The Belmont<\/a> is closing its doors.<\/p>\nOwner and operator Dylan Leong is inviting the community to return to the restaurant one last time before it closes.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will not go quietly into the night,\u201d the business\u2019 announcement said. \u201cJoin us for one last hurrah, one more trip down memory lane, a sloppy shotski, and one final night of bad decisions.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
News of the closure left many WeHo residents disheartened. Jianna Bergen, who has lived in the neighborhood for almost ten years, said that she will miss the staff, atmosphere and, of course, the food.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI loved taking my dog and sitting out on the patio and enjoying happy hour and their tater tots and watching sports,\u201d \u00a0Bergen said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Leong told Los Angeles that rising taxes, labor costs and a general lack of support from the city have resulted in The Belmont\u2019s closing.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Scroll to continue reading<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is unfortunately sort of the temperature of the Los Angeles bar and restaurant scene,\u201d Leong said. \u201cWe don\u2019t get any support from our leaders \u2026 I really think that it\u2019s a terrible oversight because small businesses are what give a city its charm.\u201d<\/p>\n
Eater LA cites the 2020 pandemic for shifting the city\u2019s dining culture in a way that still impacts businesses today, along with the 2025 fires and ICE enforcement that instigated further struggles. In 2023, 65 restaurants closed, and in 2024, 75 were reported before September.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Bergen said she\u2019s watched other favorites in her neighborhood disappear as well.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI honestly worry for the state. We have lost so many good things, including much of our entertainment industry as well,\u201d Bergen said. \u201cIt seems like every month we get bad news about a beloved business and I really hope this trend does not keep continuing!\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite the sadness that comes with this loss, Leong is instead treating The Belmont\u2019s last month as a celebration. He told Los Angeles he\u2019s seen an immense amount of support from the community in the days following the announcement, and said he is feeling the love.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI think I underestimated maybe the love that the community has for the bar, and it\u2019s uh it\u2019s quite touching,\u201d Leong said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI just want to say thank you to the city of LA for 26 years of an amazing run,\u201d Leong continued. \u201cHopefully someday L.A. can get it together to support small businesses that have a little bit of history and keep the city charming.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Owner Dylan Leong invites Los Angeles to join him for one last drink at The Belmont After 26…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":440048,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[25087,174492,48,52,51,47,50,49,1457,174493,655],"class_list":["post-440047","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-closing","tag-dylan-leong","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-restaurant","tag-the-belmont","tag-west-hollywood"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440047","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=440047"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440047\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/440048"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=440047"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=440047"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=440047"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}