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It's been almost two years since it shut down, and not a day goes by where I don't miss El Chavo, which opened in 1966. The pop-up replacement was fine, but it lacked the splendor of the original restaurant and bar; very few experiences rival having a margarita on a lively-but-not-too-packed back patio underneath the shade of bougainvillea. Ever since the pop-up replacement shuttered last August, the building has been hidden behind scaffolding, but the old El Chavo sign has remained visible.
Tuesday night, representatives for the South Park Group—the development company responsible most recently for the Blue Bottle on Beverly Boulevard—hosted a community meeting to announce new plans for the building. Currently, the group is deconstructing most of the original building, according to Eater. The shell of the original El Chavo remains, but it will be transformed into a "large, more open restaurant." The group displayed renderings of the new building, which showcase a new two-level building to allow for several tenants at once.
The development will include indoor and outdoor options, as well as add 200 outdoor seats, according to Eater. There appears to be no direct replacement to the famed El Chavo patio, nor will any of the new tenants be standalone bars. L.A. Weekly says the buildings will house "retail, two restaurants and a coffee shop." Eater speculates one will offer sit-down dining and one will be more fast casual, based on the sizes of the restaurant renderings.
Construction should finish by Spring 2018. Representatives for the South Park Group were unavailable to comment.
