The Abbey Food and Bar in West Hollywood, hits its 30th anniversary this week (May 23). It’s become bigger and more successful than its owner and founder, David Cooley, could ever have imagined.In fact, hitting its 30th birthday was beginning to look unlikely just a few months ago.
During the Covid pandemic, the bar was forced to shut on four different occasions, sometimes at very short notice.On two of those occasions, closure came shortly after his team had made big orders for perishable items.“Our chef and our barman had ordered $40,000+ in produce: meats, cheese and bakery items,” Cooley says via a Zoom call to GayCities. “Those quotas were for over 30 days.”Unsurprisingly, to be ordered to close just five hours later was.