Sunset and Holloway After the Flood: The Final Repaving, Dialog's Temporary Home, and What's New on the Strip

This week at the bottom of Holloway Drive there are orange barrels, a lane of new asphalt and contractor trucks around the intersection. Just off the corner, a 1937 building by Rudolph Schindler sits with its doors closed. For nearly 18 years it was Dialog Café, and on many mornings it was the first stop after the drive down the hill.

The two will recover on different schedules. The street work at Sunset and Holloway ends on a date the City has published. Dialog's building has no reopening date at all. So the corner that flooded in July will probably be smooth pavement well before the cafe next to it reopens. For anyone who lives up the hill, the fall's real change is where the morning coffee stop is now.

What July left at the corner

At about 4 a.m. on Thursday, July 16, 2026, a 36-inch LADWP water transmission trunk line broke under Sunset Boulevard at Holloway Drive. According to the City of West Hollywood, Sunset stayed closed for more than a week while crews worked around the clock. It reopened at about 11 p.m. on Friday, July 24. NBC Los Angeles later reported that about 17 million gallons of water were lost.

Dialog got the worst of it. WEHO Times reported that water, mud and debris hit the Holloway Drive building directly, and the cafe has been closed since. A week after the break, WEHOonline checked on the neighbors and found State Social House reopened, Book Soup open again and the Coffee Bean operating. It also reported that Panini and Roro's Liquor were open but had lost foot traffic during the closure.

The patch that let Sunset reopen in July was temporary. The permanent fix is happening now.

The last stretch of lane closures

LADWP and its contractor started permanent roadway restoration at the intersection on Monday, October 19. The work covers new concrete bus pads and fresh asphalt, and it is expected to continue through Thursday, November 12. The City says it will take lane closures, traffic shifts and temporary turning restrictions, and it calls the schedule tentative, depending on field conditions.

WEHOonline published the phase-by-phase plan and updated it on October 21 when the City revised the dates. The contractor, S E Pipeline, planned to finish the eastbound bus pads and clear its traffic-control devices before Halloween Carnaval on October 31. Westbound paving started on Sunday, November 1. From this Thursday, here is what's left:

WEHOonline reports that at least one lane stays open in each direction throughout. It also says cross-street movements through the intersection, including the turn from westbound Holloway onto westbound Sunset, are restricted during most phases. The November 10 and 12 restriction matters most to anyone heading home from the east. On those two days, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., the usual right turn off westbound Sunset onto Holloway is closed.

Property owners who had damage or other losses from the break can still file claims with LADWP at ladwp.com/claims, according to the City. In September, the City also announced a Los Angeles County Small Business Recovery Grant. It is funded by Supervisor Lindsey P. Horvath's office, run by the County Department of Economic Opportunity, and limited to businesses in a designated impact area. The County is contacting eligible businesses directly. This is general information, not legal or financial advice, so please confirm how either program applies to you with LADWP, the County or your own advisor.

Dialog's year away from Holloway

After November 12, the corner should look finished. The cafe beside it will not be. In the September 17 announcement of its residency, Dialog said restoring the original building "could take approximately one year or longer." It called that an estimate that could change and said "No reopening date has been established for the original location."

So the temporary location is likely to be where you get your Dialog order for at least the next year. It is at The Sun Rose West Hollywood, the former Pendry, at 8430 Sunset Boulevard. The hotel's Dialog page lists it as open daily from 6:30 a.m. to 9 p.m., with online ordering set up for the 8430 Sunset address. WEHO Times notes the cafe is at street level and can be reached right from the sidewalk, so you don't have to go through the hotel lobby for a latte.

The founders, Narbeh and Tadeh Ghazalian, said they would bring the full menu with them. That includes the Dialog Breakfast Burrito made with pasture-raised eggs, the Chicken Caesar Wrap, the Madagascar Vanilla Latte and the Shaken Strawberry Oat Matcha Latte. The menu is also available through hotel room service, which may be handy the next time you have out-of-town guests staying on the Strip. In the founders' words, "We're grateful to have kept our entire team together," so the people behind the counter should be the same ones from Holloway.

Upstairs at The Sun Rose

Dialog's move means The Sun Rose now runs from early coffee to a late tasting menu. Kris Umstattd, the hotel's general manager, said in the residency announcement that the cafe came "on the heels of last month's unveiling of Oleander and Yuhi," the hotel's two new rooftop restaurants.

LODGING Magazine reports that SAGA Hospitality developed both. Oleander is a Coastal Pacific restaurant led by rooftop chef de cuisine Grace Dong. Yuhi is a 12-seat, 17-course omakase counter led by chef Naomi Kubo. The hotel's Oleander page describes sea-to-table dishes, Bincho-grilled skewers and internationally inspired small plates. It lists lunch daily from 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. and dinner from 5:30 to 10 p.m. The Yuhi page calls it the chef's first permanent Los Angeles residency.

That means one address now covers a breakfast burrito at 6:30 a.m., a rooftop lunch and a 12-seat omakase at night. For neighbors who used to start the day on Holloway, a lot more of the Strip routine now happens at 8430 Sunset.

Farther west, a late table at 9229

At the other end of the Strip, the former Bootsy Bellows space reopened on Monday, October 19 as Little Luck. Eater LA describes it as a modern izakaya from the Hwood Group, founded by John Terzian and Brian Toll, with chef Erik Idos in the kitchen. The menu includes sashimi, nigiri, skewers, garlic lobster noodles and short-rib ssam, plus cocktails. Hours are Monday through Saturday, 5 p.m. to midnight, with the kitchen closing at 10:30 p.m. DJs play on Fridays and Saturdays. The address is 9229 West Sunset Boulevard, which is the far side of the Strip from the Holloway work zone. A dinner there won't take you through the paving.

Two moves still waiting on an opening day

Two more neighborhood changes are close but hadn't been confirmed open as this post went to press. Check before you go.

• Daughter's Deli is moving across the street to 8618 Sunset Boulevard in Sunset Plaza, the former Chin Chin space, from its earlier spot at 8555 Sunset Plaza, according to WEHO Times. Owner Trisha Langer's website says the deli temporarily closed on Monday, September 28, planning to reopen at the new location later in October. As of this writing, the site still says "NEW LOCATION TO OPEN SOON."
• Kōzo Los Angeles is planned for 8500 Sunset Boulevard as an Afro-Asian restaurant. It is associated with chef Sakorn Somboon, barman Julian Cox, Bill Chait and Ramzi Yamusah, and planned dishes include kimchi jollof rice, berbere wagyu and charred egusi cauliflower, according to Eater LA's fall preview. The Infatuation listed its opening as late October.

The barricades at Sunset and Holloway are scheduled to come down after November 12. For now, the Dialog counter at The Sun Rose opens at 6:30 a.m. every day of the week.

If the changes along the Strip this fall have you thinking about how your own corner of the hills fits your plans, I'd be glad to talk it through over coffee at Dialog's new counter. Reach out to Cassandra Hepburn and let's connect.