Chop Stop is Closing After Almost 10 Years in West Hollywood

Employees at Chop Stop salad restaurant in West Hollywood say they have been informed by management that the location at 8717 Santa Monica Boulevard is closing this Thursday, June 30, 2022. The eatery specializing in chopped salads, bowls and wraps, opened on August 25, 2012, and is closing just two months shy of their ten-year-anniversary in WeHo City.

A source tells WEHO TIMES, their lease is up next month and their rent is going up as well, but the major culprit is the the City of West Hollywood’s new minimum wage increases and paid time off/sick ordinance that will kick in July 1st.

Under the new ordinance, full time employees for all businesses are to be provided at least 96 compensated hours and 80 uncompensated hours per year for sick leave, vacation, or personal necessity. Part-time employees are to be provided compensated and uncompensated hours in increments proportional to that accrued by someone who works 40 hours in a week.

Paid time off may be used for paid sick leave, vacation or personal necessity, and an employer may not “unreasonably” deny an employee’s request to use the paid time off.  Unpaid time off does not accrue beyond 80 hours, and like paid time off, an employer may not “unreasonably” deny an employee’s request to use it.  Unpaid time off may be used as sick leave after an employee has exhausted paid time off for either the employee or his or her immediate family member’s illness as defined by the CFRA.

However, a one-year, one-time, wage increase waiver may be granted to businesses who are able to demonstrate that compliance with the payment of the Citywide Minimum Wage increase would force the business to: file bankruptcy or a shutdown, reduce its workforce by more than twenty percent (20%), or curtail its Employees’ total hours by more than thirty percent.

Employees at Chop Stop West Hollywood have the option to transfer to two other locations, one in Studio City, and the other in Glendale. One worker says she knew the closure was coming, but thought it would not happen until the end of the year.

Its closure comes days after news broke that the Subway sandwich shop, located less than a block away at 8617 Santa Monica Boulevard, has permanently closed after being at that location dating back to the late 80s/early 90s. It stayed afloat, despite the exchange of several hands throughout the past decades and the recent shutdowns due to the COVID 19 Pandemic.

Chop Stop will leave behind an empty building next door to the also shuttered All The Way Burger, which closed on Santa Monica Boulevard in February of this year.