix building and the new structure. After all, a historic building can be a very valuable asset to a new development. Who in Los Angeles would not want to live walking distance to a historic building and charming restaurant that has been part of the Los Angeles scene for almost 100 years?
While the Taix restaurant will continue, the French Revival building with the retro-vibe, where public gatherings and fond memories have been made since 1962, will one day be gone forever. Reluctantly acknowledging this fate, I decided to request a dinner-for-one table in the cocktail lounge and I quietly reminisced my memories at the Taix.
