Downtown Culver City's New Food Stops Before the Tree Lighting

Three new food counters are moving into downtown Culver City this fall, and all of them are within easy walking distance of Town Plaza. Mamie, the West Hollywood sandwich shop, has added a second location by the Culver Steps. On Main Street, two neighboring storefronts at the Washington Boulevard corner are being filled by a Thai fruit-tea brand and an Italian gelato company. A few miles west on Washington, a chef who was born in Culver City has hung the banner for his first independent restaurant.

The Downtown Culver City tree lighting comes next, on Thursday, December 3. It will be the first big downtown evening with these new stops on the way to and from the plaza.

Mamie brings a sidewalk patio to the Culver Steps

Mamie's Culver City location is open at 9512 Culver Blvd., and The Infatuation lists it as "Just Added" in its guide to LA's new restaurant openings. The guide's write-up opens like this:

"Attention, Downtown Culver office workers: here's another place to buy lunch."

According to The Infatuation, the menu has the same 20 or so sandwiches as the original West Hollywood shop, which went viral a few years ago. The Culver City location has more seating, including a large patio that the guide compares to a Parisian sidewalk cafe.

That patio matters for the rest of this route. Mamie is the westernmost of the new downtown stops and the one most clearly built for sitting down. From there it is a short walk past the Culver Steps to Town Plaza and Main Street.

Main and Washington becomes a dessert corner

Main Street's two newest tenants sit side by side at the Washington Boulevard end. Both spaces have changed hands before, and this round leans toward sweets.

• 3851 Main St., at the corner of Washington: formerly Menchie's, then Latea, and now the home of JIAN CHA.
• 3849 Main St., next door: formerly Monty's Good Burger, and now marked by window paper announcing Bacio di Latte.

JIAN CHA is a Thai brand that specializes in fruit teas and has several branches in Thailand. Westside dining blogger Toddrickallen reported that the Main Street shop is its first location in the United States.

Bacio di Latte is an Italian-born gelato brand that is expanding quickly in Los Angeles. Toddrickallen linked the Culver City shop to the brand's new Montana Avenue location in Santa Monica. WhatNow Los Angeles reported that the menu includes gelato, coffee-based desserts and other sweets.

This corner is the clearest change of the season. A burger counter and a frozen-dessert space that turned into bubble tea are becoming a fruit-tea counter and a gelato counter on the same block of Main Street. With Main Street running up from Town Plaza, the tree lighting crowd will be a short walk from both on December 3.

Heisei brings a Little Tokyo chef back to Washington Boulevard

The third addition is a few miles west of downtown and has more of a story behind it. Heisei, on Washington Boulevard, is Chris Ono's first independent restaurant. Food Journal Magazine reported that Ono was born in Culver City and described the restaurant as a homecoming.

According to Food Journal, Ono is a fourth-generation Japanese American who has cooked at Eleven Madison Park in New York, RyuGin in Tokyo, and Mori Sushi and Providence in Los Angeles. Since 2022 he has run Hansei, a tasting-menu pop-up inside the Japanese American Cultural and Community Center at 244 S. San Pedro St. in Little Tokyo. Food Journal reported that Hansei's reservations have sold out quickly and consistently.

The restaurant's name follows from the pop-up's. Hansei translates as self-reflection. Heisei is the name of the Japanese era that ran from 1989 to 2019, and Food Journal notes that its characters translate roughly as "achieving peace." Eater LA describes the concept as Los Angeles Nikkei cuisine tied to that era.

Heisei is designed as a more casual neighborhood restaurant than Hansei, according to The Infatuation's preview. The dishes it named are:

1. Obon chicken over rice and shredded cabbage
2. Kaisen don with crab, avocado, ikura and uni, finished with warm dashi
3. Chicken salad with crispy yakisoba noodles

The obon chicken points to Ono's community ties. Citing a 2022 Rafu Shimpo profile, Food Journal reported that Ono is active in the Venice Japanese American community and stepped in to help the Venice Hongwanji Buddhist Temple when it could not hold its annual Obon festival. For hours and directions, check the restaurant's Instagram, @heisei.culvercity.

December 3 at Town Plaza

The 2026 Annual Downtown Culver City Tree Lighting Sled-tacular takes place Thursday, December 3, from 5 to 8:30 p.m. at Town Plaza, 9300 Culver Blvd. The Culver City Downtown Business Association organizes it. According to the Downtown Culver City homepage, the event starts at 5 p.m. and the tree is lit at 6.

The name refers to the snow. Last year's event brought in 50 tons of snow for sledding and snowmen, along with carnival games, Santa, and music from 250 public-school students. The Downtown Business Association's event page is the place to check for this year's program.

The tree lighting is a three-and-a-half-hour evening event, so it fits naturally with the new downtown stops before and after. Here is how they line up:

Heisei is a separate outing. It is a sit-down restaurant on the western stretch of Washington Boulevard, not a stop on a walk around the plaza. For anyone who has followed Hansei in Little Tokyo, it brings a version of Ono's cooking much closer to Culver City.

A gelato counter on Main Street and a sandwich patio by the Culver Steps are the kind of details that belong in a downtown Culver City listing description. If you're thinking about how your block's walk to Town Plaza fits into a sale, Scott Price Realty can talk you through how buyers see it today. Discover your home's value.