Taste at the Palisades Permanently Closes Doors

By LILY TINOCO | Reporter

After 11 years in business, Taste at the Palisades has permanently closed its Highlands doors.

“The forced shut down due to quarantine orders regarding COVID-19 on March 15, ongoing and escalating issues surrounding the pandemic coupled with an extremely unclear future brought us to this most difficult decision,” according to a statement by the restaurant’s owners and management.

Director of Operations Erez Mizrahi said Taste had previously temporarily closed beginning Friday, March 13, in compliance with Mayor Eric Garcetti’s order to shut down all restaurant dine-in operations.

“Due to the low population density in the Palisades area, it was not logical financially to stay open for take-outs,” Mizrahi said to the Palisadian-Post about the closure. “Our lease ended on [Tuesday, June 30] and we decided not to renew it.”

Located at 538 Palisades Drive, the Highlands eatery was known for American classics and comfort foods, including a selection of stone oven pizzas, pastas, salads and more.

Its sister location, located on Melrose in West Hollywood, is temporarily closed, “to re-group, re-stock and navigate through the new social distancing dining and health regulations, including making adjustments to our dining rooms to comply.”

Mizrahi added that Taste Melrose will reopen when it is safe to do so and purposely did not open this past month, preempting recurrent issues restaurants are facing during this time as they reopen.

“Many restaurants who barely stay afloat will go bankrupt after this second closure,” Mizrahi said.

There was no information available whether Taste at the Palisades applied for a Paycheck Protection Program loan prior to its closure, but a GoFundMe fundraiser was created on March 21 in support of its “servers, dishwashers, culinary team, bartenders and everyone else in between that help to operate our beloved restaurants on a daily basis.”

The fundraiser has currently raised $7,910 of its $10,000 goal.