Legendary LA restaurant famous for training star chefs like Guy Fieri will shutter after nearly 50 years

Louise’s Trattoria, a long-running Italian restaurant in Los Angeles’s Larchmont Village, will close on 25 November, ending nearly five decades of business. The family-owned chain was also a training ground for chefs including Guy Fieri, who worked as a district manager before opening his first restaurant.

The first Louise’s opened in Santa Monica in 1978, and the chain eventually grew to 19 locations. Expansion left it with $12 million in unsecured debt and it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 1997; the Larchmont restaurant, which opened in 1988, became its last location. The owners have not given a reason for closing, and customers can still pre-order Thanksgiving meals for collection on its final day.