Which LA Restaurants Are Secretly Taking Private Equity Cash? | THE LA FOOD PODCAST

S1E198 - Which LA Restaurants Are Secretly Taking Private Equity Cash? | THE LA FOOD PODCAST

Published: October 2, 2026

Duration: 53:32

Can you tell which LA restaurants have outside investors just by the vibes? Karen Palmer joins Luca Servodio for “Does It Taste Like Private Equity?”, a guessing game exposing the money behind favorites like RVR, Prime Pizza, HomeState, Kismet and more. With Gen Z calling out “PE slop,” we debate whether outside investment actually makes restaurants worse, and why some independent-looking spots have institutional backing while seemingly corporate chains don’t. (For this game, “private equity” is shorthand for a broader mix of private equity, venture capital and other outside investment.)

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