Louise's Trattoria, the last remaining restaurant from a Southern California Italian chain founded nearly 50 years ago, will close its Larchmont Village location on November 25. Owners Rob and Karen Serritella announced the closure in a farewell notice, bringing an end to a restaurant that has served generations of families and special occasions at 232 N. Larchmont Blvd.
The notice listed Wednesday, November 25, as the restaurant's final day of service, according to mynewsla.com. Louise's opened in Santa Monica in 1978, and the Larchmont restaurant followed a decade later in 1988. At its peak, the chain operated 19 locations stretching from Santa Monica all the way to Philadelphia, per the same report.
Known for neighborhood Italian fare like pasta, pizza and focaccia bread, Louise's built its early identity through the chefs who passed through its kitchens. Gino Angelini, Nicola Mastronardi and Lucio Bedon all worked at Louise's early in their careers before going on to help shape Los Angeles' Italian restaurant scene. The Los Angeles Times described the restaurant as having become a farm system for young Italian chefs who would go on to impressive, decades-long careers in L.A.
From a Santa Monica Storefront to a 19-Restaurant Chain
Bill Chait and partners bought the original Santa Monica location in 1985 and expanded the business, growing it into the sprawling chain that would eventually reach the East Coast. That expansion, though, came at a cost: it left Louise's with about $12 million in unsecured debt, Chait told the Times. The East Coast push later contributed to the company's Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing in 1997, which was followed by years of consolidation and restaurant closures.
Rob Serritella joined the company in 2001 and later became its chief executive. He and his wife, Karen, bought the final two Louise's restaurants in 2018. The Pico Boulevard location closed at some point after that, leaving the Larchmont restaurant as the chain's sole survivor before this month's closure announcement.
Fast-Casual Competition and Pandemic Costs Took a Toll
The Times' reporting points to broader industry pressures that chipped away at Louise's over the years, including the proliferation of fast-casual restaurants, which overtook Louise's in popularity. The COVID-19 pandemic added another blow, bringing a spike in the cost of labor and food and helping stoke the rise of third-party food-delivery services that reshaped how diners order meals. The same forces, the paper noted, also hit other Southern California-born chains including Marie Callender's and Hamburger Hamlet.
One Last Thanksgiving Before the Doors Close
Before it shuts down for good, Louise's is accepting preorders for Thanksgiving meals for pickup on November 25, the same day as its final service. The restaurant has said it will be closed on Thanksgiving Day itself. On Instagram, the account for @louises.la still describes the business simply as handcrafted pastas and pizzas, family owned since 1978, with locations listed in Larchmont Village, West LA and Santa Monica.
For Larchmont Village regulars, the closure marks the end of a restaurant that has served generations of customers in the neighborhood, from birthdays to holiday dinners. What started as a single Santa Monica storefront in 1978 grew into a regional chain and, eventually, shrank back down to this one Larchmont address before its final close on November 25.
