Chinatown’s New Fortunes

In most places, Chinatown equals food, and that’s usually reason enough to visit--for lunch.

But in the last few years, L.A.’s Chinatown has increasingly come to mean contemporary art galleries. When my friend Andrea and I spent a weekend here recently, we discovered a culturally rich and hip enclave. As in other parts of downtown, commercial spaces in Chinatown are being claimed by the avant-garde. A dozen or so galleries lie on or near Chung King Road, a pedestrian thoroughfare of mostly one- or two-room spaces exhibiting works by up-and-coming artists.

Some galleries wryly keep their buildings’ original signage (Black Dragon Society, China Art Objects, New Chinatown Barbershop), while others are named for their owners (Diannepruess, Goldman Tevis, Lord Mori) or contents (Electronic Orphanage). Shows tend to change about every six weeks, so there’s always a reason to return.

While some of the galleries are cutting edge, Chinatown lodgings are not. With top downtown hotels offering weekend specials, we looked outside Chinatown for a deal and found it at the Wyndham Checkers, about a mile away, which had a $69-per-night Internet special (plus tax and an “energy fee”).

We arrived from the Westside one Friday, and the congenial staff proceeded to “Mr. Bender” me all weekend. Our room, though not huge, had nice linens and a marble bathroom. The rooftop spa featured a fitness room, small pool and--the best part--a whirlpool with views of Bunker Hill skyscrapers.

For dinner, the concierge recommended Plum Tree Inn on Chinatown’s Hill Street, a quick drive away. We were concerned when our table was set with forks and not chopsticks, but the Cantonese cooking proved itself: plump vegetable dumplings, delicately sauteed asparagus and crisp, pillowy fish filets sprinkled with diced vegetables in a light sweet-and-sour sauce.

After dinner we strolled around the block to Chung King Road, past the sounds of mah-jongg tiles being shuffled and a schoolyard full of boys playing dodge ball. Even late on a Friday we found some action: one gallery setting up, another hosting a birthday party. Lanterns strung above the street were too colorful to be stately, too romantic to be kitschy.

We ended up across Hill Street at Hop Louie, a restaurant with a retro bar. Over a Singapore sling and a martini, we watched sports with a mellow crowd, then drove back to the hotel for a star-and-skyscraper-lighted whirlpool.

In the morning the subway took us to Union Station, the site of the former Chinatown (which is why the present enclave is sometimes referred to as “New Chinatown”).

Our first stop was the 1890 Garnier Building on Los Angeles Street. The structure housed Chinese immigrants until it was half-demolished to make way for U.S. 101. The Chinese American Museum is slated to open here next year, and plaques in the sidewalk tell the history of L.A. County’s Chinese community, which has grown from two people in the 1850s to an estimated 330,000 today.

We walked through Olvera Street to dim sum at CBS Seafood on Spring Street. Dim sum is one of our favorite ways to eat: carts full of steamed and fried treats whirring about the dining room. CBS has one unique offering: crab claws with shrimp--deep-fried, tennis-ball-size dumplings of crabmeat and ground shrimp, each with a crab claw protruding from the top ($9 for three) and so crispy they crunched. Inside they were sweet, light and juicy.

The walk toward Chung King Road felt like China; only the multicultural crowd reminded us where we really were. We peeked into restaurants (some Cambodian or Vietnamese), talked with jade and gold merchants, and browsed shops selling tea, pottery, apparel, seafood and live poultry. Grocers hawked pistachios, pomelos and kicky ginger-chew candies.

At Saigon Sandwiches on Broadway we bought Vietnamese-style baguettes ($1.89 each) of marinated chicken or shredded pork. Outside, a man pressed juice from sugar cane, a concoction ($2) we found dense and almost overpowering.

Medicinal herb shops on practically every block sold ginseng (one variety costs $888 per ounce), dried sea cucumber, red dates and roots that looked like witches’ fingers. At one shop, the conversation went something like this:

Me: What are these white discs for?

Man in lab coat: What’s the problem?

Me: No problem. Just curious.

Man: You are overweight! [Then to Andrea] You too. Stick out your tongue.

Me: Aaaa.

Man: Your tongue is gray.

Me: I just ate a ginger candy.

