Hong Kong Café

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

Located at 425 Gin Ling Way in the Chinatown district of Downtown Los Angeles, California and across the way from sometimes rival Esther Wong’s Madame Wong′s, the former Chinese restaurant was open to audiences of all ages.

The Daily Planet and Elton Duck played at the club’s opening night on June 5, 1979, and numerous bands, including X, Catholic Discipline, The Mau Mau’s, Bags, The Germs, Black Flag, and The Alley Cats, performed there until its closing in January 1981. Concert footage filmed at Hong Kong Café appears in the Penelope Spheeris documentary film The Decline of Western Civilization.

The Hong Kong Cafe was typically more open to punk and hardcore acts than Madame Wong′s and Black Flag played some of its first few shows at the Hong Kong Cafe.

The following flyers outline the first several months of scheduled shows at the Café, from June to August 1979: