Culinary hubs put a twist on home cooking
Nestled in the densely populated, residential Victor Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles, a densely packed parcel of Craftsman and Victorian homes has stood the test of time, serving as single-family homes in one of the city's oldest neighborhoods.
Yet these bungalows will soon serve a new purpose: micro-restaurants offering Taiwanese pineapple cake and freshly ground burgers in a complex called Alpine Courtyard, transforming the pleasures of dining out with the nostalgic comforts of home.
This adaptive reuse is part of a growing national trend: From Los Angeles to Nashville, developers are transforming clusters of old homes into walkable culinary hubs for the surrounding high-density neighborhoods.
Proponents see the renovations as a better use for weathered homes destroyed by time and negligence, preserving the homes' sustainability while meeting the neighborhood's economic needs.
These types of community-oriented developments provide needed support to residential neighborhoods, says Rose Yonai, principal and president of Tierra West Advisors, a real estate consulting firm in Los Angeles. “Otherwise, when the lights come on and people leave, the place is deserted, and there's no place to have coffee or eat,” she said.
But opponents are concerned about the loss of affordable housing and the threat that these commercial developments will displace existing communities. Some older homes are protected by storage restrictionsbut many others are facing demolition to meet housing demand and make way for new developments.
Converting historic houses into restaurants is not a new phenomenon. For more than 50 years, Alice Waters' At Panisse in Berkeley, California, is known for its farm-to-table cuisine and a family atmosphere in a 1930s home. Over the past ten years, an entire street of historic bungalows has emerged Rainey Street in Austin, Texas, has slowly transformed into bars and restaurants.
The trend has spread to Portland, Oregon, along North Mississippi Avenue and Alberta Street and in the Nob Hill neighborhood. Fort Collins, Colorado has a plethora of conversions, some in old farmhouses and others in former fraternity and sorority buildings near Colorado State University. In Phoenix, the conversion of old homes into restaurants has developed alongside rapid urban development in downtown and on nearby Roosevelt Row.
The renovations are indicative of the neighborhood's revitalization, said Stuart A. Gabriel, professor of finance and director of the Ziman Center for Real Estate at the University of California, Los Angeles. He added that the loss of homes may not be significant enough to worsen the housing shortage overall.
“Certainly, we are concerned about the displacement of families,” he said. “On the other hand, there are a whole host of positives in terms of amenities and services, and then improvements, property values and capital gains for the people who actually own homes there.”
For homes to be successfully converted into restaurants, he said, certain conditions must be met.
“There is a critical population mass, there is a community or attempt at community building, there is pedestrian traffic and there is some kind of architectural or other charm associated with the structure that allows it to be put to another use,” he said.
One of Alpine Courtyard's developers, Jingbo Lou, a restaurateur and architect, wanted to preserve the 'shell and core' of the houses and properties, retaining their original floor plans while converting certain elements for commercial use.
“You see a lot of old houses in smaller neighborhoods being used at very low rents, and retail can do the same,” he said. “We offer smaller, affordable commercial spaces, and for mom-and-pop startups, 1,600 square feet is plenty of space.”
The homes share a courtyard with communal seating, an area Mr. Lou calls “your grandma's backyard.” The chefs have been chosen to complement each other by offering different services, but with important similarities: they are all in their mid-thirties and come from prestigious backgrounds and work in renowned restaurants, but have never opened their own (apart from pop -ups). They also have a large social media audience, which can help with marketing.
One of the entrepreneurs, Jihee Kim, started Perilla as a homegrown food company during the pandemic and opened a brick-and-mortar location in Alpine Courtyard in July, serving Korean banchan in a 250-square-foot converted garage.
“At least 30 to 40 percent of customers come back every day, and women more than men,” she says. “They live in this neighborhood, but I also have a lot of people who bought my stuff during the pandemic.”
In another garage, this one 160 square meters, Heavy water coffee house serves vegan drinks and pastries from Baker's bank, a Chinatown kiosk run by Jennifer Yee, which will open a spot in the front half of a Craftsman house on the property. The rear half will serve as a third location Cassell's Hamburgers, Mr. Lou's franchise. And Baby bistro, a 35-seat fine-dining concept, will take over a single-storey Victorian house. Two other Victorian houses on the site are used as offices.
Unlike the home-to-restaurant concepts in Austin and Portland, Oregon, which have become commercial centers over time, Alpine Courtyard stands amid a sea of homes. But as neighborhood models change with the adoption of remote work, this type of home conversion may change as well.
“I think it is risky, but also not risky, because it is well located in a good neighborhood that will continue to become denser, increasing the capacity to populate the space in a productive way that may not have existed before,” says Larry J. Kosmont, chairman and CEO of Kosmont Companies, a developer in El Segundo, California.
A similar development is taking shape in Nashville, with three towers and the adaptive reuse of six Victorian homes into restaurants. Designed by Norwegian architectural firm Snohetta and developed by Essex Development and GBX Group, the project, known as the Rutledge Hill Historic and Culinary Arts District, aims to combine old and new while serving both locals and visitors with two luxury hotels.
“I think it will be a benchmark for the nation on how historic preservation and reactivation can work well with new developments,” said Matthew E. Williams, managing partner at Essex Development.
On the other side of the street Peel, a popular restaurant in a restored Victorian house and a proof of concept for the developers of Rutledge Hill. Yet the need for new development remained an important factor. “It would certainly be a lot of restaurants in one place if you didn't have the additional demand from the density we're putting on the site,” said Nathan McRae, senior architect at Snohetta.
This type of adaptive reuse has received some backlash, raising concerns about gentrification, displacement and the loss of affordable housing. Sophat Phea, a graphic designer in Los Angeles, and his family have lived near Alpine Courtyard for more than 15 years. “I don't think this is an appropriate business in this area and it would certainly cause disruption, especially at night when parking is a very big problem,” he said.
According to the American newspaper Los Angeles County, Southern California had the highest gentrification rates in 2018 Urban relocation project, an initiative of the University of Toronto and the University of California, Berkeley. Eunisses Hernandez, a city council member whose district includes Victor Heights, said developments should take into account the community already there. “If that's not the case, then people are just building and developing for the communities they want to be there, and that causes displacement,” she said.