Hollywood Arby’s closes after 55 years over California’s $20 minimum wage

A family-owned Arby’s Roast Beef that has been a fixture on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood for 55 years shut its doors, blaming California’s recently enacted $20-an-hour minimum wage law as the final “nail in the coffin.”

The fast food joint’s iconic cowboy hat sign was captured by FOX 11’s SkyFOX camera on Tuesday reading, “Farewell Hollywood. TY for 55 great years.”  

The restaurant, near Bronson Avenue, closed on Saturday, according to local reports. 

“With inflation, food costs have gone way up and the $20-an-hour minimum wage has been the nail in the coffin,” Gary Husch, general manager of the Arby’s location, told Los Angeles Times.

Husch is the son-in-law of 91-year-old Marilyn Leviton, who opened the Arby’s franchise at 5920 Sunset Boulevard in January1969, six months before the moon landing.

But on Friday, Arby’s workers arriving for their shift were told they were being let go.

A hand-written sign placed in the window reads “Permanently Closed,” and plywood was used to board up the restaurant.

“I’m awfully sorry that it came to this. I think we did a good job for 55 years,” Leviton told KTLA-TV.

It’s the latest restaurant to shutter since the state boosted the minimum wage for fast food workers on April 1 to $20 an hour from $16.

Beloved taco chain Rubio’s Coastal Grill closed dozens of locations across California earlier this month, citing the increasing cost of doing business in the state. The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection days later.

Fosters Freeze, another fast food chain, recently shuttered one of its locations near Fresno because the franchise owner said he could no longer afford to pay workers the higher wages.

Leviton’s Arby’s — featuring the chain’s famed “We got the meats” slogan — has struggled in recent years.

“I think it was the pandemic that did us in,” she said.

“I really feel we would have closed during the pandemic [if it weren’t] for the federal loans.”

Husch added: “A lot of the offices around this area are empty now, and we’re just not getting the same foot traffic we did before.”

Since the law went into effect, visits to chains such as McDonald’s, Wendy’s and Burger King have decreased, according to the analytics firm Placer.ai.

Popular chains including McDonald’s, Burger King, Wendy’s, Chipotle and Starbucks have also had to hike menu prices, some by as much as 8%.

In-N-Out Burger, one of California’s most beloved fast food chains, raised the the price of its double-double burger combo in Los Angeles County to $11.44 — 76 cents more than it cost last year.

The controversial new law also mandates steep 25% pay raises for managers at fast food restaurants — from a minimum of $66,560 annually to $83,200.

At popular chicken chain Raising Cane’s, general managers in the state can now see their annual pay reach $174,000 from bonuses based on their location’s sales and profit.