Altadena Food Club aims to save struggling food after the Eaton fire

Before the fire, Lucy’s place would come alive in the morning.

Gardeners and day laborers would come for a morning pastry or breakfast burrito and coffee prepared by owner Juan Orozco, who arrived at 5 a.m. to prepare. If he goes out, his regulars will take over and serve coffee to customers, he said.

Orozco and his wife have run the casual cafe since 1997, serving items like hoyos rancheros, tacos, burgers and fajitas on long plates with a side of grapes. Customers who have rented apartments nearby will be passing by for food. But after the Eaton fire, Orozco’s humble cafe itself became a shell. He said that it is lucky if someone comes before 8 am

“I want closure,” he said last Tuesday afternoon. “No business.”

That was before arriving at the Altadena Dining Club.

Altadena Dining Club members are meeting on October 21, 2025 at Lucy’s.

Made up of local residents who want to save food that survived the fire, the food club is the brainchild of Brooke Lohmann-Johns, a dispossessed tenant appointed to preserve Altadena’s clothing. So, that night, he and the other club members went to Lucy’s place and ransacked her yard. About a dozen people, including some first timers and eating club regulars, were there that evening to talk about their lives, the rebuilding and of course the night of the Eton Fire.

Brooke Lohmann-Johns, right, founder of the Altadena Dinner Club, greets Melissa Michelson at the club’s Oct. 21, 2025, meeting.

Orozco, who estimates he lost three-quarters of his business and is now thousands of dollars in debt, said business was slow on that particular day. Only two potential customers had phoned in orders, and they never picked up. But then the dining club members started moving in, and the restaurant slowly came to life.

“Thanks for meeting us!” Lohmann told Johns Orozco, who that night and as before, was working in the back, making food. He wears an “Altadina Strong” cap, representing his longtime home.

Altadena, an unincorporated part of Los Angeles County nestled in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains, has long attracted artists, scientists, and homesteaders because of its isolation and quaint nature. Before the fire, more than 42,000 people lived in the community, and its demographics were as rich and diverse as the house styles that lined the wide, pedestrian-friendly streets.

Before the Eaton fire, Altadena was about 42% white, 18% black and 27% Latino. Many are left wondering how the community will be rebuilt, the heart of Altadena will live on. The fire, driven by hurricane-force winds, swept through large swaths of neighborhoods, sometimes destroying entire blocks of houses and even large commercial structures.

Lohman Johns and her husband, Michael Johns, lost their rental apartment in a fire after living in Altadena for seven years. They were trying to navigate the whole community, and they did it. They weren’t ready to leave yet.

Jessica Christopher, co-owner of Altadena Cookie Co., passes out flyers at the Altadena Food Club meeting announcing the grand opening of her cookie shop.

Marylease Pedersen of Altadena Baptist Church filled out a survey asking community members for their thoughts on rebuilding the church after the Eaton fire.

At the end of May, nearly five months after the Eaton fire displaced them, the couple finished shopping in Altadena and are currently living out of a Streamline trailer there. Lohmann Johns, who is vegan, realized that many of the restaurants that had survived the fire were struggling to get by. It hit her one day when he stopped to buy food at El Patron, a Mexican restaurant that had survived the fire but was surrounded by burning businesses.

“Why don’t we just start getting together and supporting our local places?” He thinks. “There aren’t many of them. We have to make sure they stay.”

Benji Zobrist greets Melissa Michelson and gives her a survey at the Altadena Dining Club meeting.

In June, the club held its first meeting in El Patron. It sits at the corner of Lake Avenue and Altadena Drive, across the street from where one of the neighborhood’s quirky attractions — the Bunny Museum — once stood. Katy Corner was the Altadena Community Church. On the other side of the lake, Lifeline Fellowship Church once held Sunday services. They burned in the fire, leaving few but empty spaces.

Lohman Johns said about 25 people showed up to the first meeting, which served as a healing space for residents. The next time they met, the crowd nearly doubled, a sign that Altadenans were determined to stick together — and support their local spots.

So far, the club has visited 10 restaurants and visits about once a week, walking between diners and trying to encourage other residents to come out. By the end of October, it will add two more meeting places.

Lohman-Janz created enamel pins and hosts to encourage members to continue participating. Recently, a former Altadena resident traveled from Palm Springs to participate in the tour. On Facebook, the group has grown to more than 1,300 members, where Lohmann-Johns, who has a full-time marketing job, spends her free time notifying the group of planned trips while updating the “Altadena Dining Club Passport” with a list of businesses and their opening status.

“The response, it’s surprising and not. Altadenans really want to join,” Lohmann-Johns said. “It’s definitely a tragedy. People want something good to focus on, at least just for a few hours.”

Benji Zobrist, a member of Altadena Baptist Church, surveys at an Altadena Supper Club meeting what the church needs to consider as it rebuilds.

On October 21, as more members arrived, Orozco prepared the dishes while his niece, Jennifer Orozco, took the orders and delivered them to the chef. Inside, an entire wall was taken up by a mural that Orzco had commissioned a friend to paint, while popular Spanish songs blared softly from a large television.

“A fried chicken sandwich on white!” she called out.

Lohman Johns ordered potato tacos and her husband ordered a potato burrito. It was the first time she had been to the restaurant, she said, after someone at a dining club suggested it as a place to meet. In a way, she said, the club was helping to rebuild places that had been lost over the years.

Juan Orozco, owner of Lucy’s Place in Altadena, welcomes Brooke Lohmann-Johns to his restaurant.

When longtime patrons Hipolito and Elizabeth Cisneros arrived, Orozco greeted the couple, who had previously lived just a block from the restaurant until a fire destroyed their home.

Hipolito asked about the chicken fajitas, and Orozco asked what he thought of the shrimp fajitas. “The shrimp fajitas look good,” he replied.

When the plates came out, Marylease Pederson, a member of the dinner club, exclaimed, “Where was that on the menu? Oh my God.”

Like the Cisneros, Pederson has attended several dining club meetings since losing her home in the Eaton fire. She has moved back to her place, living in a small house with her three cats. For her, the dining club was a way to build community and visit old places, like Lucy’s.

“Since the fire, I’ve related a lot to other people who have experienced it,” Pedersen said.

Naturally, the conversation at the tables turned to the night of the fire and how to cope. They stayed until late in the evening, as the sun came out and a light rain fell for a few moments. From Lucy, Altadena’s feet appeared in the background.

Altadena Dining Club members meet at Lucy’s on October 21, 2025.

In the same plaza, Jessica Christopher, co-owner of Altadena Cookie Co., was locking up for the day when she noticed members of the eating club gathered at Lucy’s. As a fellow business owner, Christopher has felt the impact on foot traffic. The business was in the midst of a grand opening when the Eaton’s fire broke out, forcing the owners to replace all their equipment due to smoke pollution. Now, nine months later, she and her partner, Michelle Taylor, are planning for their grand opening again this week.

As he spends most of his days preparing, he often takes his son to get a burger at Lucy’s — no lettuce, no tomato, just beef, cheese and buns — to support Orozco in any way he can.

That evening, she joins Lucy’s Burgers and her own dining club, asking: “If you can’t help each other survive, what else?”