Business
As the Los Angeles Wildfires Continue, Restaurants Rise Up
A few weeks ago, I had dinner at LaSorted’s in Chinatown, eating pizza and drinking wine with my husband while our toddler gnawed at a crust and threw a few salad leaves onto the floor. When I walked in this past Wednesday — as thousands of acres of Los Angeles still burned — the dining room was nearly unrecognizable, its wobbly tables reconfigured into a makeshift kitchen.
Pizza makers from all over the city were squashed inside, unpacking supplies and folding boxes. The line out the door looked like diners waiting for tables — blue Dodgers hats, oversize vintage button-downs, esoteric diner T-shirts — but this was a crew of volunteer drivers who’d signed up on Instagram. They were waiting for instructions from other volunteers who sorted hundreds of requests in a series of spreadsheets, text messages and DMs.
Thousands of firefighters are still working to contain the wildfires that displaced tens of thousands of Angelenos. Every day, several times a day, a collaborative, grass-roots patchwork of restaurant kitchens, trucks and makeshift catering operations, just like this one, feed the city’s emergency workers and evacuees.
“It’s not something you train for or something you learn,” said Tommy Brockert, the chef at LaSorted’s, who had evacuated but was now back home. “When things like this happen, people are able to do extraordinary things.”
Neighborhood restaurants aren’t exactly set up to respond to emergencies, but they just can’t help themselves. The best kind of restaurant people tend to have a fundamental sense of hospitality, combined with an ability to deftly organize chaos.
No one has a greater sense of urgency about cooking for people and caring for them, regardless of the logistical nightmares that might be involved. Day to day, that might mean that dinner service is going smoothly. When disaster strikes, it means 200 people spread across five locations will get a hot dinner.
There are so many restaurants and restaurant workers helping out (many of them displaced themselves) that the Los Angeles Times plotted them on a map. In her newsletter, the writer Emily Wilson tracked the various resources they provided, along with their fund-raisers and calls for volunteers and donations.
Khushbu Shah, a New York Times contributor who helped deliver some meals herself, wondered when all of the independent restaurants that stepped in to help might find some financial support.
Most places extending radical hospitality are doing it out of pocket or through an unsteady stream of donations, and the truth is: No one can afford it. Meanwhile, city officials have said it will be another week before many people can return home.
Chefs I spoke with over the phone this week said employees were asking for hours they couldn’t give them — their dining rooms were too quiet. They said bills were piling up. They said that a few years ago, they might have been able to weather a few tough days or even one tough week, but not now. Not after the compounding financial losses of the pandemic and the strikes. Soon, they said, the closings would start.
Still I was taken by surprise when the owners of the Ruby Fruit, a lesbian bar in Silver Lake that I reviewed a couple of years ago, announced they were closing — at least temporarily — because of the wildfires. It was becoming clear that even restaurants far away from the flames and toxic smoke weren’t safe from this disaster.
I’d canceled a few reservations in the first few days of the fires, or restaurants had called to cancel with me. Now it isn’t a safety issue as much as a vibe issue: In so many neighborhoods, restaurants are open, air purifiers running, but people still aren’t going out. When the whole city is mourning, there’s no getting away from your own sense of grief.
I didn’t realize how much I needed to get out until I showered, washed my hair and took some of my colleagues to dinner in East Hollywood. These reporters had been in the field all day, all week, or unable to step away from their laptops.
I felt my body relax the second I held a menu in my hand, the second a server came by and asked if he could bring me something to drink, something to eat. “I needed this,” one of us said, every few minutes, as plates crowded the space between us. “I really, really needed this.”
“This” wasn’t one particular dining room or must-order dish, it was being together in a Los Angeles restaurant while the wildfires still burned. It was the sense of safety, resilience and connection that restaurants insisted on sharing, even as their own staffs weathered the crisis.
There was no getting away from the grief I felt — it dined with us, it was inescapable — but there was no getting away from the gratitude, either.
As Hollywood has fractured over the proposed merger between Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros. Discovery, AMC Entertainment Holdings Chief Executive Adam Aron is throwing his support behind David Ellison.
The movie theater chief said he trusts that Ellison, Paramount’s CEO, will hold to his promise that the combined company will release 30 films a year — 15 each from Paramount and Warner Bros.
Many industry executives and other theater operators have questioned whether that goal is realistic, particularly given the cost cuts that are expected to commence after the deal closes. Exhibitors in particular fear that a decline in film releases will erase some of the progress made at the box office since the pandemic.
