Irving Azoff cares about Los Angeles institutions.
The music industry giant—lauded as the most powerful man in music as recently as Billboard’s 2012 Power 100 list—has been revealed as the benefactor saving a beloved Westside Los Angeles institution. Even the most casual of LA foodies has likely stopped by The Apple Pan, an iconic burger joint that has sat on the same corner of Pico Boulevard since 1947. The spot has remained relatively unchanged since it first opened, a nostalgic favorite among many longtime Angelenos.
The Apple Pan was in the hands of the same family since its inception, but the LAist revealed today that ownership of the restaurant has been sold over to the Azoffs.
While the place generated interest in potential buyers for years, the current owners, Martha Gamble and her daughter Sonny Sherman, made a deal with the music mogul in large part because Azoff and his wife Shelli are longtime customers.
“I have certain criteria,” explained Sherman, granddaughter of founders Ellen and Alan Baker. “I wanted people that hopefully were longtime customers, which I found. People that knew how to run a business and were successful at doing that, I found. People that wanted to keep our employees. That I found. People that didn’t have to make this a big business to survive, to get their money back right away. And people who don’t want to change it. And I got all that. All those points I was able to find in one group of people.”
The Azoffs have promised to keep everything as is, right down to the staff, many of whom have worked there for literal decades.
It’s not the couple’s first foray into saving local institutions. Just last year, the pair led a group of investors who saved legendary Beverly Hills deli, Nate ’n Al.
