Iconic Beverly Hills spot Crustacean closing

First on Fox 11, a shocking announcement by the founders of the iconic Beverly Hills Restaurant Crustacean. The glamorous spot known for its modern take on Vietnamese cuisine is shutting down. There's only one more week to get the famous roasted crab and garlic noodles. Founder and owner Elizabeth Ahn joins us now. So this is such a dramatic turn of events. Elizabeth, I know that you were hoping that you could have sort of a long goodbye. What happened? Why is this going on? Tell me it's not true. Unfortunately, it is. It's okay. I'm good. Unfortunately, it is. We've been at this since January and as of May, we thought we got the deal done and we have an extension for a crustacean restaurant on Bedford. Unfortunately, I left on a trip. I came back a month later. I learned that the building has been sold and now we're dealing with a new landlord. Unfortunately, there's other plans for the building and that plan just doesn't suit crustacean anymore. So let's revisit after 30 years. Yeah, that I was going to say. So let's revisit because the restaurant has been there on the corner of Santa Monica and Bedford for 30 years. It became such a hot spot for celebrity sightings as well as the amazing food. I mean, your mom, Chef Helene, everyone calls her mama. The food alone was such a draw, but then on top of it, you got a lot of accolades for the food and for the atmosphere in crustacean as well, right? So name just a couple of the awards that you got. Well, mama was awarded recently about a year ago with the California Hall of Fame, the Asian Hall of Fame. And so it's wonderful. She's been also acknowledged with some James Beard recognition. But most of all, I think the main award for us is the friendship that we made along the way. And I think that's the hardest for us to be able to leave in such a short notice. We expected that even if it didn't work out, we thought we would have at the very least a couple of months to make the transition and to say goodbye to our guests, to properly say thank you and to make an adjustment. And only as of last Thursday, I mean, this past few days, Thursday, the whole thing kind of blew up. And so we learned that it's not going to be possible unless a miracle happens. I hope it does. Then hopefully we at least have a couple of months to do it properly. Right. So, and your staff, many of them have been with you a very long time. What happens to them? So, you know, they're like our family. And so those who've been with us, we're going to try to make sure that because it's so short notice, we want to make sure that we keep them with us. And so my plan is we're, thank goodness, we have a sister restaurant, Teato in Santa Monica, and we're going to do a wonderful crustacean pop-up from now to the end of the year. That's my plan. We're just thinking fast as we go along. And then we also have a sister restaurant in Orange County called On Key at South Coast Plaza. I'm going to do a pop-up of crustacean there. So hopefully that will give us a little transition to try until we find new home. And if you can't come to us on Bedford, we're going to come to you. And I plan to do catering to your house. So hopefully that'd be the case. And the best way to know about where we're going and when we're going is to maybe look on our website and keep in touch with us. That's the main thing. If those who are listening, keep in touch with us so we can continue serving you. So many memories. I have my own. Do you have one special memory that you can share quickly before we finish? The best part is always one day we had, oh my goodness, he, Joel, oh my goodness, Billy Joel. Okay. I'm sorry. I was going to help. Billy Joel came in at dinner and on his way out, he turned around and he said to our pianist, would you like to move over for an old timer? And he scooted over and he played the piano and sang seven songs and just brought down the house. Wow. Just randomly there. He just decided to grace you with his presence and some songs. That's beautiful. Well, you're not gone and you are looking for new locations, right? Yes. So we're hoping we could, I think looking for location, Calabasas. Yeah. Closer to me. Yes. Anyone knows that we wanted something in Calabasas, maybe Pasadena. Hopefully we'll, we want to be in the city somehow. Very good. Elizabeth Han, thank you for coming in. Thank you for having me.