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Alma, downtown Los Angeles' revered and award-winning restaurant, will be closing on October 24. Alma was voted Best New Restaurant by Bon Appetit in 2013 and has certainly been celebrated by several food critics, but it's curtains for the farm-to-table restaurant soon. Co-owners Ashleigh Parsons and Ari Taymor told food blog GrubStreet that in the end, it comes down to funding.
The pair recently attempted to raise $40,000 via Indiegogo and succeeded, raising $8,240 beyond their goal. However, the pair say that legal fees—accrued from being sued by a former adviser—ate up most of that.
The duo did say they're working on a number of projects that, while not Alma, will share a lot of the same community-minded goals, such as sustainability using ingredients sourced from local farmers.
"Through the Indiegogo campaign we were able to raise a substantial amount of money that we used for legal fees, which we used to try to get back on our feet. But a lot of our ability to maintain the restaurant was contingent upon us being able to wrap up the lawsuit in an expedient manner. To have that kind of cost, on top of running a small business, wasn't working out," Taymor told GrubStreet.
Taylor said they do intend to honor the Indiegogo perks they promised to their contributors.
Perhaps there's hope for Alma in other ventures. Starry Kitchen failed to meet their epic fundraising goal of $500,000, but the husband-and-wife team is now supplying food for Echo Park's new arcade bar, Button Mash.
