Like many small businesses, L.A. Buns is fighting for survival
Like many small businesses, L.A. Buns is struggling during the pandemic. Photo by Carol Kearns
DOWNEY — In the upside down world that has befallen so many businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic, a “small burger joint with a local vibe” in Downtown Downey has seemingly accomplished the impossible. It is managing to stay afloat while complying with the new government restrictions and still provide employment for five people. It has even set aside space for a community food pantry.
“It’s a group effort, the five of us,” says David Devis, proprietor of LA Buns on Second Street. “It’s like having a team of 20. They do so much.”
While the little storefront eatery is open seven days a week, and favored by many customers, its financial situation remains precarious. Much of its current business is through delivery services like Grubhub, Uber Eats, and Postmates. The cost to the restaurant is 40 per cent of every order.
LA Buns is listed on Google Maps with a phone number for people who want to place an order “old-school style by just calling,” says Devis, and the restaurant offers curbside pick-up.
A website for LA Buns, “where you’re able to pay online, is in the works as we speak,” says Devis. “You absolutely have to evolve with the times, and that’s what we’re trying to do.” Devis hopes to get his own delivery service operating soon.
Following government guidelines, restaurant staff are wearing masks, plastic shields are in place near the register, and only take-out orders are available.
The restaurant isn’t “making any money,” says Devis. “It’s losing a little money, but at least the employees still have their jobs.”
The Saturday Farmers Market brings additional business every weekend and the store-front business radiates a sense of community. Judith Pinedo, a friend and employee who took a furlough so others could work, displays an assortment of handmade masks for sale on a table outside. The little food pantry of donated canned and boxed goods fills window space formerly covered with music and event posters. The food is available for anyone in need.
LA Buns proprietor David Devis and Judith Pinedo with her handmade masks. Photo by Carol Kearns
While keeping people employed during this unprecedented economic disruption is a big accomplishment by itself, LA Buns is more than just a stand-alone business.
LA Buns, via a connecting door, is also the on-site restaurant and integral part of the next-door Epic Lounge – a fabled event center that is a place of mystery and suspicion for some, a place of exploration and belonging for others.
While there are many who have never been inside the venue, most people recognize the city-approved two-story mural of the little girl on the side of the building. This early piece of public art by the artist known as Bumblebee overlooks the lounge’s parking lot and is visible from Downey Avenue
For nearly a generation, since Devis saw a business opportunity and signed a lease for the empty space with adjoining restaurant in 2002, the Epic Lounge has been evolving as a venue for the arts – from rock bands to string quartets, from poetry readings to art exhibits, from 99-seat theater to indie film festivals.
LA Buns, serving burgers, fries, and simple sandwiches at all events, is an essential part of the lounge’s liquor license. The survival of this eatery during this time of economic turmoil has implications for a cultural legacy that grew unexpectedly along with Devis’s business and vision.
When the Epic Lounge, along with all other places dedicated to public gatherings, was closed by government order, Devis says, “It was like a sucker punch.” The restaurant portion of his business could stay open if it only offered take-out.
“The restaurant is now supporting both places,” says Devis, who still must meet insurance payments, utility bills, etc.
Musing about when the lounge can reopen, he adds, “Entertainment is going to be the biggest challenge because people come in groups, and to get them to wear masks, it’s gonna be crazy. So I don’t know what’s in the future for Epic Lounge, but the restaurant is still standing.”
Epic Lounge
Both of Devis’s businesses, the Epic Lounge and LA Buns, are modest-looking commercial enterprises that have made a surprising imprint on the cultural fabric of Downey.
The saga of Devis’s Epic Lounge coincides with a cultural transition in Downey that began more than a decade ago. A new kind of entertainment was happening at the Epic Lounge before there was a Joseph’s on Downey Avenue, before there was a Bastard’s, before the Lock & Key Social Drinkery, and before the opening of the city-sponsored Stay Gallery.
In time, city residents saw the appearance of more businesses providing night life and serving a younger crowd, and official city support for a broader range of the arts. The Epic Lounge didn’t cause these changes, but grew from and reflected the desire of younger generations who wanted to see more cultural events that spoke to them.
Blacked-over storefront windows tell patrons and passersby that the Epic Lounge is not a conventional place. Dark paint inside hides a lot of blemishes. The funkiness signals an affordable venue for non-mainstream artists.
