The ‘King’ & ‘King’ who named a legendary club and album

Frank and Debra Hsu thought they were just naming the Chinese restaurant they were opening in L.A.

There was no way they could have known, back in 1973, that the unique combination of their names would grow far beyond the menu at Sixth and La Brea. And that, more than 50 years later, the name “King King” would represent a blues movement, and not just General Tso’s chicken.

The delicious detail of the name is just one of the morsels of information about King King (the Chinese restaurant) found in the “Roundabout” column by Lois Dwan in the Sept. 2, 1973, Los Angeles Times.

The 1973 column may be the very first mention of “King King” in newspapers.

Of course King King was 15 years away from becoming an all-star Hollywood dive bar, christened by The Blue Shadows on Monday night, Dec. 19, 1988.

Before the limos, Bruce Willis, Mick Jagger and The Red Devils, King King would rely on “a good selection of classical and family dishes from the northern provinces,” Dwan wrote.

There is a kung-pao chicken, three dishes with the whole fish, lion head meatballs, eight-treasure soup, Mandarin bean cake, crystal shrimp and a great many other things that are still new and fascinating to us.

Other observations might sound more familiar, such as the interior with “a counter and some red plastic booths.”

The restaurant was open 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Saturday, and 4-10 p.m., according to the Times. “No credit cards. Street parking. Reservations advised: 934-5418.”

Dwan would come back to King King a couple more times:

• “Debra and Frank Hsu redecorated King King, 467 N. [sic] La Brea, in honor of the completion of the first year.” (Los Angeles Times, May 26, 1974)
• “There is wine now at King King on La Brea. Debra and Frank Hsu will include Chinese beer and wines.” (Los Angeles Times, June 8, 1975)

As unlikely as it seems, a Chinese man and a Korean woman met in Taiwan, opened a restaurant in Los Angeles that honored their original names, that then became a nightclub that became the launching pad for a seminal blues band and album whose influence traveled around the world and back again.

The mixture of time and culture and creativity is almost too much to fathom.

And, thanks to the clever thinking of the Hsus, our favorite record has the perfect name.

“Frank and Debra” by The Red Devils just doesn’t have the same flavor.