Vintage Diner Gets a New Lease on Life

The Gem Cafe, a decades-old Hermosa Beach diner that was to have been shut down by its landlord this week, has been given a reprieve, thanks to an outpouring of community support and a last-minute compromise.

“It’s a miracle!” cheered Richard McCurdy, a local businessman and Gem patron who last month launched a “Save the Gem Cafe Committee” when he heard the landlord was planning to lease the space to a new tenant.

The restaurant’s owners, Henry and Grace Poirier, had been facing the demise of the diner they bought 28 years ago from two sisters who had founded it in 1949. Now they have a lease that gives them until Dec. 31 to find a new spot.