A Pro Bono Legal Battle Helped Save South LA Restaurant Revolutionario

North African restaurant Revolutionario has been saved, says chef/owner Farid Zadi. The popular South LA eatery was in limbo for months after developers purchased the Adams-Normandie property late last year and seemingly offered no signs of working with the restaurant to remain open.

Now there’s a path towards a bright restaurant future, thanks to a handful of pro bono lawyers and city workers who Zadi says stepped in to save the place. As he says in an email to Eater: “Our customers stepped up to help us.”

One regular is apparently a lawyer who actually specializes in deals between landlords, renters, and developers, and was willing to work for free to attempt to keep the restaurant from being axed out of any future leasing and redevelopment talks. Several other customers who work as civil servants and make the lunchtime drive from Downtown stepped in to keep the ball rolling downhill as well.

Now Zadi tells Eater that he’s got a new lease that stretches out his time at the building for years, with an automatic option to renew as well. That doesn’t mean he gets to stay forever, but it’s a far better setup than operating from a beat up food truck out front while the empty restaurant inside had its issues sorted out. So it’s business as usual for Zadi and crew, serving up what some might call the best North African tacos in all of Los Angeles.

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