421 W 8th Street │ Los Angeles, CA 90014
About___________________________________________________________________________________________________
Opening on October 29, 2018, Cassells Hamburgers took over a former pizzeria in a prime location of downtown Los Angeles. Sticking to our rich history, the soul of the food stay true to its original founder using only prime beef and homemade menu items. After opening our first location in the historic Hotel Normandie, our hope is to respectfully expand to downtown LA while staying true to our original principles.
The thoughtful renovation continues to honor the Cassells Hamburgers aesthetic by using red hues and preserving the exposed brick of the building. JLD completely revived the former restaurant to a modern day burger joint while preserving as much as possible.
“One of the most graceful things a person can do is please people by serving them good food.” - Alvin Cassell
Details_______________________________
Specs: Area:
Occupancy: Restaurant-Retail space
Development Cost:
Team: Architect: J Lou Architect Contractor: ENV Construction
After Renovation____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Brief History________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
In 1948, after spending some time as a real estate broker, Alvin Cassell’s idea of the quality burger sparked from a great deal of time wondering “why we couldn’t go out to eat and get something good for our money,” Cassell opened a small lunch place on Wilshire blvd, across from the Bullock’s Department store. His theory, then and now, was that there were only two ways to prepare good food: “There’s high chefery, and I don’t discount the importance of a $1,000,000 operation, but that was obviously beyond my means, so the only other possibility is high quality and extreme simplicity.” His simple menu hasn’t changed; it consists of sandwiches-hamburgers and cheeseburgers, egg salad, ham, ham and cheese and tuna fish. Period. “I try to serve the items i can control”. The essential secret of Cassell: He is after perfection, nothing less nothing more. He buys nothing but U.S.D.A Prime beef. Huge chucks delivered daily just 24 hours after they’ve been butchered in Colorado. He makes his own dressing, Roquefort. He then began making his own mayo. His attention to detail comes from a foxy pragmatism: “ When you serve only extraordinary items, The extraordinary does the work for you. The higher the quality of the goods, the easier the performance.” — L.D (OUI Magazine- October 1972)
