Ex-mayor Richard Riordan already owns the Original Pantry downtown and Gladstone's 4 Fish on Pacific Coast Highway. Now he's close to closing a deal for the venerable Mort's Deli in Pacific Palisades village. "I finally reached a verbal agreement with the landlord...now we're just waiting for a written agreement. So say a prayer that it works out," Riordan said at a recent AARP meeting, according to a story in the Palisadian-Post. He would keep Mort's under the same name and open an evening diner in the adjacent Oak Room. Mort's has been a fixture in the Palisades since 1972.

Photo: Robert Harrison/Christian Science Monitor