LA Observed reader Max Pierce sent this email to the people who run Hamburger Hamlet, the once-prominent chain of eateries that has fallen on hard times. The Hollywood Boulevard location put up paper on the windows just in recent days.

 I have been a loyal Hamlet customer for over 15 years. It sickens me to see how this once wonderful chain has been diminished to nothing. I have seen Westwood, Palm Springs, Beverly Drive and NOW Hollywood close in the last couple of years. Your website dismisses the former corporate owners as not caring about the company, yet under YOUR ownership more locations have been closed, the menu gets smaller and there has been no growth.

The so-called new menu is a complete joke — you've made a physically larger menu, but eliminated more dishes. Also, the ADVERTISEMENT for the company that produces the menus smack inside the first page or two is nothing short of tacky and the menu itself is harder to read. What a waste of money and then less than six weeks later, you close yet another location, which was a few blocks from my home. While the service was always hit or miss, at least it served the neighborhood.

I hope you either get out of this business soon, and let people who know how to run a restaurant take over, or shut down the remaining locations IMMEDIATELY, as it is heartbreaking to see this once large chain (I remember locations downtown, Wilshire and Palm Desert and I'm not that old), known for delicious food, sharp service and most of all a LOCAL institution bled dry. Thank goodness there's Kate Mantilini.

And can the website: you've had the same BS message up for 2 years about restoring the 'iconic' status---and you no longer serve Chicken Pot Pie although you list it in the online menu, and you dropped the 'hamburger' part of your name just last month, remember?

Hey, that's an idea, I'll just drop 'hamlet' from my mind too.

Max Pierce