K.G. Louie

The big «art» signage over the entrance is what caught our eye so we ventured inside. We enjoyed looking around this shop. The shopkeeper was very nice (same one as in the first review) and shared a story about the Nancy Drew movie being filmed in his shop and showed us pictures of his Mother and Father. It would have been very interesting to hear more stories about the history of this place. We ended up buying a few Chinese trinkets. After reading Christine’s review and then googling this shop, you really can feel the sense of history and feel the vintage vibe when you are in this shop. We will be back to say hello!

When Los Angeles’ Chinatown was completely decimated in the early 1930s to make way for Union Station after the neighborhood had supposedly fallen into decline, business owners were relocated into what was then Little Italy. The Central Plaza was constructed, opening in 1938, with such businesses as K.G. Louie among the little shops.
Nearly three-​quarters of a century later, K.G. Louie is still open and still selling much of the same things they did back in ’38 — figurines, jade, word carvings, vases, ink and brushes, trinkets, etc.
The last few times I’ve been there a friendly gentlemen, hooked to an oxygen tank was working the register. Once, I bought a little maneki neko, or «lucky cat,» for $ 2 and he asked me if I knew what it meant, since the one I was buying was black as opposed to the more common white one. I said no and he smiled, oxygen tube below his news, and said, «It’s for health.»
The shop is also filled with many older looking statues (photo:
), some carved from wood. It’s really an experience visiting this shop while you’re in Chinatown — like you’re getting a taste of what it might have been like when the re-​location happened during the Depression.
Honestly, they have the cutest neon in the plaza with a fat, happy Buddha over the door (photo:
).