After 10 years in business, Courtney Cowan is closing Milk Jar Cookies due to untenable financial challenges.
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Topline:
The Los Angeles restaurant scene lost some real gems in 2023. Between inflated food and labor costs, pandemic effects, and months of strikes, many operators were forced to close shop.
The reasons: Rising rent and minimum wage increases mean restaurants are making less profit, without the support of government relief programs that have dried up since the pandemic.
Strike impacts: Restaurants saw a 20-40% loss in revenue during the six-month dual Hollywood strikes by writers and actors in 2023.
On a Saturday afternoon at Milk Jar Cookies in Mid-Wilshire, Courtney Cowan tells customer after customer the same thing. She’s completely sold out.
“We opened at 10, so they started lining up around 9:15 or 9:30," she says. "We’re certainly serving everything we’ve got, trying to keep up with the beautiful demand."
Customers new and old have flocked to the shop to get one last taste of her delicious, signature dough. They’ve all heard the news: After 10 years, Cowan is reluctantly closing Milk Jar Cookies on Jan. 15.
Milk Jar Cookies has been inundated with orders since they announced their upcoming closure in late December.
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“It’s been bittersweet, because a lot of old faces have come,” she says. “My hope when I opened was to be like the Cheers of cookies, where we know everybody’s name. We’ve done that.”
Milk Jar Cookies is a true labor of love. Back in 2012, Cowan left her job in television to pursue her cookie dream full time. She opened a second Encino location in 2022. But in December, she announced both shops will close due to untenable financial hurdles.
“We’ve been fighting for our life for about six months,” she says through tears. “Unfortunately, it just became a mountain too high for us to climb.”
Cowan’s experience echoes that of many L.A. restaurateurs in 2023. Between steep food and labor costs, lingering pandemic effects, and six months of Hollywood strikes, it's been a devastating year for the food business. A long list of establishments were forced to reduce their operations or close their doors permanently.
Courtney Cowan opened Milk Jar Cookies in 2012, after leaving her job in television to pursue her cookie business dream full time.
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“When we’re busier than ever and we’re still overdue on bills … it just wasn’t enough,” Cowan says. “We’re just being squeezed from all sides.”
Pandemic pressure
Nearly four years ago, the world’s introduction to COVID-19 irreversibly changed the restaurant industry. Without the option of on-site dining, consumers moved toward carry out and delivery — shuttering countless restaurants.
Many of those that stayed afloat did so with the help of government relief programs that have now dried up, like Paycheck Protection Program loans and the Restaurant Revitalization Fund.
Walter Manzke's Petty Cash Taqueria closed on Oct. 20 after 10 years serving tacos and cocktails.
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Those were crucial for seasoned chefs Walter Manzke and Margarita Manzke to keep their signature restaurant, République, open throughout the pandemic.
Unfortunately, the opposite happened at two of their other businesses: Petty Cash Taqueria shut its doors in October, and Sari Sari Store followed in December.
“Financially, they just couldn’t take the hit. There was just not enough volume going in there where it made sense to continue on,” Walter Manzke says.
James Beard award-winning chef Margarita Manzke ran Sari Sari Store at Grand Central Market for nearly seven years until it announced its closure in mid-December.
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Sari Sari Store — which built its home in Grand Central Market — relied on the steady flow of downtown L.A. office workers. Manzke says that’s completely changed with hybrid work. Offices just aren’t as bustling as they were in 2019.
Almost 75% of restaurant traffic today remains “off premises,” according to the National Restaurant Association. Before March 2020, it was closer to 61% — meaning people are more reliant on their takeout options than they were pre-pandemic.
"People are always looking at that shiny next object, and it’s very difficult for a restaurant to keep up with that."
— Ben Brown, San Diego-based restaurant consultant
On top of that, Southern California consumers are far less brand loyal compared to previous decades, according to San Diego-based restaurant consultant Ben Brown.
“People are always looking at that shiny next object, and it’s very difficult for a restaurant to keep up with that,” he says.
