For reasons I explained here and here, an L.A. restaurant called Cassell's has long been my favorite place to sample the rare delicacy known as a "hamburger." It was a better place when Mr. Cassell was alive and running it, scurrying around to make sure the freshly-made mayo was freshly-made and the high-quality lemonade was squeezed from high-quality lemons. But the folks who bought the business from him not long before he passed kept enough of his policies intact that it still offered up a fine burger. Even when I was a partner in a famous Hollywood hamburger restaurant, I'd go to Cassell's for the occasional burger and wish the business I had money in could do them as well.
It's been bittersweet to go to Cassell's since. The burgers have been grand…just maybe not as grand as they once were. It also got a little shabby in there.
But that's history now. Cassell's has closed or is about to close. I'm going to call up later and see if I have one more opportunity to visit their current location. According to this article, it has shut down there or soon will. The new owners have sold out to newer owners and the newer owners have plans to reopen it in eight or more months in a new location with additional menu items.
I'm skeptical. I've had favorite restaurants close, promise to reopen elsewhere and then disappear forever. Or they come back and they're the same restaurant in name and one or two dishes only. I have the feeling one or the other is about to happen to my favorite burger venue. Now that Five Guys is spreading into Los Angeles, it's not that huge a loss…but it is a loss.