A Year After the Food Hall, One Team Takes Both Floors of the Citizen Building
What comes next for a downtown landmark after five years as a food hall?
At 9355 Culver Blvd, the answer is a single operator with one plan for both floors. The team behind Mikomi Sushi and Seoul Alley is turning the old Citizen Public Market building into two venues. Hwa-On KBBQ takes the ground floor with Korean barbecue, and Lune Terrace, a rooftop bar and dining room, is planned for the upper floor. The timing matters for downtown in a second way. In the same week, Meet in Paris, the French restaurant on the downtown blocks for seventeen years, planned its final service for Wednesday, November 11.
Downtown's place for a big night out is moving toward the Citizen building, and the building is being rebuilt around that kind of night.
Citizen Public Market opened in November 2020, during the pandemic. In September 2025, Culver City Crossroads reported that it would close on November 2. The food hall's last tenants were Benevento, Go Go Bird, Jikoni, Smokey Chance, Sustainabowl and Uoichiba. Over its five years, the hall also hosted earlier tenants such as Good Boy Bob, Louella's Cali Soul Kitchen, Pizzette and The Jolly Oyster.
Eater LA pointed out that the building sits in the heart of Downtown Culver City, next to HBO at Ivy Station, Amazon Studios and Sony Pictures Studios.
The roof did not last much longer. When the closure was first announced, Bar Bohemien said it would keep operating upstairs and keep its calendar of events. Eater reported that it closed quietly over Thanksgiving weekend 2025, a few weeks after the food hall below it. That left both floors of the building empty heading into this past year.
The building is a landmark. It is Culver City Historical Building #4, built by Eugene Donovan as the home of the local newspaper, The Citizen, which printed its papers on presses at the back of the structure. It received local landmark status in 1984 and is on the National Register of Historic Places.
| 9355 Culver Blvd | Through late 2025 | The new plan |
|---|---|---|
| Ground floor | Citizen Public Market, a food hall with several separate counters | Hwa-On KBBQ, Korean barbecue at the table |
| Upper floor | Bar Bohemien | Lune Terrace, a rooftop bar with New American food |
| Operators | Several independent tenants | One team running both venues |
| Built for | Walk-up variety | Group dinners, private events, celebrations |
The table shows why the new layout matters. A food hall is built around people walking in and picking a counter. The new plan is built around groups who decide in advance to come.
The Infatuation added Hwa-On to its November list of new Los Angeles restaurants and describes it as upscale Korean barbecue with grills at each table. Its combos are beef only, featuring wagyu brisket and galbi, and start at $165 for two to three people. The menu also has kimchi pancakes and stews, plus a drink list that includes gochujang palomas and doenjang caramel matcha.
That starting price assumes a group sharing one grill. It fits a birthday or a team dinner better than a quick solo lunch at a food-hall counter.
On Hwa-On's own website, the team says Culver City "currently lacks a local destination" for Korean barbecue and that locals can now have it "instead of needing to drive to Koreatown." The site also leans on the building's past. It calls the Citizen Publishing Company Building a 1920s landmark that was once a center for community news, and says the team wants to "bring people together again."
Lune Terrace is the second half of the plan. Last July, the team told What Now Los Angeles that the rooftop would open toward the end of the year and would serve New American food with Asian flavors, along with Japanese whiskies, premium spirits, wine and craft cocktails. The same story said the outdoor patio will be available for private events, company gatherings and celebrations. Manager Daniel Chung Min described the goal as "a relaxed yet refined neighborhood destination where guests can enjoy exceptional drinks, great food and memorable moments."
Hwa-On calls Lune Terrace its sister venue, and the team describes the two as a complete dining and nightlife experience under one roof. The plan lets one group handle a whole evening: dinner on the ground floor, then drinks upstairs.
The Citizen building's new pitch is "memorable moments," and the downtown restaurant losing that role is Meet in Paris. Culver City Crossroads called the French restaurant an anchor of the downtown food scene. It printed the restaurant's farewell, which reads in part: "We've witnessed love stories, celebrated weddings and anniversaries, watched babies grow into young adults, and stood together through difficult times, too." The announcement named Wednesday, November 11, as its last service, at the end of seventeen years.
For seventeen years, that kind of evening on these blocks often happened at Meet in Paris. The Citizen building is being set up to host the same kind of evening, a few doors along Culver Boulevard, just as the French restaurant closes.
The quick, cheaper meals the food hall once served are showing up elsewhere downtown. Mamie, the West Hollywood sandwich shop that went viral a few years ago, has a second location at 9512 Culver Blvd near the Culver Steps. The Infatuation introduced it with a line aimed straight at Downtown Culver office workers. The shop's ordering page posted soft-opening hours of 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily. Those hours suit the office lunch crowd and close before dinner.
On Washington Boulevard, chef Chris Ono is behind Heisei, his first independent restaurant. Ono was born in Culver City, and his résumé includes Citrin, Providence, Eleven Madison Park and Yojimbo. The Infatuation describes it as a casual Japanese American neighborhood restaurant with donburi and dishes like obon chicken over rice.
The holiday season gives downtown a few fixed dates while the Citizen building fills in:
Town Plaza at 9300 Culver Blvd is just down the street from the Citizen building at 9355, so the tree lighting puts the season's biggest downtown crowd near the building's door.
Over the decades I've watched landmark buildings like the Citizen change hands and change jobs, and those changes shape what the blocks around them feel like. If you own a home near downtown Culver City and want to know how what's happening on Culver Boulevard shows up in what your place is worth, Terry Ballentine is happy to walk you through it. Get a Free Home Valuation and we'll start with your street.
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