Man: And your lips are dry! Do you sleep well?

After more questions, the man in the lab coat diagnosed me with liver and chi imbalance and prescribed two capsules of this, another of that.

We moved on to Chung King Road, where we spent a leisurely hour or two strolling galleries, antiques shops and boutiques. Andrea checked out Sling Ting for women’s fashions. Most gallery owners were happy to chat with us, and we were even invited to an opening that night at China Art Objects.

Andrea kept talking about David Deany’s sculpture “Untitled (Floor Jazz)” at Diannepruess Gallery. Wooden planks served as a platform above the floor; blue light and occasional smoke emanated from below. The sculpture on top looked like melting mint chocolate chip ice cream.

At Acuna-Hansen Gallery on nearby Bernard Street, works by Eric Rosciam made us chuckle: “Super Stuff” was a heap of Oreo cookies with the middles painstakingly sliced out; next to it, the white fillings were stacked into a sort of totem. In the center of the floor, Rosciam had placed “Backwash: Flowers,” a cluster of mostly empty soda bottles, each partly refilled with colored liquid, creating the effect of a stylized flower field.

New Chinatown Barbershop on Hill Street was showing Robin Klimach’s and Seth Ludman’s contemporary photos of China: temples, old men playing board games on street corners, and, appropriately, hair salons. In keeping with the theme, owner Annie Shaw set up mah-jongg and Chinese chess tables and offered free lessons. We promised to come back Sunday and caught one of the downtown DASH buses (25 cents per person) back to the hotel for a nap, workout and soak in the whirlpool.

That night we drove to Chinatown for dinner at Batavia Cafe, an Indonesian restaurant on Broadway, where we feasted on excellent ayam goreng Batavia (game hen marinated in soy and garlic, then fried) and “kangkung hot plate” (a heaping dish of beef, watercress, quail eggs and vegetables).

By the time we arrived at China Art Objects for the opening of Edgar Bryan’s oil paintings (impressive and often moving), Chung King Road was even busier than before. Dozens of people were dressed in black--some looking worldly wise, others like newly minted art school grads.

The party was going strong at Grand Star nightclub, around the corner from Hop Louie. Yasuko Kuwano headlined a surprisingly talented jazz combo that occasionally took randy turns with its lyrics.

For breakfast the next morning, Andrea stayed at the hotel for Tuscan eggs (poached and served on sourdough toast with tomato-and-wild mushroom puree and a side of pancetta). I couldn’t resist driving to Philippe, a downtown institution, for a comforting breakfast of French toast, sausage and eggs.

Andrea and I decided to walk off all this food with another trip through Chinatown. Off Hill Street, the Far East Center was as busy as Hong Kong with its crowded markets, music stores and restaurants. We had lunch at Kim Chuy, a fusion of northern Chinese and Southeast Asian cooking: noodle soups with duck leg or fish cakes, stir-fried noodles, plenty of seafood dishes, Vietnamese-style fried bread. Most entrees were under $5, and we left with plenty to take home.

The Chinatown Heritage & Visitors Center on Bernard Street (open Sunday afternoons only) had small but smart exhibits on local history, as well as an enthusiastic, knowledgeable staff.

Before hitting the road, we returned to the New Chinatown Barbershop for that mah-jongg lesson. Shaw, the owner, said she never has been a great player, but she creamed us anyway. Mah-jongg depends largely on luck, Shaw said, and “every time I’ve played in here since the gallery opened, I’ve won. I think there’s a spirit here.”

*

Budget for Two

Wyndham Checkers, two nights...$163.22

Dinner, Plum Tree Inn...51.00

Drinks, Hop Louie...13.50

Dim Sum, CBS Seafood 20.20

Dinner, Batavia Cafe...29.11

Drinks, Grand Star...16.00

Lunch, Kim Chuy...20.00

Other meals, snacks...29.66

Transportation, parking 31.20

FINAL TAB...$373.89

Wyndham Checkers Hotel, 535 S. Grand Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90071; (877) 999-3223 or (213) 624-0000, fax (213) 626-9906, www.wyndham.com/checkers.

*

Andrew Bender is a Santa Monica-based freelance writer and the editor of Kyoto Diary, a quarterly journal on Japanese culture.