Cassell’s Expands to Downtown LA With Patty Melts and Deli Sandwiches

Updated classic Cassell’s Hamburgers is on the move again, this time adding a new location in the heart of Downtown. The incoming restaurant space will offer many of the hits from the original Koreatown menu, but with more than a few twists built in as well.

Chef Christian Page and his team are already at work cleaning out the former Pellicola Pizzeria on 8th. For several years that spot was a late-night, post-bar option for the growing nightlife crowds in Downtown, but the two-floor operation quietly went away last year. Now Page is in and hustling, anticipating an opening this summer.

As for the menu, there will be burgers and fries and the very David Chang-approved patty melt of course, but Page tells Eater that this new Downtown location will also focus more on the sandwich and deli side of things. Expect a robust list of daytime favorites and full-on deli platters for office party catering as well. “If Koreatown is the classic diner,” says Page, “then Downtown is the classic American deli.” Partner Jingbo Lou will head up design, pulling back the facade to reclaim some of the old Hotel Bristol look.

Cassell’s has been in expansion mode of late, plotting to open up at LAX in addition to this new Downtown foray. The restaurant was for generations an unassuming burger spot buried in a strip mall in Koreatown, but closed years ago before getting the full redo treatment down the street inside the remodeled Hotel Normandie. That’s when Page and Lou came on to revive the brand, sticking with classic menus (and sourcing some hard-to-find old equipment) and design touches while also pushing into the modern era with craft beer and coffee and the like.

Cassell’s Downtown
421 W. 8th St.
Los Angeles, CA

• The Essential Guide to Downtown Los Angeles Restaurants [ELA]
• Inside Cassell’s Hamburgers’ Complete Rebirth in Koreatown [ELA]