A pioneering L.A.-style soul food bistro to close on Pico after 12 years

Los Angeles Times

9 hours ago

My 2 Cents, a soul food bistro that anchors a section of West Pico Boulevard that's home to multiple Black-owned restaurants, is set to close permanently on July 31. Opened by chef Alisa Reynolds in 2013, the restaurant became a neighborhood favorite thanks to a Southern comfort menu that's informed by Reynolds' L.A. upbringing, including turkey meatloaf, grit fries and BLT sandwiches with fried green tomatoes.
'It's something that I've been thinking about for the last few years,' Reynolds said of the restaurant's closure. 'For me, I think the best thing to do is to be able to feed people in their homes, do pop-ups, do collabs, and make the city excited again. I can do more as chef Alisa than I can do at My 2 Cents.'
Moving forward, Reynolds, who was a private chef for the Dodgers and rapper-actor Common before opening My 2 Cents, will focus on expanding the restaurant's catering arm, in addition to collaborations and pop-ups with local chefs and restaurants. She is also developing a product line.
'I want to inspire the world through my food,' she said. 'Sometimes you have to make such decisions, especially during times when everything is changing.'
Listed on The Times' guide to the 101 Best Restaurants in L.A. for two years running, My 2 Cents joins a growing list of notable restaurant closures this year, including fellow 101 awardee Here's Looking at You in Koreatown last month.
Reynolds cited a host of reasons for the closure, including significant financial loss following the COVID pandemic, Hollywood industry strikes, January wildfires and, most recently, ongoing raids from Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
'I just kept going. I was like, 'Nothing's going to stop us. We have to,'' said Reynolds, who called the decision to close My 2 Cents one of the hardest she's ever had to make. 'I had so many great customers and clients that believed in this restaurant. Because I think that it was more than a restaurant. It was like a little movement of love.'
This is not the first time My 2 Cents has been under threat of closure. In 2017, Reynolds launched a crowdfunding campaign to settle a lawsuit brought by former backers of the restaurant. Multi-hyphenate entrepreneur Issa Rae joined forces with musicians Solange and Earl Sweatshirt on a fundraising dinner that helped keep its doors open.
When pandemic shutdowns forced the restaurant's closure in 2020, Reynolds launched Tacos Negros, a takeout and delivery menu featuring tacos that took inspiration from pan-African foodways, including a six-hour-braised oxtail taco that the Food team listed on its guide to the 101 Best Tacos in L.A. The tacos became so popular that after restaurants reopened for dine-in, she added the most-ordered options to the permanent menu.
My 2 Cents is located in a shopping plaza that belongs to a single landlord, who Reynolds says is under immense pressure from developers.
'That's the hardest part because I love the neighborhood so much,' Reynolds said. 'But I don't want to invest any more money there because it could be gone any day.'
Just a couple doors down from My 2 Cents sits Stevie's Creole Cafe, a long-standing storefront that serves what late restaurant critic Jonathan Gold once called 'the best bowl of gumbo this side of New Orleans.' A few blocks east of that is Sky's Gourmet Tacos, a Black-owned taco shop that popularized a distinctly soulful approach to tacos that has since proliferated across the city.
'I just wonder if we're going to recognize Pico in 10 years,' Reynolds said.
When it first opened in 2013, My 2 Cents helped lay the foundation for an L.A.-inspired take on Southern comfort food to flourish across the city. Host of the Daytime Emmy Award-winning 'Searching for Soul Food' series on Hulu, Reynolds says the restaurant was one of the first in L.A. to put shrimp and grits on its brunch menu.
'My goal in opening [My 2 Cents] was, and the name is, my perspective on soul food,' said Reynolds, who's set her menu apart with scratch-made sauces, local produce and plenty of vegan and gluten-free options, including a six-cheese mac and cheese with brown rice penne. 'I thought that it would be my love letter to Los Angeles as a French-trained chef and yet, a Black girl who also remembers her mom made pork chops on Thursday.' At My 2 Cents, Reynolds coats her grilled pork chops in a sweet agave jerk sauce, an homage to the origins of Jamaican jerk seasoning, which was first used on wild boars.
In the homey dining room, vibrant art hangs on the walls and seasoning blends popular in Black households — Old Bay, Slap Ya Mama — balance on shelves next to cookbooks, with an array of eye-catching desserts, all of them baked by Reynolds' sister Theresa Fountain, arranged on the counter behind them.
Diners have plenty of opportunities to make memories at My 2 Cents before the restaurant closes its doors for good. Every Wednesday beginning this week, the restaurant will host a wine tasting alongside a Southern-inspired tapas buffet. A two-drink minimum grants customers access to the bottomless spread and the menu changes weekly based on Reynolds' whims, with past bites including jerk chicken sliders on pretzel bread and goat cheese with hot honey on naan. My 2 Cents will also continue to host its popular '90s brunch on Sundays, with a live DJ and guests encouraged to dress on theme.
Though the restaurant will close its doors at the end of this month, its final celebration will take place in the shopping plaza's parking lot on Aug. 1, complete with food, drinks and a live DJ. As for the future, Reynolds says fans of My 2 Cents can stay updated about events and pop-ups on Instagram.
'It's been a 12-year run,' Reynolds said. 'It's going to be a wild ride, but we are not going anywhere and that food is still going to be here forever.'