Suehiro Cafe is closing after more than 51 years of operation following an eviction notice and relocating to an area outside of Little Tokyo in Downtown LA. Owner Kenji Suzuki took over the restaurant after his mother died and says he is sad to be kicked out of a community he considers home. Tracey Leong reports for the NBC4 News on Jan. 9, 2024.
Suehiro Café, a beloved Little Tokyo restaurant, is forced to close its doors after more than five decades.
The iconic restaurant opened in 1972, Kenji Suzuki took over the restaurant after his mother retired, carrying on the family legacy in the historic Japanese neighborhood where he grew up.
Suzuki says after struggling through the COVID-19 pandemic, they received an eviction notice last year and had no choice but to move the restaurant to a new location.
"Some of the old mom-and-pop stores like ours, either through death or retirement have gone away and have been replaced with chain stores," said Suzuki.
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Customer Petey Hernandez, who says he eats at Suehiro Café three days a week, visited for one last traditional Japanese meal at the historic location.
"You can feel history in here, the seats are kind of worn out, the lights are super old, it's super cozy," said Hernandez. "And I know them by name here. There’s Isaac and Amy and Kay in the back, they are super sweet here."
Suzuki says it's devasting to see the changes in an area that was once a central spot for the Japanese community.
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"The Japanese people adopting that area, moving in and creating something special there says something about what the Japanese people have done to that area, and to have that taken out like we didn’t matter, hurts," said Suzuki.
The new location is just five blocks away but Suzuki like many of his customers, is hurt to see it go.
"Some of the people that immigrated to this country we didn’t speak English but it was a place where saw Japanese writing on the wall, signage, people spoke Japanese and people looked like us, and we felt safe," said Suzuki.
