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 a 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 her 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 aunties and dad cook, becoming curious, and asking them, ‘How did you make that? What did you use?’ We never really had set ingredients or measurements. We were cooking based on feeling and a kind of intuition of flavors.”
With her parents working during the week, dinners were often left up to Johnson and her brother, giving her space to get creative and develop her culinary instincts. She began experimenting with noodle-based dishes and cooking ramen and spaghetti for her parents, who quickly took notice.
Her childhood is baked into Wax on Hi-Fi’s menu, which features a five-cheese blend shrimp and grits entree served with miso gravy, spring onion capers and a soft-boiled egg. Small bites and sides also favor miso seasoning in the mac and cheese and the biscuits, which use a miso honey butter and, according to Johnson, have become a favorite order for customers.
“Sometimes people eat here just for the biscuits,” she said. “They’ll get a drink and some biscuits, and I’m proud of that because the biscuits are very close to my childhood and my relationship with my father, who passed away some years ago. Making the biscuits is my way of connecting with him. I remember the texture, how I made them and how they looked. I’m trying to imitate that when I make them. Seeing that people love them so much means a lot to me.”
Johnson picked up the Asian inspiration for the restaurant’s menu throughout her solo trips to Japan. Dishes such as Japanese curry with rice and fried chicken fuses two different classic flavors for an undeniably great taste. The fried chicken and rice marinate in the curry while still allowing the fried chicken seasoning to stand on its own, but it gets juicier and tastier with every bite. Other Japanese staples, such as the Shoyu ramen served with a soft-boiled egg, shitake, bamboo shoots, nori, spring onions and lotus root, are more on par with an exclusively Japanese influence.
Her love of music also played a pivotal role in how she envisioned Wax on Hi-Fi before she opened the concept. She was inspired by the record lounges and bars in Tokyo and how each one she walked into crafted different atmospheres with music ranging from Jill Scott to Miles Davis. She knew of other clubs in New York and San Francisco that resembled the ones in Japan, but she felt Los Angeles could benefit from something similar.
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“There are a couple of places, but none combine music and food like we do,” she said. “I wanted to create an experience that mimics that low-key chill setting. There are tables for groups and stuff like that, but it’s also easy to come and sit at the bar and hang out by yourself, to chill and read a book. It’s like a café where people can eat in and enjoy themselves and not feel like they have to get dressed up, or like it’s another club environment.”
Johnson is an avid music enthusiast who, in her introverted youth, found kinship and community through music-centric conversations. Growing up, she spent most of her spare time in musical environments, learning to play the trumpet, trombone, tuba, clarinet, and drums, which she then applied to jazz, marching and concert band at her high school.
During her time at Howard University, she traded the brass for turntables, which she used to DJ parties during her undergraduate years and then while working toward her master’s at the Design and Technology program at Parsons School of Design. After graduating, she traveled around, spending time in Washington D.C. and Hawaii, where she joined bands that wanted to add a little scratch to their sound and were open to her affinity for vinyl.
“Humanity is not perfect, and with digital music being so dominant, it’s easy to get used to perfection and expect it,” Johnson said. “I like vinyl because it’s imperfect. There are snaps, crackles and pops, and record skips. It kind of mirrors what we are as humans. We’re not perfect, and people desire that imperfection.”
For Johnson, operating Wax on Hi-Fi is her first dip into restaurant operations, which is full of surprises and unknowns. Despite breaking new ground only recently, she has a growing clientele who share her love of food and music.
“The community response has been great, and I am appreciative and humbled every day that people choose this place to get lunch or just sit for hours and listen to music,” she said. “I am very happy about what I’ve accomplished, and I think that’s starting to resonate with everyone.”
Wax on Hi-Fi is open from 11 a.m. to midnight, Wednesday through Sunday, at 212 W. 5th St., Los Angeles. More information: waxonhifi.com .
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