The Belmont Closed After 26 Years, and the Owner Named Names

One last hurrah, a sloppy shotski, and one final night of bad decisions. His words, not ours.

The Belmont closed at 747 N. La Cienega Boulevard on August 31 after 26 years. Owner Dylan Leong announced it on Instagram with a farewell that read like the bar itself: dear family, after 26 years in business The Belmont will be closing its doors at the end of August, but we will not go quietly into the night. Come join us for one last hurrah, one more trip down memory lane, a sloppy shotski, and one final night of bad decisions.

He said why, which almost nobody does

Most closure announcements this year have given no reason. Leong did. He told LA Mag that rising taxes, labor costs and a general lack of support from the city drove the decision, and added that this is unfortunately sort of the temperature of the Los Angeles bar and restaurant scene. He said he hopes the city can eventually do better by longtime operators.

That is worth sitting with. A bar that survived 26 years on La Cienega, through a pandemic, did not close because the crowds left. The owner says the math stopped working.

What it was

A neighborhood bar that functioned as a restaurant, with a bar and lounge atmosphere and a private event space called Sidecar. The menu ran ahi poke salad, ahi tuna tacos, chicken wings and pub classics, with weekend brunch and late-night drinks. Sunday karaoke, generous pours, sports on the screens and a dog-friendly patio.

It also had an unusual second life on television. The Belmont was a frequent Vanderpump Rules filming location and a favorite of the original cast, including the scene where Ariana Madix and Tom Sandoval met after the Scandoval news broke. Tom Schwartz has talked on The Valley about meeting Katie Maloney there.

The site is older than the bar

Long before The Belmont, 747 N. La Cienega housed The Garden District in the early 1970s, documented in LGBT directory listings archived at USC's ONE Archives. As WeHo Online noted, the address has a longer history in West Hollywood nightlife than The Belmont's own run. The La Cienega corridor has cycled through hospitality tenants across generations.

What people said

The farewell comments are the best record of what the place was. One regular listed watching the Kings win the Stanley Cup there, watching the United States beat Russia at four in the morning during the 2014 Olympics, singing Snoop Dogg at karaoke night and holding birthday parties. Another wrote that it was the root of so many good things, of friendship, of surprises, of fantastic crab legs, and of harboring the true feeling of a neighborhood bar. A third said they had spent their twenties, thirties and forties there.

Leong has said the response surprised him, and that he underestimated the love for the place.

The wider picture

The Belmont is part of a run. Per Hoodline:

• Connie and Ted's closed in July after 13 years, citing rising labor and supply costs.

• Las Perlas, the mezcal bar, shut in May on similar grounds.

• County inspectors temporarily shuttered WeHo Bistro on La Cienega in June and Scarlett in July over health concerns.

• Electric Owl on Gardner Street closed in September after nearly 10 years.

Eater LA has tied the pattern to the 2020 pandemic reshaping dining culture, compounded by the 2025 fires and immigration enforcement. Sixty-five Los Angeles restaurants closed in 2023. Seventy-five had closed in 2024 before September was out.

The Belmont was at 747 N. La Cienega Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90069. Its final service was August 31, 2026.

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