Roscoe's House of Chicken 'n Waffles in Pasadena closed its doors Sunday and thanked customers for their three decades of support. But there may still be a future for the city's iconic soul food restaurant.
”We are looking for another upgraded location in Pasadena. Stay tuned and follow us on Facebook and Instagram,” a sign on the building at 830 N. Lake Ave read.
Roscoe’s website lists the Pasadena restaurant, which was open for 30 years, as permanently closed, but offers no further clues about a possible relocation. Representatives for the restaurant did not respond to multiple requests for comment on the closure.
Roscoe's, long a Los Angeles soul staple, has six locations remaining in Southern California: Hollywood, South Los Angeles, Long Beach, Inglewood, Anaheim and La Brea. A Mid-City location on Pico Boulevard closed in early 2023.
Roscoe's has a long list of famous visitors, including then-President Obama, who ate at the Pico restaurant in 2011, which was renamed Obama's Special in his honor. He mentioned it later in an appearance on “The Tonight Show,” saying that he rushed to clean a stain from his tie after eating at Roscoe's before going to a fundraising event.
On the Internet, fans of the soul food chain are mourning its closure and remembering 30 years of good times and good food.
Others have pointed out that there are four other chicken restaurants within about a five-minute walk of the Roscoe's that is closing. One person referred to that stretch as Chicken Row, where diners can find El Pollo Unico, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen and, opened last year, Chick-fil-A. Others, decidedly less sentimental, said the price of eating out had gone up and was not commensurate with the quality of the food.
The chicken chain has gone through difficult times in recent years. At his location in South Los Angeles, an armed man shot and killed rapper PnB Rock in September 2022. Employees at the Pasadena branch in 2021 asked a man to wear a mask and an argument ensued, culminating when the man taking out a gun and take food out of the kitchen.
In 2015, Roscoe's parent company declared bankrupt after he was ordered to pay $3.2 million in a wrongful termination and discrimination lawsuit.
