The Original Pantry Café, which closed six months ago amid a sale of the business and a labor dispute with its unionized employees, will reopen to the public on Dec. 31, officials announced Thursday.

The downtown diner’s new owner, real estate entrepreneur Leo Pustilnikov, and officials with Unite Here Local 11, which represents its employees, held a celebratory event outside the eatery Thursday morning to hail an agreement that will allow the reopening of the famed restaurant with the same group of workers.

The Pantry originally opened in 1924 and was a downtown dining staple until its closure earlier this year.

The union called the restaurant’s planned reopening “a ray of hope in a dark time for our city.”

Pustilnikov told KCAL9 Thursday morning the Pantry is a symbol of the resilie

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