Arby's Roast Beef restaurant on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, famous for its enormous neon-clad derby hat sign, has closed its doors after 55 years. Its last day of operation was Friday.
On Monday, in the back of the lot, Gary Husch, Arby's general manager and son-in-law of its original owner, was taking out trash and caught a reporter looking at the bones of the self-service menu.
“There's nothing there anymore, huh?” he said.
The menu was already a polyptych of long fluorescent tubes. The Arby’s marquee, plastered with ads for the chain’s affordable slow-roasted beef sandwiches a few days ago, now reads: “Goodbye Hollywood. TY for 55 great years.”
“You know, they don't make those signs anymore,” Husch said. “It was the 150th Arby's location ever opened.”
Since its opening in January 1969, the Hollywood Arby's has had only one owner, Marilyn Leviton, 91, Husch's mother-in-law.
Husch said Arby's simply wasn't sustainable anymore. He pointed to a combination of the pandemic's consequences on a changing neighborhood, rising food costs and recent law which increased the minimum wage for fast food workers in California.
“The number of clients has decreased in recent years. Many of the offices around this area are empty now and we just don't have the same foot traffic that we had before,” Husch said. “With inflation, food costs have increased significantly and the $20 an hour minimum wage has been the nail in the coffin.”
Leviton was active in the business until the end, he added.
“The truth is, I think it was the pandemic that killed us,” he told KTLA News. “I'm really sorry we would have closed during the pandemic. [if it weren’t] for federal loans.
Years ago, the family part-owned two other Arby's: one in Santa Monica and another on the corner of Hollywood Boulevard and Highland Avenue. Those two have since closed. Hollywood Arby's workers were fired when they came to work Friday, Husch said.
The Hollywood Arby's is already boarded up and plastered with signs plastered over with wheat.
(Bryan A'Hearn / Los Angeles Times)
The family owns the property and has not yet determined any sale or the future of the derby hat sign. The building is already boarded up with plywood and plastered with artistic posters pasted with wheat.
The giant neon-lined hat, which wouldn't be out of place on Fremont Street in Las Vegas, is now flanked by glowing skyscrapers and film and television studios, including Netflix.
He has had occasional run-ins with celebrities.
Jerry Seinfeld and Seth Rogen visited the store on an episode of “Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee” while reflecting on fame. In 2016, Patton Oswalt dined at their outdoor tables after winning an Emmy Award.
“His wife had just passed away,” Husch said. “He was just sitting there and, I think, thinking about his wife. … There are a lot of good memories here.”
