Eating and Drinking in Los Angeles

Thanks for this rec… Their website needs some work – they don’t even have a menu posted (but I did find one on Yelp — very limited, but tasty-looking)

And the wine list at Yang’s does look very well-curated, too. :slight_smile:

surprised it has not been mentioned but roberta’s in culver city does free corkage on mondays…

Brian’s point about everyone losing is spot on. It’s the same reason we don’t just let anyone put their name on the ballot for US President (without a process) and then let ‘the market’ determine the winner, because it would be chaos and we would all lose.

Obviously there is a structure that currently limits who can open a restaurant, so it’s not a complete free-for-all. But as an outsider most definitely not ITB, it strikes me that the current dining (and retail more broadly) landscape is very suboptimal for so many of the people involved. Which means the status quo could be improved. It seems like a transition period as we struggle with the economics of how people will behave as technology changes our lives, disposable income is volatile, etc.

I had an incredible meal there a few weeks ago. If you are into meat they have aged Waygu and Pork. It is honestly not my thing but even I enjoyed it.

I’m run a retail (including restaurants) property development and management company. There is no ‘structure’ that limits who can open a restaurant (other than felons being unable to own a liquor license). Why do you think there are so many failures?

I wonder if demand has changed as prices have gone up significantly in the last few years.

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You can think of the financial cost of opening restaurants as one structural limitation on who gets to open a restaurant.

You can also think about the permitting process as another structural limitation on who has the financial/bureaucratic/political capital to get all the necessary licenses to open a restaurant. From what I understand, liquor licenses in many states operate under that exact principle that there should not be a free-for-all and there should be some control on supply.

I’m not advocating for one centralized board that approves all restaurants in the country. But, I think it’s clear that the status quo doesn’t work and our current form of coordination could be improved.

None of this is unique to restaurants and applies equally to any business. I think you are sincere, but uninformed about the process.

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Yang’s is fantastic, just not convenient for dinner if you’re located west of Vermont Ave…

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Go for breakfast, it’s against traffic :joy:

No government regulations on suppressing the supply side of restaurants (beyond safety issues) would work or be desirable.

Certainly didn’t work for taxis.

Nobody ever said it was unique to restaurants. Earlier in the thread I mentioned that there is obviously a broad transformation of retail underway. And businesses (of all kinds) always evolve.

But this thread is about restaurants, and it seems to be a running theme on the board that the current US model doesn’t work for anyone.

Curious if you think the status quo is sustainable? Or how you see it evolving?

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I’m not arguing for more govt intervention, but important to note that it goes well beyond safety right now. Zoning laws are a huge way for govt to pick winners and losers in the business world, and those laws are never neutral.

High restaurant failure rate is nothing new, nothing needs to be done.

It will evolve but still will be fundamentally the same in terms of long term success/failure rates.

During Covid, not sustainable. Today it is - was it really different in the 80s and 90s?

I think we can just share our experiences at various restaurants and let the rest work itself out.

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I don’t know about success/failure rates historically, maybe someone else does.

But the past few decades have seen an explosion in the overall number of restaurants in the US, and unclear if there is enough demand to support them all. At least that’s the argument for this book, written right before covid

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2019/07/08/weve-just-lived-through-greatest-period-restaurant-growth-us-history-heres-why-its-ending/

love yangs

or south of 105 FWY … and especially if you’re west of Vermont and south of 105 … :slightly_frowning_face:

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hi guys - any recs for xmas eve chinese within 20 minutes ish of south bay? corkage friendly extra points. thank you!

What part of South Bay?

There’s a lot of outposts of more casual chinese spots (dumpling / nooodle spots)from east LA in South Bay. But not sure what type of chinese you’re looking for.