Over Labor Day weekend, a locally loved Downtown Los Angeles Italian restaurant and West Hollywood bar, the latter originally a transplant from New York, separately announced they would cease operations in 2026. The nearly 10-year-old Rossoblu, chef Steve
Samson and wife–business partner Dina Samson’s Northern Italian restaurant, will close on Sunday, November 1, 2026; the Samsons tell Eater they recently sold the business. West Hollywood’s Employees Only, which debuted in 2018 on Santa Monica Boulevard slightly west of Fairfax Avenue, will serve its final cocktail on Sunday, September 27.
Both business owners echoed similar challenges surrounding the general dining slowdown in Los Angeles, plus cost increases with labor, rent, ingredients, and more. Employees Only managing partner Tom Sopit says that the current business and consumer climate made it difficult to stay open. “It wasn’t really one thing that killed us,” says Sopit. “It was death by a thousand cuts. West Hollywood raising the minimum wage, required paid time-off for workers, the cost of goods going up, inflation, vandals damaging an air conditioning unit last year, drinking trends changing, and GLP-1s. So I can’t really point to one specific thing.” West Hollywood’s ordinance requires that full-time employees receive at least 96 compensated hours per year for sick leave, vacation, or personal necessity.
Sopit says that many of his professional bartenders who are actors have also moved outside of Los Angeles. “Aspiring actors are going to move out of a city with a high cost of living,” says Sopit. “There are gigs in Vancouver, Jersey, and New York, but not here. Auditions are online. I was born and raised in Los Angeles. There are usually production trucks everywhere. Not anymore, it’s dead.”
Throughout the years, Employees Only had become a regular spot for those in the industry; the bar will have a big industry blowout party to honor it on September 27. Sopit, who has worked in hospitality since 2008, is proud of what he’s accomplished even as he contemplates whether to stay or leave the industry entirely. “Our goal was always to bring people together, and we’ve achieved that many times over,” he says. “I just hope some real changes happen in our industry so our bars stop dying.”
Though Rossoblu received recognition throughout the years, Dina Samson says it was a struggle from the beginning. “When we started, we ran out of money as we were building Rossoblu,” says Dina. “We started hoping we would make the first payment, and it’s been like that since day one. Where do you find the money to keep going?”
At their nine-year mark, the duo has been through the lingering effects of the pandemic and the 2023 Hollywood labor strikes. In 2023, Rossoblu was forced to temporarily halt service as a fire severely damaged a one-mile stretch of the 10 Freeway in Downtown. Years prior, Rossoblu also temporarily closed after a kitchen fire in 2018. The slowdown after the 2025 fires and ongoing effects of ICE enforcement also played a role, Dina says. So does upkeep: “All the equipment and restaurant are almost 10 years old,” she says. “Things are falling apart. When you don’t have that kind of money and guests are no longer coming in like they used to, it seems like all odds are against us.”
Before making the call to close, the Samsons considered flipping the restaurant themselves, but the projected profit margins seemed too small. Dina notes that her health was taking a hit from the stress of running a business, even after the closure of the pair’s Playa Vista Italian restaurant Superfine Playa in 2025. Another factor: the ongoing marketing and growth training she needed to implement for her team. Dina says that the couple is uncertain about the future of Superfine Pizza, which is walking distance from Rossoblu.
Dina tells Eater that Rossoblu has recently been sold: she says she cannot disclose the specific details of the deal now, but that the new owners will reimagine the space while the Samsons step back from operational management for the time being. The yet-to-be-named team is already considering what needs to be fixed and what to begin working on. “The fact that somebody came in and said, ‘Hey, let us buy it from you, and you can still be a part of it if you want.’ Steve can still cook, we will still be in the space, and the team will likely come back when it reopens. Why would we say no?”
Dina did share a glimpse of their future vision at the City Market South property. “I will say this, Steve and the new buyers are already working together on creating a concept that I believe is going to change that part of Downtown,” she says.
It’s been another brutal year for longtime Los Angeles restaurants, the most recent being Delicias Bakery and Some, Sky’s Gourmet Tacos, and Crustacean. Even the 40-year-old Toi on Sunset, a Hollywood staple, shared on Instagram that it is in danger of closing due to a significant drop in late-night customers post-pandemic, and as the restaurant’s pandemic Paycheck Protection Program loans became due. Toi on Sunset set up a GoFundMe to assist with raising funds.
Dina, for her part, feels relieved to close this chapter of her restaurant. “Am I sad? I don’t know. I’ve already grieved over the fact that Rossoblu would eventually close. People are sad and reaching out, but I’m ready to close this restaurant. I’m okay with taking a backseat.”
