Welcome to the first edition of SILVER, a celebration of businesses in Los Angeles that have been open for 25+ years. Tien Nguyen takes you inside spots which have helped define our city, even if they are hidden gems whose influence extends to the neighbors they've served for a generation...
Over in Boyle Heights, on First Street, in the few blocks between Al & Bea’s and El Sarape, is Otomisan, a compact Japanese diner that opened in 1956 and, as any weekday at its lunch counter will tell you, is still going strong.
That generations of Japanese and Japanese-Americans have considered Otomisan a diner of choice is not surprising once you recall that the community has a long history in Boyle Heights, with First Street connecting the neighborhood to Little Tokyo as far back as the 1920s. In fact, before World War II — when the government authorized what George Takei recently characterized as “an act of pure, irrational, mad, racist hysteria" and sent Japanese residents to "camps" — the area was home to a large population of Japanese-Americans.
Otomi Café, as Otomisan was originally called, has changed hands twice since it opened, most recently to a relentlessly cheerful woman named Yayoi Watanabe. She'll likely be the one who greets you when you walk in and gesture towards any open seats, of which there aren't many: three worn red booths and five stools at the counter. If you've called in your order for take out, you'll probably wait at one of the folding chairs in the front.