Home Care In Monterey, LA

ThisThis is a series celebrating to the best dishes to eat in various neighborhoods across Los Angeles. Today we’re in Monterey Park, a thriving community in west San Gabriel Valley. From a perpetually packed dim sum hall to Mexican tortas stuffed with everything good, here now are Eater editors’ favorites in the neighborhood.

Ground lamb pies at Beijing Pie House

Beijing Pie House is a staple San Gabriel Valley restaurant, known famously for its puck-sized xian bing meat pies. The Monterey Park location is a corner strip mall affair tucked under a glowing red neon sign; inside the colorful focus is on the ordering counter, where eager fans wait impatiently for plates full of pies. The most famous are the lamb and green onion/beef and green onion combos, though there are vegetarian options, steamed dumplings, noodles, and appetizers to boot. Save the money for those burnished brown dough disks stuffed with meat, though, because they’re truly the star of the show and among the best single bites one can find in Monterey Park. 846 E. Garvey Ave., Monterey Park. —Farley Elliott

Sweet silken tofu at V.P. Tofu

Silken tofu served warm and sweet is a soothing dessert with endless appeal. While you can find this Chinese delicacy at just about any restaurant serving dim sum, V.P. Tofu in Monterey Park makes the best version around. With its smooth texture and clean, mild taste, tofu can take on flavors like few ingredients can. Try it with a ginger syrup that’s as sweet as it is spicy. There’s also a pandan version that’s minty green in color and topped with creamy coconut milk. The pandan’s unmistakable fragrance transports taste buds straight to Southeast Asia. 237 South Garfield Ave., Monterey Park. —Cathy Chaplin

Pork crab dumplings at Mama Lu’s Dumpling House

As one of Southern California’s most recognizable and smile-worthy names, Mama Lu’s Dumpling House is an institution that produces solid Chinese food. With two typically packed locations in Monterey Park, the kitchen cranks out favorites like salted fish and chicken fried rice, ginger and scallion with lamb, and saucy beef wraps all day long. But it’s called Mama Lu’s Dumpling House for a reason, and the dumplings are the restaurant’s showstopper. If ordering the crab and pork dumplings for the first time, sit back and marvel at these perfectly shaped little discs. The Mama Lu’s team spent years creating flavorful dumplings with incredible texture. They’re compact and filled with piping hot liquid, with pan-fried options that have a crispy outer layer. The crab lends a soft, salty, and slightly sweet layer to the dumpling. But don’t bite in too quickly. One false move, and broth is suddenly on clothing or dripping down chins. This could be unpleasant, so prepare by giving them a few moments to cool, using a spoon to break the dough or just endure the pain. 153 E Garvey Ave, Monterey Park. —Mona Holmes

Fried chicken at Tokyo Fried Chicken

It’s entirely possible that, even within the broad spectrum of greater Los Angeles, the best fried chicken can be found in Monterey Park. More than a few folks have come away from a meal at Tokyo Fried Chicken convinced that its bird is the juiciest, shatteringly crispiest kind to be found, thanks to a proprietary batter and process that results, as the late Jonathan Gold said, in chicken that is “well-marinated, triple-fried, with brittle, almost translucent skin.” Lines still queue up early for the simple multi-piece meals, offered with house-made ponzu sauces on the side, as well as side dishes like coleslaw, cold tofu, or curry creamed corn. Meals scale up easily for larger groups, with the price still hovering around $15 per person. 122 S. Atlantic Blvd., Monterey Park. —Farley Elliott

Pineapple buns at Delicious Food Corner

There’s something for every mood and occasion at Delicious Food Corner, Monterey Park’s decade-old Hong Kong-style cafe. Breakfast-goers can’t resist huge bowls of porridge brimming with pork and preserved eggs, and freshly steamed rice rolls in a puddle of sesame and soy. Lunch-goers tuck into minced pork served over rice and simple sautéed greens, while the dinner crowd shares platters of fried squid and grilled steaks with black pepper sauce. Perfect anytime of day are the pineapple buns, served two to an order, split through the center, and tucked with a luscious pat of salted butter. The warm buns melt the butter just so, making each bite supremely sweet and rich. 2329 S. Garfield Ave., Monterey Park. —Cathy Chaplin

