Suehiro DTLA

 Earlier this year, artist Kim Zumpfe invited me to present my sound work to students at USC. After the presentation, Kim treated me to coffee and snacks. Several students joined us. We sat in the plaza that was allegedly inspired by Harry Potter and is in fact where the Trader Joes is that I most often shop at.

This rarely happens; time to actually meet students and speak to them and just hang out. When we parted, I said if they wanted to keep in contact to please do. It's easy enough to do because I'm on IG and my contact information is on my website. I usually say something to this effect at the end of my university lecturers/ art presentations. However, very seldom has someone taken me up on it, maybe that's a good thing, maybe not.

Recently, Bo Kim reached out. Bo is industrious and gregarious. In a text, Bo sent, "I'd love to see you before you go on your book tour." 

I had been trying to get to th new/ relocated Suehiro DTLA since they announced they were in "test kitchen" phase so I connected the dots and luckily Bo was into it. They're located at 400 S Main Street LA CA 90013.

1) There's a whole messy background of why they moved out of Little Tokyo, having been there for decades and have been one of the most beloved cafes in my circle of art community folk. There's even an LA Times article that came out this past Sunday that addresses all the finer points. link

2) Rather than comparing the new place to the old, i'd like to just talk about the new.

The service was excellent. The owners cute little twins were all around the restaurant (on a school night) and occasionally visited us at our table with stories, games, Halloween candy and general convo.  I ordered the chicken curry, Bo ordered the curry udon, we shared the chicken karage.

The food was excellent. I added the egg (sunny side up) with my curry. It's a classic Japanese curry that's the perfect comfort food. Bo enjoyed the curry udon. The chicken karage was fresh and piping hot, perfect?

We still had room for dessert so we asked for recommendations. They had a Matcha and a Hojicha special dessert. These were creamy puddings with their hot namesakes. These desserts blew us away. So delicate, complex and memorable.

I wish Suehiro well. We all want them to succeed and flourish and sustain. Also last month, Anzen Hardware closed, to reopen in the near future up the block, staying in Little Tokyo.

So much change and economic struggle and perhaps a bit of greed.