A new restaurant in Downtown Los Angeles isn’t just a melting pot of flavors. It’s a remix of taste and sound.
Wax on Hi-Fi is a vinyl-listening café and restaurant that opened in the heart of Downtown Los Angeles in June. Created by DJ, chef and owner TJ Johnson, the kitchen-vinyl concept dishes up Japanese-Creole cuisine while paying homage to Southern comfort foods. All plates are served with an atmospheric curated vibe of R&B, soul, jazz, and ’90s hip-hop tunes via vinyl records.
On location, the restaurant features a high-fidelity audio system comprising two Technics turntables and a unique made-to-order hand-crafted rotary mixer shipped from England. DJs are invited to perform live on select nights, but in the interim, guests can enjoy the daily curation of the staff’s vinyl picks or put in at request while they kick back, wait for food and drinks or hang out and enjoy the vibes.
“Music and food are how most people relate to each other, and both also cross any sort of cultural, language or age barrier,” Johnson said in a Zoom interview. “The audience here is a reflection of that. You don’t need to understand Portuguese to love Samba or think Stan Getz makes great jazz. We can just feel a beat or taste food and understand more about a person or their culture without saying much .”
Johnson’s introduction to the kitchen began during his childhood in the Deep South. In Atlanta, cooking was a foundational part of weekend family time. Saturday mornings were sacred, her father would cook up biscuits and grits for breakfast while Johnson and her brother watched morning cartoons.
On Sundays after church, her family would get together and share other culinary staples of her childhood, such as sweet potato side dishes, mac and cheese and some of her aunt’s cakes from a bakery she owned.
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“I always remember the warmth of the food,” Johnson said. “I remember watching my…
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