Caribbean Comfort Spot Cha Cha Cha Just the Latest Casualty of Big Development

The roughly three-decade old Cha Cha Cha closed quietly along Virgil Avenue on Sunday, announcing their plans to all but disappear with a simple Facebook post.

As The Eastsider notes, the sudden shutter puts the entire property very much in question. That corner location at Melrose and Virgil was purchased for more than $2.5 million back in August, which puts the all-day restaurant in serious jeopardy, though official details of what’s to come of the lot are still scarce.

And as for the restaurant, the only slightly cryptic Facebook post put out by Cha Cha Cha reads that Sunday as "the last day (for the present)," a strong indicator that with a little help the colorful restaurant could reopen elsewhere.

It might be hard to stay on the Virgil Village/Silver Lake stretch though, as lots of construction is underway in the area at the moment. The properties across from Sqirl have long been rumored as possible locations for new development and business, while the well-funded Trejo’s Tacos is also keen to land a new location on that strip soon as well.

Even other nearby longtime operators like Casbah Cafe have felt the sting of submission in the recent past, only moving on (to make room for a fancy new La Colombe coffee shop) after leaving behind a fiery letter of disapproval at the state of Silver Lake’s small businesses.