Thai Town, Los Angeles, California
| Thai Town | |
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| Neighborhood of Los Angeles | |
Thailand Plaza in Thai Town
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 Thai Town
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| Coordinates: 34°06′00″N 118°18′16″W / 34.10000°N 118.304522°W | |
| Country | United States |
| State | California |
| County | Los Angeles |
| City | Los Angeles |
| Time zone | PST (UTC-8) |
| • Summer (DST) | PDT (UTC-7) |
Thai Town (Thai language: ไทยทาวน์) is a six-block area in the East Hollywood neighborhood of Los Angeles, California; it is the only designated "Thai Town" in the United States.
The area designated by the city of Los Angeles as Thai Town is a six-block area flanking Hollywood Boulevard between Normandie Avenue and Western Avenue, its entrances being marked by two statues of apsonsi (a mythical half human, half lion angel in Thai folklore). The district has been the home to immigrant groups, including Armenians and Latinos, for a long time, and Thai Americans began settling there in the 1960s. The area, which is home to many of the 80,000 Thais estimated to be living in Southern California, was said to be a working-class district that in 2007 was "one of the poorest sections of Los Angeles County, with many residents cramming into low-income apartments and working at minimum-wage jobs." Earlier, in 2000, it was described as "a rundown six-block stretch of Hollywood Boulevard crammed with Thai sweet shops, bookstores, restaurants, markets and newspaper offices."
In 2000 a Los Angeles Times writer said Thai Town was a place where
gourmands can stock up on bitter melon and round Thai eggplant. A Thai dessert shop offers preserved jackfruit, Pandan cookies and Kring Krang, crisply sweetened rice. The large Silom supermarket occupies the middle of a block near Hobart Boulevard, its exterior the rose-hued color of dusk with ornate trimming and a spirit house, draped with colorful garlands and a stone-faced Buddha image, guarding the entrance from destructive forces.
One result of the influx of Thai people into East Hollywood was that the neighborhood became a "point of entry" for other Thais, many of whom came to study at Southland universities.
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