Koreatown Restaurants Closed in Fall 2012
Since roughly from September to early November 2012, permanent closures of food establishments in the vicinity of Western Avenue between 6th Street and 3rd Street have included the following restaurants and cafes — Yogozone, Guirim, Wando, and Storygarden.
Yogozone on the northwest corner of Western Avenue and 6th Street really went downhill after the alleged-embezzlement scandal in early 2011. Not sure what exactly Mark Lee was guilty of but one thing you couldn’t have faulted the guy with was the meticulous care with which he ran the place. If we learned anything from the food poisoning cases of Twirl, it’s that not just anyone can run a froyo shop. Chains like Pinkberry have by now systematized procedures for taking care of product and machines. To witness such a highly rated and popular shop like Yogozone decline due to neglect was really sad. (But maybe we’ll get the Haven guys to finally head this way!)
Guirim on 6th street a few steps west of Western Avenue was arguably one of the popular Korean BBQ places of 2006-2007. But as with most Koreatown-area businesses, it was plagued more recently with ownership/management turnovers that couldn’t gain any traction. Without continuity in ownership/management, you can expect inconsistent product quality and staff and hence service problems that are hard to overcome.
Wando BBQ restaurant on the northwest corner of Western Avenue and 4th Street closed right after the notorious plagiarist wrote about it. Business owners are starting to recognize the jinx. Keep an eye on Koreatown’s main kimchi shop — it could soon be done in by the same curse.
Cafe Storygarden on Western Avenue between 3rd and 4th Street held such promise!!! Nice space, an effort to have a professional chef and baker working behind the scenes, Illy coffee (“it’s the most expensive coffee in Italy,” the owner boasted when it opened in November 2010)… Yet the cafe was another example of a business opened up as a hobby by a rich, bored Korean woman from the old country who has European pretensions. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. Except like many other business novices, there was no realization that opening a food establishment is more than just having a space to serve pretty things you fancied on your trips to Paris and casual cooking classes at Le Cordon Bleu. You need a business strategy, which these days basically means a CPA who can honestly look over the books, plus the owner/manager’s relentless investment in marketing.
True, that nice Storygarden lady subleased the space in its last year, but rarely does a such a management change bring improvements. They were closed by the health department on September 26 and weren’t allowed to reopen until October 1st on account of vermin harborage and infestation — again, nothing unusual for the Koreatown area. Just a symptom of underlying dysfunction in the running of the cafe / restaurant.
Don’t be too depressed though. Any one of these places could reemerge anytime with same or different owners, under same or different names… that’s the game in Koreatown… Even nationally, people say that 90% of restaurants end up shutting down within a few years of opening. Entrepreneurs don’t return to 9-5 jobs, unless they’re real losers.