Little Tokyo Pizza Spot Baldoria Closes Sunday After More Than Three Years

Little Tokyo’s casual three-year-old hangout Baldoria is set to close at the end of this week. Owner David King says that he’s ending the restaurant’s run to focus on a retail project instead.

King, a Mozza alum, first opened Baldoria along San Pedro Street back in the middle of 2016 with chef Duke Gervais and barman Matt Bostick. The restaurant mostly stuck to a simple menu of snackable items like pizzas, pulled pork sliders, pastas, and charcuterie. Over time, Gervais even offered pizza making classes, and the bar kept cranking with pre-batched cocktails and a steady happy hour.

Now King is moving on. In a statement sent to Eater, he says:

I am extremely proud of everything we have achieved over these past 3 1/2 years at Baldoria, and I am grateful to have worked with such an amazing group of individuals. Duke Gervais, our head chef, is a talented man and an even better friend. He helped me realize a lifelong dream of mine at a (relatively lol) young age. I will be forever grateful. I’d also like to thank my amazing staff. You stuck with me through this entire journey, ups and downs, ins and outs. All of you are wonderful humans, and I’m excited to see what changes you’ll make in the world. There are many, many more who helped along the way, including the entire Little Tokyo community. Please know you are appreciated.

As for what’s next, King is partnering with Bostick on a new retail-only bottled cocktail company called B&K Classic Cocktail Co. The final night of service at Baldoria will be this Sunday night, and starting now everything in the restaurant is 30% off. Sounds like it’s time for one heck of a sendoff party.

Baldoria. 243 San Pedro St., Los Angeles.

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