With arcade bars still forced stay closed indoors in Los Angeles, one popular location – Button Mash – is calling it quits for the rest of 2020. They’ve operated several different ways through the pandemic, but takeout, delivery and weekend-only parking-lot dining wasn’t sustaining the business, so co-owner Jordan Weiss said they’re closing… for now.
“Even for well-positioned restaurants, business has been week to week,” he told Eater Los Angeles. “Frankly, the appetite for takeout had waned; I think the novelty has worn off. And I don’t think that’s unique to us.”
Button Mash wrote in a post on Instagram that they’re celebrating their 5-year anniversary this coming weekend, and will also be running their final services of 2020. “We have every intention of reopening sometime next year, when it makes more sense to do so,” they wrote. “That’s the plan. But things are pretty [expletive]right now and the future is uncertain, so we’ll see what happens.”
They continued: “It’s never really been our style to get political on this forum, but the shameful way in which small businesses have been left hanging in recent months cannot go unmentioned. With each passing day the absence of leadership or even vaguely coherent guidance at any level has made an already grim situation impossible to navigate.”