{"id":407460,"date":"2026-07-22T03:10:22","date_gmt":"2026-07-22T03:10:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/407460\/"},"modified":"2026-07-22T03:10:22","modified_gmt":"2026-07-22T03:10:22","slug":"abl-hollywood-serves-a-slice-of-jamaican-chinese-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/407460\/","title":{"rendered":"ABL Hollywood Serves a Slice of Jamaican-Chinese History"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph u67w0ti va4xi81 va4xi80 e8cira1\">There\u2019s much to explore when looking at the intersection of Jamaican and Chinese <a href=\"https:\/\/la.eater.com\/now-trending-los-angeles\/303620\/los-angeles-caribbean-food-restaurants-trend\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">diasporic cultures<\/a>. Records show that, as early as 1854, English plantation owners in Jamaica brought over Chinese and Southeast Asian migrants to work as indentured laborers. <a href=\"https:\/\/la.eater.com\/restaurant-openings\/303195\/abl-hollywood-jamaican-chinese-restaurant-opening-black-owned\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">ABL<\/a>, a new restaurant located in a thrumming part of Hollywood, presents as a compelling blend of these two cultures, as owner Aja Dawson and her mother, Barbara (who also owns Downtown\u2019s A Beautiful Life restaurant and food truck), explore their family\u2019s heritage in dishes such as jerk-fried egg rolls and chen pi ji\u2013style chicken wings. The 35-seat dining room and bar feels like an intimate hideaway in the busy corner of Cahuenga and Hollywood Boulevards. Its menu tells the story of the cohesion of people in diaspora and cannot be reduced to trendy \u201cfusion\u201d \u2014 so go with friends, order the oxtail lo mein, and learn about the history of Jamaica\u2019s historic Chinese communities in earnest.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph u67w0ti va4xi81 va4xi80 e8cira1\">Aja designed the interior herself and committed fully to a dark burgundy motif: ABL is moody, low-lit, and dark in the best way. Custom textured banquettes are tucked along the walls, while a bright neon-red sign that reads \u201cabl\u201d in lowercase script emits an ethereal glow at the entrance. Casual dress is always welcome, but one might want to consider fun clothing to match the room.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph u67w0ti va4xi81 va4xi80 e8cira1\">ABL hosts curated events with a DJ, as well as their version of happy hour with snacks and an open bar. Check <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/abl.hollywood\/?hl=en\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">ABL\u2019s Instagram<\/a> to see what\u2019s happening.<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There\u2019s much to explore when looking at the intersection of Jamaican and Chinese diasporic cultures. Records show that,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":407461,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[28829,48,52,51,47,50,49],"class_list":["post-407460","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-dining-reports","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407460","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=407460"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407460\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/407461"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=407460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=407460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=407460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}