He also points to a boom in competition right after pandemic closures were lifted, which may have backfired for the industry.
“A lot of groups wanted to bring a new dining experience to the world once the world reopened. It seems that the market wasn’t really there to support all those new concepts.”
Rising costs
Los Angeles is expensive. Running a restaurant here isn’t cheap — or easy. Food service is a notoriously low-margin business within a competitive market, says Brown.
The traditional restaurant model splits things 30/30/30/10: 30% of revenue toward labor, 30% toward food and beverage, 30% toward fixed costs like rent and utilities, and 10% (at best) left over in profit.
Nowadays, rising costs of rent, food, and labor are distorting that breakdown.
“What you’re seeing is restaurants getting squeezed on all levels for that 10% to dissipate, and for a restaurant to be lucky to turn a profit whatsoever,” says Brown.
The rising cost of food is a top concern for operators nationwide. In Los Angeles, 65% of restauranteurs reported that all or most of their vendors increased prices in the past year, according to data by restaurant management system TouchBistro.
Labor is also pricey. California offered one of the highest minimum wages in 2024, at $16 — up from $15.50 last year. Under Assembly Bill 1228, hourly wages at large fast food chains will increase to $20 starting in April. Small business owners hiring from the same pool of workers say they can’t compete.
“Of course, people need to have a living wage. There's no question about it. The problem is: how do you operate a business successfully in order to accommodate the rising cost of labor, when your customer is not willing to pay the price premium that comes with that?”
Silver Lake Spanish restaurant Bar Moruno closed in early November.
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Bar Moruno
In November, chef Chris Feldmeier made the painful decision to close his beloved Bar Moruno, an upscale Spanish restaurant in Silver Lake.
“Even if you’re running the best restaurant … your labor is up to 40%. It’s really hard, there’s not a lot of profit or anything left over,” he says.
As a “kitchen guy,” Feldmeier is all for higher wages. But he says the restaurant industry as a whole hasn't been able to keep up. “We ran a fantastic food cost to try to mitigate some of these hourly wages and stuff, and we still had a tough go at it.”
Restaurateurs like Feldmeier haven't been going down without a fight. Cost-saving measures like mandatory service charges and smaller menus are more common. "Many of these operations have had to fundamentally re-engineer how they conduct business," says Hudson Riehle, senior vice president of research for the National Restaurant Association.
Menu prices are 10-25% higher than they were in 2022, according to the James Beard Foundation.
Empty shelves within Milk Jar Cookies' industrial refrigerator are common as orders pour in during their final weeks in business.
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Over the years, Cowan raised her cookie prices from $3 to $4, and began selling supplemental items like snackable dough, ice cream, and merchandise. She still couldn’t keep up with steep rent increases and a utility bill now 50% higher each month, while still paying her staff a competitive wage.
“Every single facet of owning a business has become more expensive and more difficult,” she says.
Hollywood strikes
In this company town, small businesses struggled through last year’s dual strikes by writers and actors — even while supporting them.
Cowan offered discounts for both guilds, and passed out cookies on several picket lines. However, she says the stall hit some small business owners even harder than COVID.
“When all of the orders from that whole industry cease and evaporate for almost eight months, that makes a massive impact,” she says.
The California economy lost up to $7 billion from the strikes, according to estimates by Todd Holmes, professor of entertainment industry management at California State University, Northridge. He says restaurants saw a 20-40% loss in revenue.
“Normally, they might have three different deliveries they’re doing in a day to studio sets, and it went from three a day to maybe, one or two a week,” he says.
Milk Jar Cookies was among the places that counted on set deliveries and gifts for agents and managers, in addition to events that were canceled during the strikes. “Our whole town depends on that industry, whether it’s toy stores or doggy daycares or bakeries or restaurants,” says Cowan.
“I think that was a death blow to a lot of restaurants, including mine."
— Chris Feldmeier, chef-owner of Bar Moruno
Bar Moruno’s business also suffered from the loss of industry clientele in Silver Lake. Chef Feldmeier likens the entertainment industry to Los Angeles’ “steel mill" — if it shuts down, everything shuts down.
