i’m not all that familiar with the garment district. i think i was down there last to pick up wholesale flowers for a friend’s wedding and parking was rather a pain - i feel much the same way about chinatown, actually - so there’s little difference in that aspect. but choosing a location other than chinatown doesn’t seem all that odd except for a seemingly similar deficiency in terms of customer demographics. if the place doesn’t last more than six months, i’d chalk it up to a bad business model. maybe they got a great deal on rent?
I don’t get why you’re stuck on this topic like its such a connumdrum.
At the end of the day Chinese students who go to USC don’t wanna bother going to Chinatown. Look at it from a time/distance POV. The drive from USC to the Atlantic corridor isn’t that much longer/further than USC to Chinatown.
Mainly parking sucks. Also have you considered that commercial spaces aren’t as cheap as Garment district nor are there enough functional second generation restaurant spaces that are desirable.
Most of the clientele is Latino as you have stated and they aren’t looking for Sichuan hotpot.
There’s a reason I decided to get out of Chinatown. Why would any restauranteur decide to open in Chinatown? If you talk to my parents generation they have all sworn off doing business there, there is a negative stigma. In our circles we known Chinatown as a place for non-chinese to eat Americanized-Chinese food.
Probably because for me it’s more than just the food aspects that drives my interest in Chinese restaurants, particularly demographics and Chinese American history. A statistical impossibility is something that probably only interests me. Another such impossibility was why there was not a single Chinese restaurant near where I grew up on Adams Blvd. for 30 years until Mian opened up. I don’t think you could say that about any street in Los Angeles regardless of ethnicity or economic status. So now you can get Sichuan food in West Adams, but not Chinatown.
Sichuan style food in the garment district is a tough one to figure since there is little known Chinese presence there. There is the adjacent Toy District which is Chinese dominated, but my conclusion is that the answer is the heavy Korean participation the garment biz. There are a number of Sichuan restaurants in Koreatown, patronized by Koreans and USC Mainlanders alike. Also I noticed a bit of Korean lettering outside the restaurant.
Mala has been trending in Korea for awhile now which is why we have multiple mala spots here now.
Also you call it a statistical impossibility but that’s based off your logic.
From a business owner point of view why would I want to open a Sichuan restaurant where parking sucks, Chinese students avoid, and the only local Chinese are elderly Cantonese/Toisan folks who like my grandmother would literally die if she ate anything that spicy.
Also people tend to eat spicy Sichuan food for dinner and Chinatown is a ghost town at night. From my perspective it’s a statistical impossibility for one to survive without heavy marketing and taking a more hipster approach to the food to lure in a non-chinese crowd.
My term of statistical impossibility is a short term way of describing the statistical quirk that the chances of something not happening are much more remote than one would logically imagine. But I do recognize the non-random factors that are work with regard to Sichuan, as well as hotpot, Shaanxi and all the other regional stuff missing from Los Angeles Chinatown. But it’s still weird.
No. Born in the late 70s and family didn’t move to the LA area until the early 80s. By that point, Monterey Park was in its ascendency and Chinatown was already considered kind of past its prime.
Is the Garment District kind of a cool, “happening” area? I went to the Hoxton hotel for brunch/lunch w/i the past few months, which I think is not too far away from the Garment District. There was a West Elm and an Apple Store (in addition to the Hoxton itself, which seemed decently upscale).
Is Sichuan hotpot also kind of cool/new/trendy? If so, I think it makes sense that a Sichuan hotpot place would open in the Garment District than in Chinatown, TBH.
Mala Master looks like one of those Korean mala tang places where you pick your ingredients from something like a salad bar and then they cook it for you. Looks like part of a chain.
Garment district not trendy in the social sense in that it’s purely industry centric. Trendy only in that there is a core of shoppers who may come some distance to shop here.
Yeah. Downtown is pretty compact, so while places may seem close to the garment district (Woodspoon was one that comes to mind), they actually are not. But it’s not a place devoid of good food, although typically the places have limited hours due to who they are catering too. The Garment district tends to close up shop by 3pm on most days and except for the Alley is pretty much closed on weekends. One of my favorite Japanese places, At Home Kitchen, re-emerged in the heart of the Garment District.
Guzzu Bento-ya is still a gem and they are in a tucked corner of the Produce District. Mazal is worth the effort to seek out (especially for Vegetarians) and it’s in Industrial Lincoln Heights (so is new more meat forward Almaya).
Born in the late 70s and family didn’t move to the LA area until the early 80s. By that point, Monterey Park was in its ascendency and Chinatown was already considered kind of past its prime.