Devis’s original vision when he leased the space as a young man in his early twenties was to open a cyber café. The transition to entertainment was a business decision for Devis, but it also reflected his own creativity as a bit of a counterculture impresario; it presaged what would happen to the downtown area.
Devis was a little late to the cyber café craze. By the time he got his business up and running, the market for cyber cafés shrank as the internet moved into people’s homes. So he petitioned the city for a permit to hold concerts as well. There would be no age restriction because no alcohol would be served.
Devis says that some at City Hall doubted that the two different businesses would be compatible, but they allowed him to try.
“The entertainment part of it took off,” says Devis. “The Epic Lounge was so popular that all my dates on the calendar were booked. It was so popular with the kids. Why was it popular? Because the youth in Downey had nothing to do.”
Downey has a well-known musical history, being the home of the Blasters, the Alvin Brothers, James Hetfield, and Karen and Richard Carpenter. Devis says this continued to be the case, eIven if others didn’t see it.
“There were a lot of garage bands in this city. They had nowhere to play,” explains Devis. “My place was all ages [over and under 21 years of age], so there was no competition around, meaning, I was the only place hosting all-ages bands and all genres of music. We weren’t limited to one type of music.” Word spread quickly about this amazing opportunity for seeing and performing live music.
“It got famous overnight,” exudes Devis. “I had bands coming from different parts of the country, from New York, from all over the states.”
Estaban Chavez at the cash register ringing up call-in order. Photo by Carol Kearns
Devis attributes part of the popularity to the fact that the fan base, for many of the bands was under 21 and the teenage crowd didn’t have to leave their city.
“I thought it was good,” recalls Devis. “We had no alcohol. Parents dropped off their kids and then picked them up after the concert. It was a controlled environment.“
Devis states that his security people also kept fans from loitering afterwards and there were few calls, if any, to the police about disturbances. “My record speaks for itself,” he says proudly.
For many millennials in Downey and surrounding communities, the Epic Lounge was a hallmark of their adolescence. Gabe Enamorado, photographer and now Executive Director of Stay Gallery, recalls going to the Epic Lounge in 2005.
“The local punk/metal/hardcore music scene,” he writes in an email interview, “was a prominent feature of my youth in Downey.”
In 2007, as a high school senior, Enamorado pitched a different kind of show to Devis. “I approached David about hosting an art exhibition that I was curating featuring art works by two friends and I. It became the first art show that I ever put together. I still have the flyers from the exhibition.”
Enamorado, who is a photographer and graphic artist, later would become one of the original founders of the city-sponsored Stay Gallery on Downey Avenue. After a time away for other purposes, he returned as Executive Director.
John Strang, guitarist with the band New American, recalls first attending the Epic Lounge around the time he graduated from Downey High in 2010.
The diversity of the music had a strong appeal for Strang. “You could get a lot of, like, more Chicano bands or you could get more metal and punk, folk rock. It didn’t have any limitations to what kind of genre of music they would play there. And that’s nice – all different kinds of communities and cultures.”
There were other places in the area that featured live music, but for young people, Strang feels the Epic Lounge, “was really the only acceptable place where people could go and watch live music in Downey, and that’s a big thing, it’s a big part of the community.”
Strang and friends started a band as high school seniors, and eventually began performing at Epic Lounge themselves. When Stay Gallery opened in 2012, a block away, Strang worked with Enamorado and curated music events known as Stay Fest featuring six to eight bands.
“We had multiple genres,” recalls Strang. “It could be electronic music, or dance music, rock bands, punk bands. And basically anything in between.”
Strang’s band New American gave its final performance this year on January 25 in order to reform as a new and larger musical group. Unfortunately, the new band, Velvet Kings had not yet started performing when the government ordered business closures in March.
For now, Strang’s performance career is on hold. Like so many other musicians, he has a day job. He’s a golf instructor in Downey and manages a golf shop in Montebello.
“You know as I get older,” Strang reflects, “I really enjoy just how great the city of Downey is. You know as a young person, you want to dismiss your city having cool aspects to it. The Epic Lounge has been a big part of the art scene in Downey.”
Part 2 Next Week: The Closure of Epic Lounge and Reopening