Little Joe's, Italian restaurant in Chinatown, Los Angeles, United States
Little Joe's occupied a three-story building at the corner of Broadway and College Street in Chinatown, with a main dining room on the ground floor. The basement level housed a wine bar called The Cellar, which served as a gathering spot separate from the restaurant above.
It began in 1897 as the Italian-American Grocery Company, founded by immigrant Charley Viotto in Chinatown. The business was renamed Little Joe's during World War II and later became known for its dining establishment.
The restaurant served Northern Italian dishes from the Piedmont region, producing 34,000 pounds of spaghetti annually to meet customer demand.
The restaurant was spread across multiple levels, requiring visitors to navigate stairs between the dining room and the bar below. Advance planning was recommended given the venue's popularity, especially during peak dining hours.
When the building was demolished in 2013, excavation revealed a section of the Zanja Madre beneath its foundation, Los Angeles' first municipal water system. This discovery exposed a hidden piece of the city's earliest infrastructure that had been buried under the site for over a century.
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