Carne asada torta at Cook’s Tortas

Monterey Park sandwich staple Cook’s Tortas is much more than just a place for meat and bread. For starters, the menu inside the small restaurant is massive, hovering around 25 sandwiches only plus another dozen or more sides, salads, desserts, and drinks like daily agua frescas. There are classic Mexican-style sandwiches like the carne asada, shown here, as well as achiote-rubbed cochinita pork and classic breaded cutlets for milanesas. It’s easy to see the place’s direct appeal to a maximum amount of customers, which is precisely why the family-owned restaurant has just signed up to franchise with new locations across the country. More and more, it’s looking like the next decade could be a big one for this Monterey Park original. 1944 S. Atlantic Blvd., Monterey Park. —Farley Elliott

DIY grilled steaks at the Venice Room

Family-owned and operated since 1955, the Venice Room encourages diners to grill their own steaks in a Venetian-themed room that’s dusty, dated, dingy, and delightful too. For just $10.95 during lunch, diners are treated to a sad but plentiful salad bar, a baked potato, a French roll, and an eight ounce slab of uncooked New York strip. Raw steaks are seasoned with dried spices before thrown on the communal grill. And while there are juicier and tenderer steaks to be had just about anywhere else, the sheer joy of rolling up one’s sleeves, figuring out how to maneuver a restaurant-grade grill, and doing it all among friends and strangers over a few cocktails is an experience that’s hard to beat. 2428 S. Garfield Ave., Monterey Park. —Cathy Chaplin

Taiwanese breakfast at Huge Tree Pastry

Huge Tree Pastry is a staple spot for Monterey Park, the kind of do-it-all classic that draws legions of fans every week. The restaurant offers a variety of Taiwanese and Chinese dishes, from dumplings to beef rolls, but the specialty of the place is undoubtedly the Taiwanese breakfast dishes. The crullers and soy milk are a classic, as is the sticky purple rice fan tuan, offered with eggs and plenty of pickled vegetables inside. It’s a small but mighty morning meal all wrapped up in one, which is perfect considering the restaurant opens at 7 a.m. daily. 423 N. Atlantic Blvd., Monterey Park. —Farley Elliott

Whole grilled squid at King Charcoal BBQ

This tiny, 10-table neighborhood spot is easy to miss while speeding down Garfield, just south of Garvey Avenue. King Charcoal BBQ opened in 2018 and serves eastern Chinese barbecue every night until 2 a.m. It’s what’s needed during later hours, a menu that’s easy to decipher and full of meats and vegetables. Most ingredients are skewered and thrown on a grill with no fuss, including fat and lean lamb, bacon wrapped enoki, tripe, mushrooms, gizzard, corn, and tasty curry pork ribs. The winner here is the grilled squid; it’s a tender, wonderfully pleasant dish for a ridiculously low $8.99. Come with a crew and order beer and skewered meats for a great experience in Monterey Park. 220 S Garfield Ave Monterey Park. —Mona Holmes

Crispy shrimp rice noodle roll at Elite

Waiting for a table at Elite on a weekend morning tests one’s dedication to the sport of dim sum. The bellies that gather here are a tenacious bunch; they don’t seem to mind waiting an hour or even two so long as the food is tops when their number finally gets called. Dim sum basics like shu mai (pork and shrimp dumplings), har gow (translucent shrimp dumplings), and tripe with ginger and scallions are executed very well. Best of all are the rice noodle rolls with a crunchy fried doughnut filling that contrasts brilliantly with the smooth noodle sheets and supple little shrimp. Soy sauce ties everything together with a subtle sweetness. 700 South Atlantic Blvd., Monterey Park. —Cathy Chaplin

By Peter H. King

Typical of independent music stores, Johnny Thompson Music in Monterey Park is a monument to functional clutter: Drumsticks, guitar strings, woodwinds, sheet music, violins, amp cords, trumpets — you name it, it hangs from every wall, stuffs every shelf and covers every inch of floor space not needed for foot traffic.

