..The Atomic Cafe opened in 1946 in Little Tokyo, Los Angeles by Minoru and Ito
Matoba. During the late 70's to mid 80's their daughter, Nancy, quickly transformed
the quiet neighborhood bar/ cafe in to one of L.A.'s most popular hang outs
for the local punk rock scene, politicians, and the Japanese mafia. On any given
night you could see the likes of Blondie, The Go-Go's, Devo, X, Warhol, David
Byrne, Bowie sitting down having a bowl of noodles in the company of old Japanese
men with full body tattoos. The legendary jukebox played everything from The
Germs to Mori Shinichi until 4 in the morning as crazy waitresses would be jumping
on top of tables trying to serve food. The Atomic Cafe closed its doors on November
23, 1989.
