The dining room at 468 N. Bedford Drive is finished. Crustacean planned to end dine-in service on Sept. 30. Its last private dining date at Bedford was Oct. 15. For the rest of its lease, the kitchen has been doing takeout under the name AN the Go, and the lease is scheduled to run out on Oct. 31. The restaurant's own farewell page asks guests to leave their contact details under the heading "Where to find us after Bedford…"
What happens to the building next is unknown. Once the An family leaves, it joins a short list of Beverly Hills restaurant spaces that are well known, empty, and waiting for a tenant. This year showed how that list usually gets resolved. Almost every notable restaurant that opened in the city in 2026 went into a room another restaurant had already made famous. The real variable was how long each room sat empty first.
Three Rooms, Three Very Different Waits
Here are this year's clearest examples, with the time each space sat between tenants:
- The Palm space on Canon Drive, now Bad Roman. The Hollywood Reporter reported the steakhouse closed by October 2023. Quality Branded Hospitality, the group behind Don Angie, opened Bad Roman at 267 N. Canon Drive on May 26, 2026, according to Eater LA. That's roughly two and a half years between tenants.
- The Sushi Kiyono space, now The Brothers Sushi Beverly Hills. Sushi Kiyono's final service was announced for Saturday, Nov. 22, 2025, in a local report that also named The Brothers Sushi as the next tenant. Food Journal reported a grand opening date of Sept. 8, 2026. That gap was a little under ten months.
- The Waldorf Astoria rooftop, now Gemma. This space never went dark. It changed names. According to Los Angeles Magazine, the top floor had been The Rooftop Beverly Hills and The Rooftop by JG before chef Peleg Miron's Gemma was reported open in May 2026.
The pattern holds across very different operators: a New York restaurant group, a sushi brand that started in Woodland Hills, and a hotel's in-house kitchen. None of them opened at a new address. Each moved into a room that people in Beverly Hills already knew by a different name.
The wait times also show who controls the timing. A hotel can rename a rooftop without closing it. A storefront that loses its tenant waits until a new operator signs a lease and builds out the space. On Canon Drive, that took more than two years.
On Canon Drive, the Building Still Gets Noticed First
The Palm was known for its power lunches, and the room had to look different for anyone to notice the change. The Beverly Hills Courier describes a giant neon orange snake on the outside of the old Palm space. Inside are maximalist floral booths and glossy red tabletops by GRT Architects, the Brooklyn firm that also designed Alba in West Hollywood.
The menu moved away from steakhouse habits less than the décor did. Eater lists two steaks on the Beverly Hills menu, a filet and a Snake River Farms wagyu strip, alongside the roasted garlic babka the restaurant is known for in New York and an Osetra caviar gnocchi. The room was an institution's for decades, and its new tenant still serves steak. It just serves it under a neon snake.
The Waldorf Rebuilt Both Floors Around Familiar Names
The Waldorf Astoria Beverly Hills at 9850 Wilshire Boulevard changed two rooms this year, and both new names lean on reputations diners already know.
On the ground floor, the Courier reports that the hotel fully revamped its downstairs dining space into a Tuscan steakhouse. It's called Baldi, chef Edoardo "Edo" Baldi runs the kitchen, and it opened on Feb. 18, according to Hilton's announcement. The same release ties the restaurant to the family's other two dining rooms. Giorgio Baldi has been in Santa Monica for 36 years, and e.Baldi is celebrating 20 years in Beverly Hills this year. The room has 180 seats, a central bar, a semi-enclosed terrace with open-air pods, and a private dining room for up to 50 guests.
Upstairs, Gemma is run by a chef who has been in the building for years. Los Angeles Magazine notes that Miron has been the property's executive chef since 2022. His menu covers small plates, wok-fired dishes, sushi and steak, including Maine lobster with Singaporean curry noodles and a filet mignon stir fry. The bar serves tiki-style drinks like a shareable Scorpion Bowl.
One of the two new rooms carries a name with two decades in this city. The other is run by the chef who already led the hotel's kitchen. Both are new restaurants built on familiar ground.
Even the New Names Picked Established Addresses
The 2026 openings without a famous predecessor still went to addresses with a reputation of their own.
- Vicky on Rodeo is at Two Rodeo, at the top of the steps next to Tiffany & Co., with a terrace that looks across to the Beverly Wilshire. Owner Vincent Benoliel told the Courier that it is "one of the most iconic corners in the country," and that he "felt Beverly Hills was missing a casual French brasserie with reasonable prices." It's open every day from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.
- Malka, chef Eyal Shani's first full-service restaurant in Los Angeles, opened inside SIXTY Beverly Hills in August, according to the Courier. It's fully kosher, and its signature dishes include the Queen Malka Schnitzel and Shani's hummus. Modern Luxury gives the address as 9360 Wilshire Boulevard and quotes Shani: "I'm making a very epic kosher restaurant."
- Azur, a French Mediterranean restaurant from Erik and Florence Chol, opened on Canon Drive a short walk from Bad Roman. It offers a two-course weekday prix fixe lunch for $35 and weekend brunch with ratatouille shakshuka.
A hotel lobby, the steps at Two Rodeo and a block of Canon Drive that already has a lunch crowd all come with built-in recognition. In 2026, the city's restaurant openings followed foot traffic and reputation that were already there.
468 N. Bedford Is the Room to Watch
By that logic, Crustacean's corner is the most notable room in Beverly Hills without an announced tenant. It's also the one with the least predictable future, because its owner has not said it will stay a restaurant.
The address came with no reputation. Helene An told the Los Angeles Times that when she opened there in 1997, "This location, there was nothing." The corner held medical offices and a Rite Aid. Over three decades, the garlic noodles and roasted crab made the corner a dining destination.
Here is how the final months unfolded:
- July 29: the date originally announced as the last day of service, before a lease extension was reached.
- Aug. 5: the restaurant reopened at limited capacity, according to Beverly Press, and took reservations through the end of September.
- Oct. 1: the planned switch to special events and takeout for the rest of the lease.
- Oct. 15: the last day for private dining at Bedford, according to the restaurant's farewell page.
- Oct. 31: the scheduled end of the lease and the restaurant's final day in Beverly Hills, as the Times reported in July.
Takeout pickup orders through AN the Go are linked from the same farewell page. Elizabeth An, CEO of the family's House of AN group, described the extension this way in a statement to the paper:
"In the eleventh hour, we got our miracle. We could not be more grateful for this extra time to properly thank our loyal guests and community for 30 wonderful years, and to give our team members the respectful transition they deserve."
The Times reported that the building's new owner had introduced new plans for it. Beverly Press cited An's interview with Fox 11 News, in which she said the new owner has different plans for the site. No owner name, new tenant or project has been made public. Bad Roman and Brothers Sushi both stepped into rooms that were plainly waiting for another restaurant. The Bedford building's next use hasn't been announced at all.
Where the Garlic Noodles Go After Bedford
The An family is not leaving the region. According to Beverly Press, House of AN will keep running Crustacean in San Francisco, Tiato in Santa Monica, AnQi in Orange County and Thanh Long in San Francisco. It plans Crustacean pop-up events at Tiato and AnQi and will continue catering private events. The same report says the family is looking at possible permanent locations in Calabasas or Pasadena. No site or opening date has been announced.
The Bedford corner is left with a 30-year reputation, an owner with unannounced plans, and no name on the door after Halloween.
For owners near Bedford, Canon or the Golden Triangle who want to know how changes like these affect a property, Steve Frankel offers a confidential home valuation, handled with the discretion and local context these questions call for.
