The Jeni's sign at 123 N. Larchmont came down on Monday, September 28, a day after the shop closed at the end of its lease. Jeni's had opened in 2017 as the company's third Los Angeles scoop shop, and founder Jeni Britton came to the grand opening. A few doors up the same side of the block, Max & Helen's was doing what it has done since November: seating a room full of people at a diner that did not exist a year ago.
The same week, Village Pizzeria sat dark for three days running, and the Larchmont Buzz reported on Monday that owner Amy Saxon says it is not closed for good. Read together, these are ordinary lease-calendar events on a commercial district that dates to the 1920s. What tells you whether the Boulevard is losing anything is the length of time a tenant stays and what it does for the block while it is there. The rest of this piece sorts this week's changes by that measure.
A week of lease decisions
Here is where each address stands as of Tuesday, September 29.
| Address | Then | Now |
|---|---|---|
| 123 N. Larchmont | Jeni's Ice Creams, 2017 to Sept. 27, 2026 | Chamberlain Coffee, likely opening in 2027 |
| Village Pizzeria | Under current owners since July 2022 | Closed for three days as of Sept. 28; owner says it will reopen shortly, no date given |
| 127 N. Larchmont | Le Petit Greek, closed December 2023 | Max & Helen's, opened Nov. 18, 2025 |
| 133 N. Larchmont | Chevalier's Books, open since January 1940 | Same store, new painted storefront |
The Chamberlain Coffee deal was brokered by David Aschkenasy on behalf of the landlord, according to the Buzz. It will be the third Chamberlain café, after Century City and Abbot Kinney Boulevard in Venice. A likely 2027 opening means 123 N. Larchmont sits empty through the fall event season and the holidays.
Village Pizzeria's situation is still moving. The current owners, Bret and Amy Saxon and Jeff Bowler, bought it from longtime owner Steve Cohen in July 2022, and the Buzz notes that talk of a sale has circulated for years. What can be said today is what the owner said on the record, that the plan is to reopen, and no date has been announced.
What the Jeni's closing actually takes out
Jeni's was a Midwest-based chain outpost, and by the Buzz's account, neighbors said it would be missed for more than the ice cream. The shop routinely partnered with neighborhood schools and nonprofits on ice cream socials that helped them raise money. That is the function that leaves with the lease.
This sits awkwardly next to the most quoted line about the Boulevard's future. In a Hollywood Reporter profile last September, Phil Rosenthal described Larchmont this way:
"This has been a wonderful kind of Mayberry, and it's losing its character."
He was pointing at mom-and-pop retailers giving way to global names such as Aesop and Diptyque. Jeni's belongs to the same category as those names, since it was a company from elsewhere. It spent nearly a decade becoming something the block used for its own fundraising. Character on the Boulevard tracks tenure and participation, and a tenant from anywhere can earn it by staying and showing up.
Chamberlain Coffee arrives with the same opening position Jeni's had in 2017, a brand with a national following taking a storefront. The Buzz report gives no word on community programming, and nothing in the research says what the café will do once it opens. The comparison is worth holding until it does.
The diner that was built as an anchor
Max & Helen's answers the same question from the other direction. Rosenthal and chef Nancy Silverton took the 127 N. Larchmont space that Le Petit Greek left after 35 years, and Rosenthal has said he wanted a place he could walk to and sit in every day he is in Los Angeles. He also set a target of the cheapest coffee on the block, aiming to keep it under about three dollars. The Infatuation listed a cup at $2.75.
The opening weekend was a spectacle. Waits were reported at eight hours at the start and about four and a half hours on a Saturday in December. By January, The Infatuation found a 20-minute wait at a weekday lunch and a walk-in table at dinner. The same review points to the counter as the quickest seat, with a single diner able to find an open stool immediately. The restaurant lists its hours as 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily on its own site.
Later coverage adds a patio that opened after the initial run. It also puts Sundays at the worst time to go, helped along by the nearby farmers market. That detail says something about the Boulevard's structure. The diner's heaviest day tracks the weekly market, and a newcomer, even a very famous one, gets slotted into the weekly rhythm rather than replacing it.
The fixtures that don't have a lease to lose
Chevalier's Books opened on the Boulevard in January 1940 and calls itself Los Angeles' oldest independent bookstore. Its storefront now reads as the cover of a painted book, the work of local artists Mimi Feldman and Kate Diliberto. General manager Pamela Christlieb told the Buzz the aim was for the outside of the store to speak to the inside. The Buzz publisher, Patricia Lombard, is a co-owner of Chevalier's, which is worth knowing when weighing that coverage. The store occupies about 1,500 square feet, and its own about page says it is in Larchmont Village, at the heart of Hancock Park.
Around that store, the fixtures that carry the Boulevard through tenant changes are events run by volunteers and nonprofits.
- The Larchmont Family Fair. It began as a small-town event in the mid-1960s. Last year the 60th edition closed the Boulevard between Beverly and First Street on Sunday, October 26, with an estimated 10,000 visitors. Under last year's terms, nonprofit groups rented a booth for $500 ($300 for Larchmont Boulevard Association members) and kept what they raised. This year's date should be confirmed with the association.
- The Wilshire Rotary Pumpkin Patch. It sets up at 568 N. Larchmont, the same lot where the Rotary sells Christmas trees in December. Last year it opened Friday, October 10, and the Buzz called it a tradition of nearly 20 years. In 2024 it sold more than 30,000 pounds of pumpkins. This year's opening date has not been published in anything found for this piece.
- Taste of Larchmont. HopeNet's benefit for its 12 food pantries reached its 34th year on Monday, September 14, and Mayor Karen Bass and CD13 Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martinez took part.
Not one of these depends on who holds the lease at 123 N. Larchmont. The Boulevard's business district dates to the 1920s, and the Larchmont Village Business Improvement District, created in 1998, is funded by property-owner assessments that cover street maintenance, marketing and events. These fixtures run on that same funding and volunteer base while the storefronts around them change hands.
October, in order
The next four weeks offer a few ways to follow the Boulevard’s rhythm.
- A weekday morning at Max & Helen's. Weekday mornings and shoulder hours are the practical window, and the counter seats a solo diner fastest.
- A walk past Chevalier's. The painted storefront is at 133 N. Larchmont, on the west side between Beverly Boulevard and First Street.
- The second week of October. The Wilshire Rotary Pumpkin Patch has opened in that week in recent years, so watch for pumpkin deliveries at 568 N. Larchmont.
- Late October. The Family Fair has closed the Boulevard on a Sunday at the end of the month, in 2025 on the 26th. Its 2026 date is the one to confirm.
Village Pizzeria and the Chamberlain Coffee storefront are the two addresses to check on along the way. One is waiting on an owner's stated plan to reopen and the other is waiting on a 2027 build-out.
If you would like to talk through how the Boulevard's next chapter reads from the streets behind it, the team at Walters | Plaxen Estates is glad to share what we are seeing. Step Into a New Standard.