A selection of long-necked Chinese string instruments, displayed next to mariachi guitars, hints at what’s atypical about the store, now in its 54^th year.

Located on E. Garvey Avenue in the Monterey Park business district, Johnny Thompson Music sits at the epicenter of an ongoing wave of Asian immigration that has changed the San Gabriel Valley and California.

Originally, a lot of residents felt that they were being invaded by foreigners.

— Johnny Thompson

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“This is where it all started,” said the 72-year-old Thompson, a native of the suburban city of 60,000 residents, east of downtown Los Angeles, “right here in downtown Monterey Park. Right here in the business district.”

The story of Monterey Park’s transformation into what has been called America’s first suburban Chinatown has been well-chronicled, to the point that city officials long ago grew weary of the narrative: The brash real estate developer who arrived in the 1970s with a vision to repopulate the working-class town with Asian immigrants; the political backlash in the 1980s; and the white exodus.

Johnny Thompson, though, offers a seldom heard coda. Forty years after the changes began, he remains. The thin, sad-eyed former musical prodigy chose not to sell his business, though he had offers. He chose not to be that “last [white] American,” as an infamous bumper sticker put it, “to leave Monterey Park.”

Everyone in the room thought the guy was blowing smoke . . . He told me his plans, and I thought he was a visionary.

— Johnny Thompson

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He chose to adapt.

“Very few stayed,” he said the other day, sitting on a metal chair in a lessons cubicle that doubles as a storage space for amplifiers. “All the downtown business owners either left or have since retired. So I guess I’m the last one.”

::

Change in California can come on subtly, barely noticed at first. Or it can be literally, but more often metaphorically, seismic: The Gold Rush. The transcontinental railroad. World War II and its baby boom aftermath. Immigration, first from within the States, then from the south, and now from across the Pacific.

Incremental or epic, change has been California’s constant from the start. As the late Carey McWilliams once observed, the state “has not grown or evolved so much as it has been hurtled forward, rocket-fashion, by a series of chain-reaction explosions.”

It’s the velocity that Thompson remembers most when he looks back at the transformation that stormed through his hometown: “It was a tsunami. It came all at once, and it kept coming. And to this day it is still coming.”

Today, out of every 100 residents living in Monterey Park, 70 on average are Asian and 25 are Latino; five are white. But the surge in the Asian population is not confined to Monterey Park, or even the San Gabriel Valley.

Asians now constitute the fastest-growing cohort in California. A recent study by the Public Policy Institute of California cast it as a sea change from the decades when immigrants from Latin America were driving population growth:

“Since 2006, Asia has replaced Latin America as the leading source of new immigrants. In 2013, more than twice as many immigrants arrived from Asia as from Latin America, and China replaced Mexico as the leading country of origin.”

As often happens with societal shifts in California, the events that laid the groundwork for change were not obvious at the time: Who knew that so-called ping-pong diplomacy, or Nixon’s visit to China, or a normalization of relations with China under the Carter administration, would bring wholesale change to California suburbs?

But not everybody missed it. In 1977, Frederick Hsieh, a Chinese immigrant turned developer, met with 20 Monterey Park business leaders, informing them, as one participant told the Los Angeles Times a decade later, “that Monterey Park was going to become the next Chinatown.”

“He said it would be a mecca for Chinese,” the business leader went on. “Everyone in the room thought the guy was blowing smoke.”

Johnny Thompson had a different reaction.

“I met with him,” he recalled. “He told me his plans, and I thought he was a visionary.”

From Taiwan, Hong Kong, mainland China and eventually several other Pacific Rim nations, the immigrants began to pile in. First they bought houses and property, then they began to snap up businesses. Thompson recalls “rumors to the effect that people were coming in with bags of cash, and they were paying prices nobody could refuse.”

Thompson could, and did.

“I don’t know how many, but we had offers, we had offers. I didn’t even listen to them.”

Why not?

“This is my hometown and my business. I saw no need whatsoever to sell out. I was still a young man and I had no desire to retire or move on to another location or anything like that. I decided to adjust.”

He worked with Hsieh, since deceased, to establish what eventually would become the city’s downtown business improvement district, an organization Thompson now chairs.

