New Restaurant for Harvey House in LA Union Station

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rickycourtney

rickycourtney

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I want to share some good news about a topic that's near and dear to my heart... the space in Los Angeles Union Station that once housed the Harvey House Restaurant may soon have a new tenant.

If you've never seen the space before, you're missing out. Like many Harvey Houses of the era was designed by famed southwestern architect Mary Colter. Perhaps the most striking part of the design is the inlaid floor patterns patterned after a Navajo rug.

800px-Los_Angeles_Union_Station_20.jpg


It's an architectural gem and it's remarkably well preserved, because when the restaurant closed in 1967, instead of being "improved" and reopened it was largely forgotten. As a matter of fact, aside from a few movie shoots and special events, the space has sat vacant for the past 47 years.

Now, the new owners of the station, the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro), appear to have worked out a deal with a pair of local restauranteurs (Cedd Moses and Eric Needleman) to move into the space. The Harvey House will now play host to a restaurant described as a American brew pub with a hometown menu, or in hipster terms, a "gastropub". The restauranteurs own 213 Nightlife, a group of popular bars and restaurants in Downtown LA. Perhaps most important, they have a good track record of working within architecturally significant spaces.

The Metro Board will consider the lease on October 2nd. If approved, it should take 12-14 months for the restaurant to build a new kitchen and prepare the space for customers.

Here's more information from LA Metro's blog (including more pictures of the space).

Oh an that's not the only restaurant news for Los Angeles Union Station. The old Union Bagel space has been leased out to Cafe Crepe. Over in the East Portal Metro is building a kiosk that will serve bento boxes and another that will sell coffee.

These new spaces are in addition to the existing Traxx Restaurant and Traxx Bar, Relay Station News Stand, Famima!! convenience store, See's Candies, Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream, Subway, Wetzel's Pretzels and (of course) Starbucks.

It's a far cry from just a few years ago when Metro bought Union Station and there was just Traxx, Union Bagel and the news stand.
 
Wow! Nice link and photo's....from the looks of it, it shouldn't take very much to re-open, if they truly are going to preserve that gorgeous design....
 
Hope the food is better than it was first incarnation.

Me, I'll use the not-so-good deli whatever it's called. And Philippes, that's good. And Chinatown, and Little Tokyo -- all near the station.

Any in-station food place has to pay big rents, I don't picture any place cheaper than TRAXX on the property will have a chance to make their nut.

Can hope.

Grump - grump
 
I ate at the Harvey House at the LAUPT with my Dad and brother when we took the Cherokee Imperial from Little Rock to LA in the early 1960s and returned on the Sunset-Southerner. The food was excellent as always at the Fred Harvey Restaurants, I was a teenager and could eat a lot.
 
railiner said:
Wow! Nice link and photo's....from the looks of it, it shouldn't take very much to re-open, if they truly are going to preserve that gorgeous design....
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Basically my thoughts. The space should be used... but I hope it does not get 'updated' in the process. I don't know anything about the two restauranteurs, but their website DOES make it look promising that they will not destroy the space, which is a national treasure, IMHO. My concern is that a brewery will tear up the floor, and is not all that compatible with preserving the space. Tanks are heavy and need to be securely attached to something, especially in earthquake prone places. Hopefully, when I visit, when I start foaming at the mouth, it will be because of the beer I'm drinking and not because of what they've done to the space.

Mary Colter was an amazing woman, and maybe (I'm dreaming, but) they can enlighten folks about her, with something more than say a Mary Colter Kolsch, while folks get stewed on brew at the bar, or munch on East LA field greens :unsure: in the dining room. I look foward to drinking and eating there, if for no other reason than to experience the space, but I'd like it to be a place for one last decent meal before being subjected to Amtrak's new and "improved" diner menu.
 
Nice with the bento kiosk, now we can pick up our bento's boxes before boarding the Surfliner like they do it in Japan before boarding the Bullet Trains. Much better than the nuked crap sold in the Seaview Cafe.
 
seat38a said:
Nice with the bento kiosk, now we can pick up our bento's boxes before boarding the Surfliner like they do it in Japan before boarding the Bullet Trains. Much better than the nuked crap sold in the Seaview Cafe.
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Eki-bento ?

Like it.

The vending machines at Amtrak stations do NOT make it as eki-bento. Sadly.
 
Stunning photographs.

Where is the bar and lounge located?....... as oriented to someone looking in the door from the breezeway, something I've done every time I have been in Los Angeles Union Station.
 
railiner said:
Wow! Nice link and photo's....from the looks of it, it shouldn't take very much to re-open, if they truly are going to preserve that gorgeous design....
Click to expand...
In the article Metro says they are making the new operators work with a historic preservation architect as they improve the space. The biggest changes will be made to the kitchen, which needs all new equipment.

NW cannonball said:
Any in-station food place has to pay big rents, I don't picture any place cheaper than TRAXX on the property will have a chance to make their nut.

Can hope.
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FrensicPic said:
Who is the target customer - the local business people or, the typical rail traveler passing through Union Station?
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Just a guess here, but I think the food will be priced lower than Traxx (It is, after all, american pub food).

I think Metro's goal was to bring in a restaurant that could both appeal to passengers who want to stop for a drink or a bite to eat, but also attract people to Union Station that don't have a train to catch. Think of it like the Trojan horse, it's good to bring outsiders into the station for dinner, maybe it will spark the romance of the rails in their own hearts and maybe they'll vote yes for Metro's next round of tax funding.

I think Metro has done a darn good job bringing in vendors who serve the needs of the typical rail traveler (especially the convenience store, Subway, and Starbucks) so now is the perfect time to add another full-service restaurant.

NW cannonball said:
And Philippes, that's good. And Chinatown, and Little Tokyo -- all near the station.
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Agreed. I've been to them all and I'm hoping this place will give them a run for their money.
Actually, this group also owns Cole's Pacific Electric Buffet, the LA restaurant that also claims to have invented the French Dip sandwich (the fight between Philipe and Cole's is a interesting bit of LA history). I wouldn't be surprised if this new restaurant had a Cole's French Dip sandwich on the menu. After all, apparently train travelers have acquired a taste for LA's native sandwich.
 
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What was the typical menu the Harvey's served 'back in the day'?
 
YAY!

As long as they don't mess the place up...it deserves to be something more than a movie shoot location (and it has been in a LOT of movies). I always wanted my parents to take us to eat there when we were at the station dropping off or picking people up, but they always said it was too expensive. It closed when I was 12 and I lost the chance.

I finally got in there with an LA Conservancy walking tour a couple of years ago and it is stunning, especially the bar/cocktail lounge which shows that Mary Coulter's range was far from limited to Southwestern style. The place isn't all that big, BTW.
 
Notelvis said:
Stunning photographs.

Where is the bar and lounge located?....... as oriented to someone looking in the door from the breezeway, something I've done every time I have been in Los Angeles Union Station.
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The bar/lounge is on the east side of the Harvey House. From outside on the breezeway there is a door with a diamond shaped window to your left when you are standing in the breezeway facing the Harvey House. From the interior of the Harvey House in the shot that rickycourtney posted, just forward of the stairs on the left you can see part of a door to the lounge. It has a hanging light fixture above it, smaller and hanging lower than the main ones.
 
rickycourtney said:
In the article Metro says they are making the new operators work with a historic preservation architect as they improve the space.
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Hopefully this helps. Alexandria, with its many historic buildings, has had more than a few things done in the name of 'historic preservation,' that are now seen as regrettable.
 
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