{"id":156971,"date":"2026-01-30T20:38:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-30T20:38:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/156971\/"},"modified":"2026-01-30T20:38:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T20:38:07","slug":"many-l-a-restaurants-say-they-cant-afford-to-close-for-todays-general-strike-theyre-donating-instead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/156971\/","title":{"rendered":"Many L.A. restaurants say they can’t afford to close for today’s general strike. They\u2019re donating instead"},"content":{"rendered":"

After a tumultuous month of continued national immigration raids and the ICE shootings of Renee Good<\/a> and Alex Pretti<\/a> in Minneapolis, nationwide protests<\/a> are set to occur today amid calls for a general strike. Small businesses across the L.A. area announced Friday closures in observation of the strike, while others who voiced support said the decision to close is impossible \u2014 especially for independent restaurants, which suffered an outsized string of hardships through 2025<\/a>, causing a growing number of permanent closures<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Many operators who say they are unable to close are donating a portion or all profits from Friday\u2019s business to immigrant-rights causes. Some say they\u2019ve left the decision up to their staff, who rely on the day\u2019s wages. One restaurateur, who requested anonymity for fear of ICE retaliation, said their employees\u2019 earnings regularly pay for undocumented staff\u2019s private transportation to and from work, and they cannot afford to close for even a single night.<\/p>\n

Guelaguetza-co-owner and Independent Hospitality Coalition member Bricia Lopez took to social media Thursday afternoon to provide tips for fellow restaurateurs who can\u2019t afford to close their businesses today. They included donating to immigrant-rights organizations or spotlighting specific fundraising dishes, as many across the county now are.<\/p>\n

Some local restaurants are opting to remain open but are donating the day or the weekend\u2019s proceeds to nonprofits and legal funds, or they\u2019re temporarily flipping their dining rooms to centers for community action such as leading workshops for protests signs.<\/p>\n

Guelaguetza is offering free horchata and cafe de olla for protesters or those who can provide proof of donations to immigrant communities through 3 p.m. In Glassell Park, a pop-up tonight will raise funds for street vendors currently avoiding work for fear of ICE. Taiwanese chef Vivian Ku is fundraising at her downtown and Highland Park restaurants, while she closes Silver Lake\u2019s Pine & Crane to the public in order to use it as a staging ground for aid groups today. <\/p>\n

\u201cFor a lot of restaurants, coffee shops, etc., they\u2019re just a few bad days from being upside down for the month, and a few bad months from having no business at all,\u201d an owner of Highland Park\u2019s Santa Canela posted to Instagram on Thursday. \u201cWe understand the weight and power of collective action, but plain and simple: We didn\u2019t feel comfortable making financial decisions on behalf of our entire team as to whether or not they could afford to lose another shift at the end of the month at a time when cost of living has never been higher.\u201d<\/p>\n

Home-style Chinese restaurant Woon, with locations in Historic Filipinotown and on the edge of Pasadena bordering Altadena<\/a>, will remain open, too.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wish we had the luxury of closing our doors, but we will keep them open as we stand in solidarity with our community and neighbors,\u201d chef-owner Keegan Fong posted to Instagram. \u201cWe\u2019ve given our staff the option to take the day off while also allowing those who need the hours to continue to work.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even those who are closing today have stressed the importance of supporting local restaurants.<\/p>\n

Historic Filipinotown bar Thunderbolt posted its decision to close on Friday morning, with a statement on Instagram that read, \u201cThis strike isn\u2019t about small businesses, but they will bear the weight of it…For small business in the food and beverage industry, closing the doors on a Friday night \u2014 during an already brutal January \u2014 can be catastrophic.\u201d<\/p>\n

Here are some L.A.-area restaurants remaining open today and fundraising for immigrant rights.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After a tumultuous month of continued national immigration raids and the ICE shootings of Renee Good and Alex…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":156972,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[76799,217,6848,32890,76796,76793,76797,76795,7644,76798,131,133,132,43851,4823,5560,2335,76794],"class_list":["post-156971","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-long-beach","tag-community-action","tag-day","tag-decision","tag-fear","tag-friday-closure","tag-general-strike","tag-highland-park-restaurant","tag-ice-retaliation","tag-instagram","tag-legal-fund","tag-long-beach","tag-long-beach-headlines","tag-long-beach-news","tag-restaurateur","tag-small-business","tag-staff","tag-today","tag-tumultuous-month"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156971","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=156971"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156971\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/156972"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=156971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=156971"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=156971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}