Celebrating 28 years today! It’s become our tradition to mark our anniversary by reflecting on the past year over great coffee, and dreaming about the year ahead. We’ve chosen colors that resonate with us, representing our individual spirits and hopes for the future. This blend of colors becomes our annual New Year’s card, a message of love to our community and a guiding star for the coming year. We hope you find something in it for your own journey.
2023 was a year of highs and lows. We faced the real possibility of losing our beloved Food Shop, but then experienced the joy of LA Al Fresco becoming a permanent fixture – a huge win! While the pandemic was officially declared over, its impact continued to ripple through our industry. On a brighter note, our store @hyawestadams had a fantastic holiday season – thank you all! And our catering services bounced back in a major way, so much so that we sometimes had to close the food shop for days to manage it all. Balancing these different parts of our business has been a real challenge, and we are incredibly grateful for your ongoing support. We are committed to finding more sustainable solutions so we can continue to serve our community in all the ways we aspire to.
One of the most inspiring moments of the past year was seeing how many local Angelenos rallied together, writing letters to support small businesses like ours. Your voices were heard by the city council, and they changed the policy on outdoor dining! This showed us all the tangible impact of community action and the power of having YOUR VOICE heard to create the change you want to see. This is a powerful reminder of what we can achieve together, and we encourage everyone to stay involved and engaged – especially as 2024 is an election year.
Together, we’ve proven that we can truly make significant changes, even something as seemingly immovable as parking restrictions! Let’s take this momentum into the new year. Lene and I have always believed that we have the power to shape the places we live in. Let’s actively create the community we want this year, starting now, from day one.
Wishing you all a very Happy New Year! Skål!
– Mark, Lene, and the Open Face/ HYA team
