downtown wokcano shoots for holiday opening
Construction on Wokcano‘s new location in Downtown at 7th and Flower is nearly complete. A representative from the restaurant states they are aiming to open by Christmas, but are still pending approval from the City. “If not, then definitely in early January.”
According to the California ABC, their application for a liquor license was approved last month.
Wokcano serves Asian-fusion cuisine and is known for their late-night hours. Based on the other three locations in the Los Angeles area, we expect at least a midnight closing time during the week, and possibly later on Friday and Saturday nights.
This new restaurant is another step in establishing 7th Street as Downtown’s “Restaurant Row.” Another eatery called Seven Restaurant & Bar will also be opening soon down the street at Grand Avenue in the Quinby Building.
By the way, this is the second time Wokcano is opening Downtown. The first location on Figueroa was demolished a few years back to make way for a parking lot.
-Signs of Life at New Wokcano Restaurant
21 comments
This is good. A reasonable, inexpensive restaurant opening in the Financial District.
yay! can’t wait…great good, good atmosphere, easy access… what is not to love about this one.
I looooooooove Wokcano! I like their lunch salads – their lunch dressing is worth the embarrassment of licking my salad plate clean.
Damn you downtown workers…don’t tell me they won’t be open weekends for that lunch salad.
It’s almost as frustrating as the yummy Daily Grill breakfast that I WILL NEVER HAVE because they aren’t open weekend mornings.
What’s with the downtown restaurants who won’t take my dining money during the weekend?
I’m cranky.
Ginny – who says their only open on weekdays? I can’t see how they would pass up the Nokia Theater/Staples Center crowd who are using the 7th Street/Metro Center exit. Yes, I’ve seen it. It looks great to see the crowd walking down Figueroa.
Ginny makes a valid point. Too many businesses and institutions downtown operate with blinders on. A lot of this is geography because downtown is actually quite large and dispersed. A lot of this is mindset. There’s a generation of businesses and institutions downtown have been run on the M-F/9-5 schedule. Many of these places are perfectly comfortable with this. The changes downtown simply don’t impact them or they don’t care. Besides, they like their weekends.
Other businesses in the Fashion, Toy or Jewelry Districts don’t have evening hours during the holiday shopping season probably because it hasn’t occurred to them there’s a business opportunity there. At least Macy’s Plaza and 7th & Fig extend their shopping hours during the holidays.
How many times have you stumbled onto some event happening downtown and you had no idea it was going on. Sometimes they are fun and you wish you’d known. Sometimes they are a traffic hassle you wish you’d know so you could avoid it. Too many downtown institutions simply haven’t adjusted their marketing and communication plans to the new dem0graphic reality of downtown residents.
It seems pretty obvious to you and me that 10-20,000 people coming downtown who are hungry, have money to burn and time to kill before an event are good prospects for a restaurant. But, attracting those people to your restaurant does take some marketing. I sense many restaurants haven’t figured this out. Hopefully, 7th Street will truly bloom as a Restaurant Row and attract the pre and post event crowds. Yes, the tide is turning. But, it is slower than we’d like.
Interesting to note, though, David — Stephen and I have been to numerous restaurants on the weekends or late at night only to find that there are no customers (or very few). On a few occasions, we’ve been the only people in Wood Spoon around 8:30/9:00 PM.
Arda’s Cafe on Saturdays is slow. Lost Souls is closed on Saturdays because they weren’t getting enough business. It’s a strange occurrence.
I understand Mood is finally open. Also Tiara Cafe is open 7 days a week and will open for dinner in early January.
I don’t think it is strange at all. My sense based upon living downtown for ten years is that most downtowners don’t really explore their own neighborhoods. I think people like you and I who actually think urban living is a life well-lived are few and far between. My wife who has lived her whole life downtown often asks me, where are all these new people who live downtown?
I recall living above Grand Central Market for a few years. How many times did I ever see any of my neighbors in the market downstairs? Ah, once. How many times did I see them bringing home fast food or take-out? Ah, daily. Most people are still chained to their cars, TV’s, PCs, cellphones and iPods. There’s nothing wrong with these marvellous devices. But, they shouldn’t prevent you from walking your neighborhood. I live on the same block as the Wood Spoon. Quite simply, my neighbors don’t even know it is there. I recall my neighbors with two kids ‘discovering’ Grand Hope Park after living three blocks from it for over two years. They never walked their neighborhood. Drive in and drive out is their life. I could go on and on and with similiar observations.
