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Article: Upscale Kagura in Old Torrance finds it's a tough time to be trendy
- Article from:
- Daily Breeze
- Article date:
- July 11, 2009
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 2009 Daily Breeze. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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In retrospect, the timing for opening a high-end Japanese
restaurant featuring meals costing around $100 apiece in struggling
Old Torrance last September could not have been worse.
A month or so later the global financial crisis hit with full
force and the economy fell through the floor.
And Kagura - the name means "place of the gods" - felt the full
brunt of the pullback in consumer spending despite a high-traffic
location at the northeast corner of Carson Street and Cabrillo
Avenue.
"I was shocked," said General Manager Takashi Suzuki via a
Japanese-language interpreter.
Suzuki laid off half his 15-person staff, including the valets
that customers complained were not necessary given ...