“I think that was a death blow to a lot of restaurants, including mine."
Winter blues
December was especially flooded with closure announcements, from classic gems like Marco’s Italian Restaurant to The Federal Bar in North Hollywood.
That’s probably not a coincidence; winter is a notoriously difficult time for restaurant operators, according to restaurant consultant Brown.
“It’s colder out, and people dine out less. That said, if a restaurant is going to stay open during the winter, they’re typically going to want to stay open through the holidays.”
Many places depend on that holiday bump to get them through the rest of winter. January and February is when they’ll assess whether it was enough. That means more closures are likely over the next few months.
For Cowan’s Milk Jar Cookies, even the holiday rush — which they can usually count on — didn’t cut it this year. They didn’t get a single order from an entertainment industry company.
“It just wasn’t enough,” Cowan says. “With all the other steps we had taken, I was really hopeful that we could get on the road to recovery. It just became very obvious that it was a hill too steep.”
Closing up shop
In its final weeks, the energy inside Milk Jar Cookies resembles its bustling, pre-pandemic self, filled with “beautiful, blissful chaos,” as Cowan puts it.
Orders spit out of a kitchen printer as she greets dedicated customers with teary eyes and hugs, thanking them for years of patronage and heartfelt words. They jot notes in a guest book before saying goodbye.
Between taking orders, Cowan says goodbye to long-time customers and friends who pass through Milk Jar Cookies.
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Sallie Patrick — screenwriter and former co-worker from Cowan’s television days — walks into the shop, two kids in tow. Cowan gets emotional at the sight of her friend, who encouraged her to pursue her cookie dream in the first place.
“I’m so proud of her. It was so cool to show my kids an example of this woman who just decided to start this business, and was so successful at it,” Patrick says.
"On the best of days or the worst of days, you could come in and leave feeling a little better than when you came in."
— Courtney Cowan, owner of Milk Jar Cookies
For Cowan, it’s always been bigger than cookies. The outpouring of community support has reminded her that she’s not alone in that sentiment.
She's not sure what's next, but she's sure how she'll remember Milk Jar Cookies: “On the best of days or the worst of days, you could come in and leave feeling a little better than when you came in.”
Aaron Schrank
has been on the ground, reporting on homelessness and other issues in L.A. for more than a decade.
Published August 10, 2026 6:44 PM
L.A. City Councilmember Nithya Raman at a mayoral campaign event in May 2026.
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Topline:
Los Angeles City Councilmember Nithya Raman will lose her spot as chair of the City Council’s Housing and Homelessness Committee, she confirmed in a campaign video Monday. Raman, who is running for mayor, claims her removal is politically motivated.
Why it matters: Raman is running against incumbent L.A. Mayor Karen Bass in the November election. The councilmember has been chair of the Housing and Homeless Committee since 2023, where she’s had considerable power and responsibility.
Why now: The California Post reported that L.A. City Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawsonis planning to announce this week that the city will split the committee into two parts — one on housing, the other on homelessness — neither of which will be led by Raman. Harris-Dawson, a longtime political ally of Bass, represents a large portion of South Los Angeles. He did not immediately respond to LAist’s inquiry late Monday.
Raman's reaction: Raman said in the campaign ad the move was a political attack. “I called for an audit of our homelessness programs in Los Angeles, and now I’ve been removed as Chair of the Housing and Homelessness Committee,” Raman said. “I might be getting punished for running against Mayor Bass, but Angelenos are the ones paying the price for these political games.”
Erin Stone
covers climate and environmental issues in Southern California.
Published August 10, 2026 4:41 PM
President Joe Biden will reportedly permanently ban future offshore oil and gas drilling in over 625 million acres of federal waters in an effort to cement his environmental legacy before President-elect Donald Trump is inaugurated January 20th. Platform Esther is located approximately 1.5 miles away from Seal Beach and operates within California state waters.