Don’t get me wrong, these are all perfectly nice people. But, what are these nice people doing? I don’t know. I do know they don’t really embrace downtown living. Why they would live here and not take advantage of all that is offered puzzles me to no end. Their loss, I figure.
That’s a good point, David.
We make it a point here in the Eastern Columbia to try and spread the word about new ventures in the neighborhood. We have been anxiously awaiting Mode’s opening. Maybe it’s just our building, but I feel like my neighbors, by and large, are really interested in exploring and supporting this evolving neighborhood.
Last weekend, after trying to go to Mode, my wife and I walked over to Colori. While we dined, three other couples from our building strolled in.
David and PeterJ, I witness a combination of your two experiences. While I’m out and exploring new places in Downtown I often wonder where all the new residents are. Like Rico said, some places we go are completely dead during peak times. Other places always seem busy like Pete’s Cafe, the Standard, Ralphs, Daily Grill, Little Tokyo and the area around 7th/Fig. These are high-profile and people know about them. Newer, smaller places will take time to build a healthy patronage.
Rico and I went to Mode last night for our first real meal there. It was slow, but we start talking to the waiting staff there. The young girl asked if we lived nearby, and we got into a great conservations about the Downtown lifestyle and she told us most the diners there (so far) have been locals. She lives at The Flat and gets around Downtown without a car. It was encouraging to hear her rave about it all.
I live in Vero in City West and I’ve become acquainted with 15-20 of my neighbors who moved to Downtown just to live the urban lifestyle. I’ve often been walking around or having dinner and bump into some of them. I created a Google groups site for our building’s residents to share news/info about things happening in the neighborhood. It stays active.
Also, there are several keys buildings about to open in Downtown: 717 Olympic, Roosevelt, Brockman, Chapman, Rowan (and several other small ones). People will continue to flock to Downtown. It’s happening, we need to be patient.
Peter, actually I’ve noticed the residents at the Eastern are very present on the street. The opening of Ralphs has been crucial. I live across the street at the Orpheum. Possibly, the difference is between renters and owners.
Hopefully, you’re familiar with Tiara on 9th before Los Angeles. Lovely for breakfast. As for Angelique’s nearby, sadly, it is only a shadow of the great restaurant it once was.
David,
Know Tiara well. My wife and I have enjoyed many a brunch there.
I think we’re in the early-adopter phase of the neighborhood. The streetscape, in most of DT, is still intimidating to less adventuresome folks. There’s just not enough activity, light, options, perceived security, etc. But we’re chipping away at it. I feel it’s almost like a civic responsibility to tell people about what’s going down here.
Every time something opens up (Ralphs, Mode, etc.) I am amazed at how the street life evolves. The opening of Ralphs suddenly made 9th street a pedestrian corridor. Sometimes, I feel as if I am living in a game of SimCity, where you can see the city and its rhythms and patterns change right before your eyes. Very cool!
Lastly, I am amazed at how poor the marketing for some of these new businesses has been. Mode, of course, was fairly aggressive in reaching out to the neighborhood. Unfortunately, it backfired because they have been so incompetent and unresponsive during their initial attempts to open. If I were opening a business (especially a restaurant), I would be advertising, encouraging, cajoling the residents of all the buildings (and office workers, as well) to come to my place. At times, it seems the folks just open up and hope people will show up. I say, get out there and let the people know about your business.
Everyone has got to remember that the size of the round-the-clock population of downtown still is in an early stage. So that and people’s laziness and, yes, nervousness about walking around certain downtown sidewalks don’t allow for the greatest supply of possible customers.
How many people—who aren’t cash starved and suffering from addictions—live around Mode, the Tiara Cafe, the Wood Spoon, Lost Souls? Perhaps just enough to keep Pete’s Cafe humming, but not enough to allow for plentiful business elsewhere. The area still needs time to develop.
