The Hong Kong Café was a Los Angeles music venue and part of the Los Angeles punk rock scene during the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Located at 425 Gin Ling Way in the Chinatown

Chinatown, Los Angeles

Chinatown in Los Angeles, California is located in the city's downtown area. Built in 1938, it is the second Chinatown to be constructed in Los Angeles. The original historic Chinatown was founded in the late 19th century, but was demolished to make room for Union Station, the city's major rail...

 district of Downtown Los Angeles

Downtown Los Angeles

Downtown Los Angeles is the central business district of Los Angeles, California, United States, located close to the geographic center of the metropolitan area...

, California

California

California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

 and across the way from sometimes rival Esther Wong’s Madame Wong′s

Esther Wong

Esther Wong was born August 13, 1917 in Shanghai, China, and emigrated to the U.S. in 1949.After fierce initial resistance, she became a punk rock and New Wave music promoter. She got started in the early 1970s as the owner of “Madame Wong’s," a Los Angeles Chinatown restaurant with a floorshow --...

, the former Chinese restaurant was open to audiences of all ages. The Plugz

The Plugz

The Plugz were a Mexican-American punk rock band from Los Angeles, California that formed in 1977. They and The Zeros were among the first Chicano punk bands, although several Latino garage rock bands, such as Thee Midniters and Question Mark & the Mysterians, predated them...

 and UXA played at the club's opening night on June 7, 1979, and numerous bands, including X, Catholic Discipline

Catholic Discipline

Catholic Discipline was a short lived Los Angeles punk rock band headed by Slash Fanzine editor Claude Bessy, nicknamed "Kickboy Face", on vocals. The band was started in 1979 and played a series of shows around the Los Angeles area before ultimately breaking up in 1980...

, The Bags

The Bags

The Bags were an American rock band formed in 1977. They were one of the first generation of punk rock bands to emerge out of Los Angeles, California.-Career:...

, and The Alley Cats

The Alley Cats (Los Angeles punk band)

The Alley Cats were a Lomita, California-based punk rock trio featuring husband-and-wife team Randy Stodola and Dianne Chai , along with drummer John McCarthy...

, performed there until its closing in January 1981. Concert footage filmed at Hong Kong Café appears in the Penelope Spheeris

Penelope Spheeris

Penelope Spheeris is an American director, producer and screenwriter. She is best known as a documentary film director whose works include the trilogy titled The Decline of Western Civilization...

 documentary film

Documentary film

Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...

 The Decline of Western Civilization

The Decline of Western Civilization

The soundtrack was released in December 1980 by Slash Records on LP. In the late 1990s it was released on CD as well. It is currently out of print. Germs singer Darby Crash appears on the soundtrack album cover. He died shortly before the film was released, though the promotional images for the...

.

The space is currently occupied by Realm, a housewares and gifts retailer.

External links

• Hong Kong Cafe
• Realm