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Hearings being held this week could decide whether California continues to have a say over what happens in federal waters off its coast. It’s part of the Trump administration’s efforts to supercharge industrial activities, including offshore drilling, rocket launches and desalination plants along California’s coast.
Why now: The hearings aim to gather public comments as part of a performance review of the state’s coastal management practices. Dozens of people turned out Monday to decry the administration's review.
Read on ... to learn how to give public comment.
Hearings being held this week could decide whether California continues to have a say over what happens in federal waters off the state’s coast.
It’s part of the Trump administration’s efforts to supercharge industrial activities, including offshore drilling, rocket launches and desalination plants along California’s coast. At a hearing Monday at a Santa Monica hotel and at a news conference beforehand, speaker after speaker decried any effort that would allow the federal government to revoke California's ability to manage its coast.
A federal law called the Coastal Zone Management Act gives states with coastlines the right to review and veto projects that may conflict with state policies and economies. The law was signed by President Richard Nixon after a devastating oil spill off the coast of Santa Barbara and is credited with launching the modern environmental movement.
In a May social media post, the Trump administration said California is standing in the way of economic progress and called the state’s coastal management practices “obstructionist” and “environmental extremism.”
California officials, including state Natural Resources Secretary Wade Crowfoot, dispute that, saying the state approves federal initiatives 96% of the time.
“ Never before in the five-decade history of this federal act has this sudden baseless review taken place on any state's coastal management program, and never before in the history of this act has a coastal management program ever been revoked,” Crowfoot said at a news conference in Santa Monica on Monday. ”This federal administration is bent on industrializing our coast.”
The hearings, which are being administered by NOAA, could result in the federal government decertifying California’s rights under the Coastal Zone Management Act. A decision to do so would almost certainly be challenged in court, experts say.
That possibility has prompted Gov. Gavin Newsom to call on Californians to submit public comments on the issue.
“Give the Trump administration an earful,” Newsom said in a statement.
How to get involved
NOAA will accept public comment until midnight Aug. 22. You can attend a virtual hearing or submit a comment via email.
Virtual hearings:
When: Aug. 11 and 12, 2 to 5 p.m.
Where: Virtual.
How: Each person who wants to attend either meeting must electronically register by 11:59 p.m. Aug. 10. Attendance will be limited to 1,000 people, and NOAA asks you only register for one meeting. After you register, you’ll receive a link to attend. To register for either meeting, use the following link: https://noaabroadcast.adobeconnect.com/e23ewcr5d65q/event/event_info.html.
Submit comment via email to czma.california-evaluation@noaa.gov. Include “Comments on Performance Evaluation of the California Coastal Management Program” in the subject line.
The hearings this week are solely for public comment. The review “seeks any new input from relevant stakeholders regarding spaceport infrastructure, offshore oil production, pipeline maintenance, desalination projects, and undersea cables,” according to a notice in the federal register.
Such reviews have happened before — in 2024 a draft review by NOAA found the state’s coastal agencies had properly carried out the CZMA. The review, however, was not finalized due to the change in administration.
“ L.A. County will soon achieve 100% renewable and reliable electricity. This is the change that we want to see,” she said. “Meanwhile, the Trump administration is recklessly starting foreign wars and skyrocketing the price at the pump.”
L.A. County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath also spoke Monday at the news conference ahead of the NOAA hearing in Santa Monica.
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Tina Calderon, Gabrielino Tongva and Chumash culture bearer, speaks at Monday's news conference.
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Horvath is part of a coalition of local, state, tribal, environmental, legal and business leaders who are calling the review a “takeover” of state and local rights.
Orange County resident Grant Bixby, who founded the Business Alliance for Protecting the Pacific Coast, pointed out at the news conference that offshore drilling makes up a tiny fraction of the state’s coastal economy, which generates between $44 billion and $50 billion a year, according to NOAA.
"Should we put 99% of the other employment at risk for the benefit of one dirty industry?” Bixby said.
Bixby recalled how the 2021 Huntington Beach oil spill turned the beaches into a “ghost town.”
The NOAA hearing was held in a ballroom at the Santa Monica Hilton.
