And since then, they’ve been serving up breakfast classics like chicken and waffles and lumberjacks.
They said they chose to open in Downtown LA because it was the most affordable option for them at the time.
“It grew into this wonderful community restaurant supported by the local vendors and flower market people and just the locals in Downtown Los Angeles,” said Reed.
And when the pandemic hit, they felt a commitment to support their community.
“We started to see a lot of people start camping out on the street. So, at the end of the day, we would take our leftovers and what we hadn’t sold and give it out to the people who were sleeping on the street,” said Reed.
Since March, the restaurant has fed frontline workers and people experiencing homelessness. They’ve donated an average of about 200 meals per month.
“And then a wonderful, tragic thing happened which was the Black Lives Matter movement,” said Reed.
A trend took off on social media to support small, black-owned businesses. Poppy and Rose consistently showed up on lists that went viral.
“And when that happened, we saw a huge shift in our sales. Blackout Tuesday happened and our sales went from us barely making $1,000 on the week to us making, you know, $4,000, $5,000, $6,000, $7000 a day and so it was something that we had never seen.”
But at the end of the day, it’s not the money that they care about most.
Their final message is: “That I love him, and that we love each other. And that we’re really just here to give back,” said Reed.
Poppy and Rose
765 Wall St, Los Angeles, CA 90014
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