“Adam Aron and AMC are big fans of David Ellison,” Aron said during an interview Wednesday afternoon in Las Vegas, where he was attending the CinemaCon trade convention. “We respect his talent as a filmmaker and a movie executive, and we believe in the promises that he has made to increase the number of movies being made by Paramount and Warner Bros.”
Aron added that he trusts Ellison will respect calls to keep films in theaters for 45 days before they’re available for premium purchase at home and much later, on streaming services.
That strategy, known as windowing, became a more contentious issue after the pandemic when some studios began to reduce the amount of time films were in cinemas before audiences could view them at home.
“We’re enthusiastic that David will fulfill his promises,” Aron said. “And that in the end, this will prove to be a good thing for our company and our industry.”
He added that he hopes current Warner Bros. film chiefs Mike De Luca and Pam Abdy “continue to have the opportunity to do great work” at that studio. The pair led Warner Bros. to 30 Oscar nominations — more than any other studio this year — and 11 Academy Awards, including Best Picture.
After a difficult last few years, Aron said he feels like the theatrical business has “finally turned a corner.”
So far this year, domestic box office revenue is up more than 20% compared with the same time period last year, bolstering hopes across the industry that 2026 will mark a rebound from the downturn of the pandemic.
Last year, AMC saw a 2.1% decrease in attendance compared to 2024. But this year’s strong lineup of films has given Aron confidence that the company‘s revenue and earnings will rise this year.
The company is also working to pay down the debt it took on during the pandemic. The company had as much as $6 billion in debt in 2020 and is now down to $4 billion, Aron said.
“The big news of 2026 for us, in light of the rising box office, in light of rising EBITDA [earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization], and in paying down debt and extending maturities, I think we will have dramatically strengthened our balance sheet,” he said.
Aron also confirmed reports that Netflix Co-Chief Executive Ted Sarandos met with a group of movie theater chiefs in Las Vegas, a discussion he described as “introductory in nature” rather than about dealmaking since it was in a large group forum.
Netflix and AMC previously had a complicated relationship over the streaming service’s long-standing resistance to traditional theatrical releases.
But the two companies have recently partnered on several projects, including a Halloween weekend showing of the animated hit “KPop Demon Hunters,” New Year’s Eve screenings of the “Stranger Things” series finale and the first two episodes of the Netflix show “One Piece.”
Aron said AMC thoroughly embraced all three projects, and that both companies were pleased with the results.
“Both AMC and Netflix have individually said publicly that we hope this is the beginning of collaboration, and that we each expected more good joint projects to come in the future,” he said. “What those will be, I don’t even know yet, but I’m optimistic that we’ll be doing more things together with Netflix in the months and years ahead.”
Paramount Skydance Chief Executive David Ellison made his case directly to theater owners Thursday, pledging to release a minimum of 30 films a year from the combined Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery company during a speech at the CinemaCon trade convention in Las Vegas.
“I wanted to look every single one of you in the eye and give you my word,” Ellison said in a brief on-stage speech, adding that Paramount has already nearly doubled its film lineup for this year with 15 planned releases, up from eight in 2025.
He also said all films will remain in theaters exclusively for 45 days, starting Thursday. Films will then go to streaming platforms in 90 days. The amount of time that films stay in theaters — known as windowing — has been a controversial topic for theater owners, as some studios reduced that period during the pandemic. Theater operators have said the shortened window has trained audiences to wait to watch films at home and cuts into theater revenues.
“I have dedicated the last 20 years of my life to elevating and preserving film,” said Ellison, clad in a dark jacket and shirt with blue jeans. “And at Paramount, we want to tell even more great stories on the big screen — stories that make people think, laugh, dream, wonder and feel — and we want to share them with as broad an audience as possible.”
Ellison’s CinemaCon appearance comes as more than 1,000 Hollywood actors and creatives have signed a letter opposing Paramount’s proposed acquisition of Warner Bros. Supporters of the letter have said the deal would reduce competition in the industry and “further consolidate an already concentrated media landscape.”
Some theater operators have also questioned whether the combined company could achieve its goal of releasing 30 films a year, particularly after the cost cuts that are expected after the merger closes.
“People can speculate all they want — but I am standing here today telling you personally that you can count on our complete commitment,” Ellison said. “And we’ll show you we mean it.”
The speech came after a star-studded video directed by “Wicked: For Good” director Jon M. Chu that was shot on the Paramount lot on Melrose Avenue and showcased directors and actors including Issa Rae, Will Smith, Chris Pratt, James Cameron and Timothée Chalamet that are working with the company.
The video closed with “Top Gun” actor Tom Cruise perched atop the Paramount water tower.
“As you saw, the Paramount lot is alive again,” Ellison said after the video. “And we could not be more excited.”
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