On the corner of Fifth and Spring street, in the heart of Downtown Los Angeles’ Historic Core, TJ Johnson is cooking up good eats and beats at “Wax On Hi-Fi” — her restaurant serving fusion comfort food with a vinyl listening bar on the side. Inspired by her studies abroad, it was there in Japan, where she picked up on the cross currents between Japanese and Black American culture.
“People across the globe have very similar cultural touch points, and I really found a cultural resonance there because a lot of the technology that I use as a hip hop, R&B DJ comes from Japanese technology. I wanted to keep building on it,” Johnson said.
Wax On Hi-Fi: Into the vision of one chef’s downtown
Wax On Hi-Fi opened this past March at the junction where the disparate areas of the Jewelry District, Skid Row and Little Tokyo rub up against each other. But for Johnson, who calls downtown home, the wide access to culture is the heartbeat of her business. The venture is Johnson’s space to share her expanding worldview.
”It is a very personal and emotional endeavor to be between so many cultures, to provide a positive cultural hegemony.” Johnson told LAist. “It’s especially great for downtown because we’re so close to Little Tokyo, and for me as a person, I can see Skid Row is notoriously African American like myself… customers will tell me this is unlike any other place they’ve seen around here.”
When Johnson isn’t filling orders, she moonlights the space as a DJ, spinning artists from Sadao Wantanabe, MF Doom, to Common. Whatever the endeavor, it’s a wholehearted effort to meet customers from all walks of life, through the hospitality of her native Georgia by way of the restaurant’s omotenashi — the deeply instilled sense of Japanese hospitality.
A typical day begins with a quick bike ride to Little Tokyo to restock on ingredients from local bakeries and the Nijiya Market before she rolls out some biscuit dough in the restaurant’s back kitchen. As a passerby, she’s picked up on the lack of accessible spaces where locals can share a meal.
“Along 5th Street, there’s not many, nice sit down restaurants,” Johnson said. “People tend to look out for the up and coming businesses because we don’t have too much since the pandemic.”
TJ Johnson behind the restaurant’s sounds system, including an Isonoe ISO420 mixer, Technics SL-1200 turntables, McIntosh MA8950 amplifier and JBL speakers.
Filling the gap
At one point DTLA was a booming metropolis, with 750,000 people passing through each day between 2012 and 2017, according to Blair Besten, the executive director with the Historic Core’s Business Improvement District, a nonprofit designed to improve the quality of life for residents, property, and business owners within its boundaries. Then the pandemic drastically altered the trajectory of its growth.
“It’s hard to create any revenue when you’re forced to close,” Besten said.
The Historic Core has never been without its share of challenges, but Besten said it’s a place where people still want to be, making it an attractive place for entrepreneurs.
The problem, Besten said, is the red tape — lengthy bureaucratic processes, licensing issues, permits, and approvals — to acquire and develop such historic physical property.
“You can pull up a cart on the sidewalk, and have a blooming business in Los Angeles. They’ve made that very easy,” Besten said. “What they have not made easy is to operate, open and operate a brick and mortar.”
The Historic Core’s district boundaries that run between 4th street and 9th.
Courtesy of the Historic Core Business Improvement District
)
Small businesses as the culture bearers
“If we want sustainable, cultural neighborhoods, they need to be able to hold onto the property,” said Annette Kim, an associate professor of public policy at USC, referring to the neighborhood’s rising rent. “We need to capitalize small businesses to be able to hold onto space, and call to foundations to make this a priority.”
Kim’s work focuses on urbanism and said “cultural mixing” — distinctive cultures living alongside each other — is a signature of Los Angeles. Key to this are the small businesses as the “culture bearers.”
“They’re not just the official museums or community associations, but the everyday spaces where people go,” Kim said. “It’s important for the life of the city, but also politically, to the question of the day: ‘How are diverse people going to live together?’”
To love this city is to push for its potential
For residents like Westley Garcia-Encines, a walkable experience is why he moved to downtown Los Angeles.
“There was apprehension moving there,” Garcia-Encines told LAist. “But after my first year, I hope to eventually buy and make it a permanent place for me in Los Angeles.”
The present challenges downtown faces has only reasserted his responsibility — joining his residents association and going to city planning meetings — to raise concerns with city officials to make housing and retail spaces more affordable.
I’m seeing this effort from organizations and businesses to invest in downtown,” Garcia-Encines said. “Wax On Hi-Fi opened up a couple blocks over, and there’s another gay bar going up on 4th street — it shows progress, and it keeps me hopeful that the Historic Core will continue to develop in a positive way.”
For meaningful progress, the work starts everyday, not just with major events like the looming 2028 Olympics.
As Angelenos look ahead, it will take ideas from all corners of the city to maintain its momentum — for restaurateur Johnson, who spent 18 months to start Wax-On Hifi, it’s just one plate and beat at a time.
“When you speak to anyone down here, there’s definitely a big shift happening whether they feel it’s for better or for worse,” Johnson said. “On this block alone, we’ve built a nice rapport with our neighbors; it’s become a place where people love to stay.”
