How to Find the Next Great Restaurant Neighborhood
Skift Take
Pioneering a neighborhood with no other restaurants and little foot traffic takes a lot strategy, perseverance and a lot of luck. Steve and Dina Samson share their tips on making a new development in an uncharted area work for them in Los Angeles.
In a big sprawling city like Los Angeles, some of the best restaurants are located in the unlikeliest of places.
You can find everything from stellar edo-style sushi to fermentation mastery and high-end tasting menu concepts stuffed inside nondescript strip malls or tucked along dark industrial strips. With every existing pocket of the city filling up fast, it’s not surprising to see whole walkable neighborhoods literally sprouting from blocks of unused warehouses or swaths of bare land.
What happens with these more obscure locations is Development 101: Newly built lofts and offices bring businesses — i.e. restaurants, bars and coffee shops — to support those living and working in them.
Those, in turn, bring more foot traffic and even more businesses, and the cycle continues until the entire area is a new dining and drinking destination. Being the first to pioneer these uncharted areas has its challenges but also many benefits, from financial perks to a good news hook that gen
