\u201cAll of those memories and experiences in the feel and the soul of the place are attached to that place in a container… When that\u2019s gone, the authentic Taix \u2014 at least this version of it \u2014 is not something you can just re-create,\u201d said L.A. Conservancy President and CEO Adrian Scott Fine, who promoted efforts to protect the original building. \u201cThe layers of time and dirt and memories and everything else that comes with it create this very authentic feel of a place.\u201d<\/p>\n
For now, fans are savoring every moment. In the fray of its last weeks, owner Michael Taix monitors the line, helps seat guests and even jumps behind the bar to mix cocktails. He wanted to keep his family restaurant running in this original location, he said, but the cost became too great.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe spend so much on repairing this place,\u201d Taix said. \u201cI have air conditioners I can\u2019t afford to replace because I need a crane to [remove] them. There\u2019s so many things like that: constant plumbing issues, mechanical issues, all the walk-in coolers \u2014 everything is aging.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Michael Taix, the owner of the Echo Park French restaurant Taix, welcomes guests after ushering them to their seats on Wednesday, March 11.<\/p>\n
(Jason Armond \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n
Taix considered selling the entirety of the business to another restaurant operator, who could take over and maintain it. Ultimately, he found the restaurant was not profitable enough to offset the cost of repairs and maintenance. In 2019 he sold it to Holland Partner Group, a luxury apartment developer, for $12 million.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe clearer path,\u201d he said, \u201cwas to look for a new build.\u201d<\/p>\n
Some of his staff who\u2019d previously retired returned to help the restaurant through its final days. The team is also planning occasional pop-ups and catering services until Taix can reopen, as well as a Taix cookbook.<\/p>\n
Thomas Roche, a server and bartender of 15 years, said business has at least doubled since the closure announcement.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we have the best customers in L.A.,\u201d said Roche. \u201cThey\u2019ve been great, so supportive \u2014 and so patient, because things are taking more time than they might.\u201d<\/p>\n
Some have been so enthusiastic that they\u2019ve begun lifting items as keepsakes.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve taken down a lot of the memorabilia because they\u2019re just stealing it,\u201d Taix said. \u201cIt\u2019s unbelievable. We have to use paper menus because they\u2019re taking the menu covers\u2026 Everything\u2019s growing legs. It\u2019s incomprehensible.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Guests](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1774363037_645_.jpeg\")
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Guests line up to eat at Taix before it closes at the end of the month.<\/p>\n
(Jason Armond \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n
Someone even had the wherewithal to steal the lantern attached to a wall near the restaurant\u2019s entrance. The locally famous art of ladies in the women\u2019s restroom? Also stolen. <\/p>\n
\u201cOne day we came in and they were gone,\u201d Taix said. The nail indents in the walls, however, are still there.<\/p>\n
Last week, after a signed wine poster disappeared from a wall, a call-out on Instagram saw it immediately returned<\/a>.<\/p>\n Taix and his team have now stored much of the restaurant\u2019s art, along with furniture and restaurant equipment, which can be purchased in an online auction<\/a>. \u201cThe auctioneer told me, \u2018Some people are going to try to buy your carpet,\u2019\u201d Taix laughed.<\/p>\n Some of the art \u2014 as well as doors and chandeliers, the lounge\u2019s long 1960s cherrywood bar, and possibly the multicolored stained glass and the tin ceiling \u2014 will be utilized in Taix\u2019s next iteration, which is slated to open in 2029. <\/p>\n Michael Taix began working at his family\u2019s restaurant in his mid-teens but left to pursue a career in geology. He never imagined he\u2019d take over the restaurant, but then one uncle retired. Another died. Still another retired. Soon the team was down to his father and an uncle, who received a terminal diagnosis. After he rejoined the restaurant in the 1980s, Taix immediately made changes to a menu that had become more continental over the years. <\/p>\n \u201cI came in and said, \u2018This really didn\u2019t seem French enough,\u2019\u201d Taix said. \u201cWe had to find a moniker that suited us: \u2018French Country cuisine since 1927.\u2019 That was something that we had to try to model ourselves back to.\u201d<\/p>\n They hired French chefs to head the kitchen, including consulting chef Laurent Quenioux of Bistro LQ. He\u2019s planning the Taix cookbook alongside executive chef Juan Hernandez, who has worked at the restaurant for more than 40 years.<\/p>\n The restaurant\u2019s first iteration in downtown Los Angeles was opened by Marius Taix Jr. in 1927 at the Champ d\u2019Or Hotel, which his father, Marius Sr., built in 1912 on the site of the Taix French Bread Bakery, which began operating in 1882. When Taix\u2019s family purchased the Echo Park building that became its home in 1962, they added a west wing, which included the lounge and bar, the lobby, bathrooms, a since-closed wine shop, and more large, private banquet rooms, which provided a lucrative business stream until the 2000s, when banquet dining began to fall out of fashion.<\/p>\n Taix needs a large staff, some 55 employees, to cover its roughly 15,000 square feet, even when its banquet rooms aren\u2019t in use. Wage increases, climbing food, insurance and maintenance costs and \u201cthe crowning blow\u201d of the pandemic, Taix said, hurt the business. The spacious banquet rooms, which accounted for more than 50% of the dining space, sat empty most nights of the year. <\/p>\n People fill the bar as soon as doors open at Taix, a beloved Echo Park French restaurant with a century of history.<\/p>\n (Jason Armond \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n Taix said it was impossible for the restaurant to continue in its current form, but couldn\u2019t get family members to agree on a plan. <\/p>\n \u201cI started acquiring some of the parcels of land that were divided among family members: some friendly, some not so very friendly,\u201d he said. \u201cI started seeing that my way out of this was to acquire the large parcel and do something with it.\u201d<\/p>\n With a seven-figure loan he purchased his family\u2019s plots and saw property taxes multiply into six-figure territory. So he quickly sold to Holland. The developer sought permission from the city to demolish and build, while historic preservationists rallied to slow if not entirely impede the project, or at least save some of the building\u2019s structure.<\/p>\n In 2022, the City Council voted unanimously to reject an appeal to protect the building, helping to clear the way for demolition<\/a>.<\/p>\n The new mixed-use development is slated to house 170 apartments, 24 of which will be zoned as \u201caffordable,\u201d according to architecture firm AC Martin. Taix said the restaurant\u2019s new iteration will occupy roughly 4,000 square feet \u2014 2,000 fewer than initially reported<\/a>. Most of the new Taix, he said, will be lounge space. The plans include an attached dining room and outdoor seating. <\/p>\n Taix \u2014 as well as multiple servers and some customers \u2014 say they look forward to the next phase of the restaurant. Even those who fought for the building\u2019s preservation say they hope it succeeds, but that the city must keep fighting to maintain these legacy businesses and their storied spaces.<\/p>\n \u201cL.A. is always evolving and changing so quickly, and that\u2019s a beautiful part of this place. But we need to find a way to hold onto what makes L.A. and still allow it to grow,\u201d said Fine. \u201cThat is the fundamental challenge: Whether it\u2019s housing or infrastructure … we should be able to [build] and still hold onto our past and our story.\u201d <\/p>\n For a lot of people, Fine added, Taix \u201cis more than a restaurant … It\u2019s part of their history and their connection to Los Angeles.\u201d<\/p>\n ![\"People](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1774363037_177_.jpeg\")
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