L.A.'s Oaxacatown and its Growing Mezcal Liquor Scene

When downtown bar impresario Cedd Moses opened Las Perlas, he was on to something. The downtown Oaxacan-themed bar focuses on not just tequila, but also mezcal, the Mexican hard liquor which KPCC's Adolfo Guzman-Lopez today reports that is gaining popularity in Los Angeles. Also of note is what people these days are calling the Byzantine-Latino Quarter in the area of Pico and Normandie (map). "Historically this used to be Koreatown," says Gabriel Martinez, who immigrated to Los Angeles from Oaxaca, Mexico as a teenager, "but then lately people have been describing it as Oaxacatown."