Mitsuru Cafe — imagawayaki (1959) + the Japanese street snack

Mitsuru Cafe, located at 117 Japanese Village Plaza Mall in Little Tokyo, Los Angeles, has been serving imagawayaki (red-bean-filled pancakes) since 1959, making it one of the oldest continuously operating food businesses in the neighborhood ^[1]. The cafe is a legacy eatery operated by family members for many decades ^[1]. Its signature item is imagawayaki, a small pancake filled with sweet red bean paste, made to order and visible through a large show window where long lines often form ^[1]. The cafe also offers savory skewered snacks ^[1].

Japanese Village Plaza, where Mitsuru Cafe is situated, is a shopping and dining complex in the heart of Little Tokyo, a National Historic Landmark District that was founded around the turn of the 20th century and is one of only three official Japantowns in the United States ^[4]. The plaza opened in the late 1970s, and while Oomasa is noted as the longest-running business in the plaza, Mitsuru Cafe predates the plaza itself, having operated since 1959 ^[1].

Note: The sources provided do not specify the founding family name for Mitsuru Cafe, nor do they detail generational succession for this specific business. However, a related but distinct business, Mitsuru Grill (located at 316 E 1st Street), was opened by Issei-generation immigrant Mamoru Hanamura (or Hanamure) and his wife Dora, and later closed after 49 years ^[2][3]. Another separate entity, Mitsuru Sushi Grill, was founded by Mitsuru and Keiko (or Kazuko) Nakano in the mid-1970s and is now run by their son David Nakano ^[3]. These are different establishments from Mitsuru Cafe.