The end of an era: Mitsuwa Marketplace in Little Tokyo now closed

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Sunday marked the official end to a Little Tokyo institution, Mitsuwa Marketplace. If you missed Teresa Watanabe’s excellent article over the weekend on the closure of the medium-sized grocery store near City Hall (and the Los Angeles Times building), you can check it out here. I’m still in denial (as surely hundreds in the neighborhood are) and I guess I’ll have to take solace in the remaining SoCal locations that are still open. Famima!! doesn’t come close to the dizzying array of authentic Japanese food products Mitsuwa carries.

Little Tokyo Galleria Market is poised to take over the former market popular with Japanophiles, Japanese Americans and Japanese nationals alike and is scheduled to open Feb. 15, with less emphasis on explicitly Japanese food items (probably a shrewd business move demographically speaking, but not a good sign for those in the neighborhood already nostalgic for Mitsuwa’s homespun just-like-Nippon vibe).

-- Charlie Amter