Europe and Asia Flip-Flop in American Tastes
By wchung | 22 Feb, 2025

Global economic trends have become reflected in American tastes in food and culture.

I recently tried a French restaurant housed in a charming cottage on Ventura Boulevard in Sherman Oaks. The service was impeccable, the food was superb and the ambience was memorable. Halfway through the meal we were struck by the clientele: nearly everyone were in their 60s and 70s, possibly even their 80s.

Last weekend we checked out an acclaimed continental restaurant in Ojai. We ate in a patio opening out to a sunny rose garden with a trickling fountain beside a brick wall resplendant in vines — evocative of one of Monet’s Provence scenes. The food was wonderful and the service was perfect. Again we were struck by the age of the clientele: most were in their late 50s, 60s and 70s.

We have concluded that the crowds at the European restaurants we visit are always markedly older than those at our favorite Indian, Japanese, Vietnamese or Korean places. Today when hip young people want to impress each other with taste and cultural savvy, they tend to choose Asian restaurants. Thirty or forty years ago the hipsters flocked to French or Italian. Those same hipsters still go there apparently, only now they’re much grayer and there are fewer of them.

Even afternoon tea — that most European of culinary institutions — has gone Asian for the young. The atmospheric little tea houses in Los Angeles or Lompoc or Pasadena are mostly patronised by biddies in their fifties and sixties except maybe on Mother’s Day or for a bridal shower. Today’s analog of the tea experience is a garden on Abbot Kinney in Venice serving mostly green teas or a cafe on Main Street in Santa Monica serving green-tea boba.

It’s a flip-flop from the days when struggling Asian restaurants were patronised only by Asians or elderly Whites reliving war experiences or seeking out a National Geographic moments.

Not surprisingly, the American restaurant scene is reflective of what is happening in the world of finance and economics. Tired European economies are suddenly discovering that they have been living on money borrowed from Asia to buy cars, clothes and gadgets made by Asian industry. As they start the painful process of tightening belts and rolling up sleeves to serve lattes and pasta and other quaint delectables to Asian tourists taking advantage of a rapidly depreciating Euro, the world’s perception of Europe will shift from the vibrant fountainhead of finance and fashion to the quaint repository of charming cultural relics, an irresistible destination for tourists seeking a taste of old-millennium culture.