THE HARDSHIPS OF BOTTEGA LOUIE

Bottega Louie’s DTLA location on 700 S Grand Ave.

Is Bottega Louie about to go kablooey?

With budget cuts, the elimination of several departments (including online shopping), shifts being reduced amongst its hourly employees, wage and hour class action lawsuit settlements, impending sexual harassment suits being filed by female and openly gay personnel, the dismissal and resignation of experienced staff and management for more affordable (read: inferior) “help”, and, more recently, the exit of CEO / Managing Director John Herman, it appears something ominous is looming over them macaron towers.

And apparently the aforementioned are the least of its problems.

According to insiders, BHFC Operating, LLC, doing business as Bottega Louie, has hemorrhaged most of its money into building its second location in West Hollywood. For months now, the spot on Santa Monica Blvd near Robertson, has remained a skeleton, untouched, with no sign of construction set to continue following several push back dates for the restaurant’s original opening from spring 2018 to whenever 2019. Sagging sales and low guest turnout has made it impossible for BHFC to recoup their losses for some time now; leaving them desperate to find investors to see the completion of Bottega Louie WeHo.

Once the Grande Dame of Grand Street when it opened in 2009—ushering in the 7th street renaissance in DTLA—Bottega Louie now languishes in mediocrity with its stale and uninspired menu of quasi-Italian cuisine, everything to everyone LA staples like burgers and the proverbial avocado toast, and those painfully obvious (and not very good) Ladurée lifted macarons; leaving guests and critics, who once raved about the place during its peak, to reassess—even re-review--what they once liked about Bottega Louie to begin with.

Let's see how long BHFC continues to nibble off its nose to spite its face before it accepts its inevitable fate.

Bottega Louie’s West Hollywood location on 8936 Santa Monica Blvd.