One thing we tend to forget is the 400,000 or so office workers who just go home after work. If we can get a portion of those people to stay in Downtown for dinner, that would have a huge impact on business.
We also need to grab more of the Nokia/ Staples/ Convention set. Many may not know there’s much beyond the parking lot. “Restaurant Row” can be that big push for Downtown.
What is there to be nervous about? Downtown’s crime rate is historically low. If the neighborhood made people nervous, why on earth would they move in? Ah, that’s pathetic. (“I moved downtown, but I’m afraid to walk around the neighborhood.”) That’s like getting married and hoping your spouse will change.
I remain unconvinced and will stick with my thesis that people’s lives continue to be ruled by the car. The habit is very hard to break. Frankly, I think most Angelenos find the idea of walking their neighborhood slightly odd and embarassing. I’m not criticising these people. I’m just making an observation.
Lastly, for those nervous nellies, except for skid row, I can assure you, as a resident of ten years on Broadway with three kids, there is absolutely no reason to nervous walking about downtown. None.
David, whether or not people should “statistically” feel nervous walking the streets of DT, unfortunately, gets overruled by the physical experience of walking some sections of DT.
Take for example the short walk from the EC to Mode. At night, the stretch of 9th by the WaMu bank is a stroll killer. If I wasn’t a local or a neighborhood pioneer, I wouldn’t feel comfortable there. Frankly, I wouldn’t choose to walk there. Nothing is open facing the street on that block. There is a strip club at the corner of 9th and Hill. The trees are so overgrown that they block the light from the street lamps so that stretch feels very dark. The south side of the street smells like public restroom, which, sadly, it often is.
I know it’s pretty safe there, but it doesn’t FEEL safe and, to most people, that’s all that matters.
Rico, my experience is that those 400,000 workers tend to harbor the most negative perceptions about downtown. I post regularly on tripadvisor.com in the Los Angeles forum. The downtown worker set comes across as hardcore anti-downtown. Very weird.
Absolutely, the marketing effort for downtown is not effective. This echos my original comments about how visitors to big events tend not to linger. The drive in/drive out mentality is dominant. But, the dispersed nature of downtown encourages this. But, as Kiley pointed out, the critical mass is still building.
The downtown worker set comes across as hardcore anti-downtown. Very weird.
That’s discouraging since such people are in the subset directly under the category of people who live in downtown.
Familiarity sometimes does breed contempt. And if that is what’s happening with many daytime regulars’ perceptions of downtown, a lot more improvement and renovation is needed, pronto.
But familiarity sometimes also breeds comfortability. And so the daytime crowd at least should have grown comfortable with downtown, like their response to a pair of nicely worn-out shoes.
Unlike non-Angelenos and feckless suburbanites who know little or nothing about LA (and couldn’t care less about it), yet who perceive it quite suspiciously, there’s no excuse for the downtown work crowd to not have become accustomed to LA by now. Even more so since the area has gotten better over the past few years. But if that’s not occurring, then it means that reviving and shining up downtown will require a level of effort far more ambitious than what downtown supporters-promoters thought necessary until today.
The solution is that everyone is going to have to be more aggressive about making downtown Los Angeles much better, much nicer.
What we need is…PEDICAB!
If Alex and I want to go to the Liberty Grill for dinner, we kindof feel compelled to hop into the car. But – we totally wouldn’t if the pedicab was here…we’d take that.
i would love some advice about places to go/good places to eat downtown. i live and work here, and sold my car when i moved downtown. i grew up in the suburbs of LA but lived in DC for a few years, where everyone walks or metros to wherever you want to go; cars are more hassle than they’re worth. my only concerns with walking downtown are that there aren’t enough pedestrians around yet, although that is getting better all the time. (and i have been accosted – actually hit – by a homeless man while crossing at 7th and Fig at noon on a Saturday.) but i’d love suggestions for good and safe walkable areas, and good places to eat on the weekends. downtown is trying so hard to be a livable city that i want to do what i can to help, and it’s exciting to watch it change.
by the way, i just came from wokcano, and the booths are in, the chairs are still wrapped in plastic – but there, and the TV at the bar is on. and they have signs on the door that they are hiring now. i couldn’t find anyone to talk to, but i really think that they might make their xmas opening!