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Among the speakers at the news conference and hearing, a clear theme emerged: The coast is an integral part of being a Californian, whether you’re lucky enough to live beachside or you live inland and have a favorite spot to call your own on hot summer days.
“The point is that we all love our beautiful saltwaters,” said Tina Calderon, Gabrielino Tongva and Chumash culture bearer, at the news conference. “These are sacred waters, and it's up to us to be the voice. It's up to us to cause no more human harm. We've done enough.”
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Jackie and her partner Shadow had successfully fledged six chicks together over the years at their Big Bear nest.
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Jackie, the bald eagle whose livestreamed life with her partner Shadow won the hearts of fans worldwide, has died, rescuersannounced Monday.
What we know: The famous eagle, believed to be 14 years old, was receiving intensive care at the Ojai Raptor Center for severe anemia.
Read on … for more on Jackie’s life.
Jackie, the bald eagle whose livestreamed life with her partner Shadow won the hearts of fans worldwide, has died, rescuers announced Monday.
The famous raptor, believed to be 14 years old, was receiving intensive care at the Ojai Raptor Center for severe anemia. She ultimately succumbed to her condition after a team of veterinarians struggled for weeks to figure out what was causing it.
Jackie remained critically ill despite receiving oxygen therapy, supportive treatment and around-the-clock monitoring.
"We know this news will be deeply felt by the many thousands of people around the world who have followed her journey, hoped alongside us, prayed for her, and supported the people caring for her,” the Ojai Raptor Center said in an Instagram post. “Our team is heartbroken. It has been an extraordinary privilege to care for her."
Friends of Big Bear Valley, the nonprofit that launched the popular nest livestream in 2015, confirmed the news on social media.
“It is with great sadness and heavy hearts, to bring you the latest update from Ojai Raptor Center,” the nonprofit said to its roughly 1.3 million Facebook followers. “Please be kind to yourself, to others, to the FOBBV team and to those at the Ojai Raptor Center. Soar free Jackie…”
What happened to her?
The rescue center said on social media Sunday that she was “critically ill,” “unstable” and still in an "extremely serious” condition.
She was getting oxygen therapy, supportive treatment and around-the-clock care from vets and specialists across the country. But her red blood cell levels continued to drop well below normal after rebounding a bit after she was rescued.
Jackie was rescued in July by Big Bear’s Dana Point Park after a brief fight with two other eagles. Jackie was weak, vulnerable, underweight and unable to fly, according to the Ojai Raptor Center.
The center said the fight is likely what left her grounded, but her condition suggests she had been sick for some time.
How Jackie’s Big Bear saga started
Jackie was the matriarch of the famous Big Bear bald eagle nest since around 2017. She’s believed to be the first bald eagle chick hatched in Big Bear Valley in recent history, according to the nonprofit.
The pair believed to be her parents, Ricky and Lucy, left the area around 2016. The young Jackie then started hanging out in their old nest, where the livestream camera had been installed.
Jackie took on her first mate, a bald eagle known as Mr. B, and laid her first clutch of eggs in the nest the following season. Shadow came into the picture in the summer of 2018, refusing to leave until Mr. B eventually flew away from the area, according to Friends of Big Bear Valley.
Jackie and Shadow were mates ever since. They successfully raised six chicks together — Sandy and Luna this season, Sunny and Gizmo last year, Spirit in 2022 and Simba in 2019.
Amid growing frustration with both major political parties, voters are open to some big changes.
More details: A new poll, commissioned by supporters of election reforms and shared with NPR, shows there is significant support for upending winner-take-all U.S. House elections and single-member congressional districts and instead moving toward proportional representation, a system that elects multiple representatives in a single district in rough proportion to a party's vote share.
Why now: Earlier this summer, about 500 democracy and legal experts sent a letter to Congress urging members to consider proportional representation as a solution to the redistricting brinksmanship set off by President Donald Trump last year.
Read on... for more on the poll.
Amid growing frustration with both major political parties, voters are open to some big changes.
A new poll, commissioned by supporters of election reforms and shared with NPR, shows there is significant support for upending winner-take-all U.S. House elections and single-member congressional districts and instead moving toward proportional representation, a system that elects multiple representatives in a single district in rough proportion to a party's vote share.
Earlier this summer, about 500 democracy and legal experts sent a letter to Congress urging members to consider proportional representation as a solution to the redistricting brinksmanship set off by President Donald Trump last year.
"There should be little doubt that the single-member district system is failing to deliver fair and representative outcomes," they wrote. "We urge Congress to adopt a proportional system of representation, solving the gerrymandering problem at its source."
According to the poll conducted by the advocacy group Fix Our House and liberal think tank New America, half of 1,000 respondents said they support proportional representation, with nearly a quarter opposed. A third of those who participated said they were not sure whether they supported it or not.
Lee Drutman, a senior fellow at New America, said he was surprised to see how much backing there is for proportional representation, despite the idea being fairly obscure in the United States.
"It really did shock me how supportive people were of the various principles of proportional representation across the board," he told NPR.
While support was highest among younger, more educated, more left-leaning voters, Drutman found that 6 in 10 Trump voters who have an opinion on proportional representation said they back it, too.
American voters want more political parties
Pollsters also walked respondents through some of the tradeoffs of proportional representation — including that it can lead to multiple parties having to find a way to work together.
"For every one of those questions, people prefer the proportional system with multiple parties," Drutman said, "even if it leads to a coalition government that is maybe not quite as efficient."
He said voters also weren't very concerned when asked about the possibility of proportional representation leading to some more extreme political parties.
"One thing people said is they already think the parties are pretty extreme right now," Drutman explained. "So that's not quite the fear that some in the political class think it would be."
Jocelyn Kiley, director of political research at the Pew Research Center, said voters writ large have been in a "prolonged period of disaffection with politics and the political system."
She said Pew has found there is a lot of openness to reform, with nearly 70% of respondents to its polls saying they wish, at least somewhat, there were more political parties to choose from.
Kiley said detailed knowledge of what any election reform would look like is rare among voters. And she said that when many reforms "move from theory to practice," they often hit some resistance.
"People want to understand exactly how that reform will impact them," she said.
Room for a national conversation
Drutman told NPR the new poll numbers mark a starting point for what could be a national conversation about how to break out of the country's two-party system.
"People are dissatisfied," he said. "People are frustrated. People don't have a language for how to talk about alternatives because they haven't really heard all that much about the alternatives, because we haven't had a national conversation about the alternatives yet. So, there's a lot of room to have that conversation."
Drutman said only about a quarter of the respondents were aware that there are alternatives to a two-party system, and even fewer people could name an alternative when pressed.
In fact, only about 2% of the participants in the poll could name proportional representation off the top of their heads, said Dustin Wahl, executive director of Fix Our House,
"But when asked about the kind of underlying values beneath it and the component parts, there was widespread support from all across the political spectrum," Wahl said. "And that's not something we would have expected to see necessarily four years ago, for instance. But as the problems grow, the desire for solutions grows, as well."
Proportional representation is currently the most widely used electoral system among the world's democracies. Wahl points out that the U.S., along with the likes of Canada and Australia, has a system that was abandoned long ago by other countries.
"Arguably the only reason we don't use proportional representation is because it wasn't used anywhere in the world at the time of [America's] founding," he said. "And we just kept doing elections the same way."
The poll also found a majority support (54%) for expanding the House, with 150 new members.
There are bills in Congress, with all Democratic co-sponsors, that would study or move the U.S. to a system of proportional representation, but Wahl said any bill that doesn't include expanding the House is "politically dead in the water" because without expansion, lawmakers have to choose to potentially vote themselves out of office.
"That [150-seat expansion] gives you enough of a cushion so that members, incumbents know that they're very likely to hold on to their seats," he said. "It wouldn't run into the problem, at all, of candidates or of sitting members of Congress thinking that they're going to lose their seats because their elections would be totally untouched."
Copyright 2026 NPR