He changed his giant rooftop sign, adding Chinese characters to denote “Johnny’s Music,” next to where it already read “Se habla Espanol.”’

It has worked out very well. That is the good thing about America. Diversity always wins out, and it makes everybody better.”

— Johnny Thompson

He began to stock traditional Chinese instruments: qingins and banhus and zhengs.

And he hired a 14-year-old Chinese-Vietnamese immigrant to serve as interpreter, buying time before he could bring on board a corps of instructors who could speak the language.

::

Change, especially volatile change, can be met with great resistance. One memorable example from another California valley, the San Joaquin: In the 1970s, growers insisted on equipping their field hands with short-handled hoes — a back-straining implement that made functional sense only when hoeing in certain, weed-like crops.

With long-handled hoes, the agricultural industry warned, production would tumble and costs would soar. But the state, prodded by the farm labor movement, banned the short-handled hoe and … nothing. Production did not decline. Costs did not soar.

“We fought this thing and worried over it and now it turns out to be not a problem,” a Salinas Valley lettuce grower told a Times reporter at the time. “Frankly,” he added, with uncommon candor, “I feel like a goddamn jackass.”

The short-handled hoe of Monterey Park was language. Stores with only Chinese-language signs proved controversial. Longtime residents sensed a snub; the fire department worried about confusion in emergencies. Ballot box efforts were undertaken, unsuccessfully, to designate English as the city’s “official” language. A rash of signs and bumper stickers asked, infamously, “Will the last American to leave Monterey Park please bring the flag?”

Thompson was not, and is not, without empathy for the residents who recoiled at the changes: “Originally, a lot of residents felt that they were being invaded by foreigners. And those people pulled up stakes and moved, a lot of them, or they stayed and tried to argue about it.”

Thompson followed the controversies but did not engage in them. Instead, he let time do its work.

“For the Chinese people at first, language was a big problem, and they brought in their own customs. But over time, they have managed to keep their family values, their educational values from their old country, and at the same time adapt to American social structures. I think it is the best of both worlds.”

It was now midafternoon on a Monday, and the store’s entrance bell began to ring steadily as young music students arrived for their after-school lessons. Some, still dressed in school uniforms, toted cased instruments that seemed to outweigh them.

Some were third-generation residents of America’s first suburban Chinatown, as likely to be taking summer courses in Mandarin as their parents were to take supplemental English lessons at the language schools that popped up all over town in the early years.

A musical cacophony filled Johnny Thompson Music, scales being played on a piano in one cubicle, on a trumpet in another: “The universal language,” said Thompson, who long ago stopped playing music himself to concentrate on business and civic activities.

“I think it has all worked out,” he said finally, rising to free up the cubicle for a tiny violinist-to-be and her instructor. “It has worked out very well. That is the good thing about America. Diversity always wins out, and it makes everybody better.”

That, anyway, is the view of the Garvey Avenue merchant who rode out the tsunami of change. In parting, Johnny Thompson said he has no plans to retire, no plans to leave Monterey Park.

“Where would I go?”

[email protected]

@peterhking

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UPDATES:

5:06 p.m. Wednesday: An earlier headline on this story erroneously described Johnny Thompson as the “last American” in Monterey Park.

Never mind that it was the California governor's mansion long before the Gold Rush, or that its floors have been danced on by Mexican generals, Jazz Age actors and bohemians, and a rowdy bunch of delegates from the first California Constitutional Convention. Forget that John C. Fremont parked his wife there while he was off mining in Mariposa, and that it was once Liz Taylor and Richard Burton's love shack (one of many, apparently).

These days, the La Mirada adobe in Monterey is all about art. Well, art with a healthy dose of history, anyway.

Hidden on a hillside overlooking Lake El Estero and Monterey Bay, this historic three-story home and its sprawling gardens are an extraordinary part of the Monterey Museum of Art - one of the lesser-known gems in a town where tourists are obsessed with fish tanks and bowls of chowder.

La Mirada is a satellite of the larger Pacific Street art museum that features galleries for rotating exhibitions and a permanent collection covering early California painting, photography, and contemporary, Asian and American art.

During the summer, docents are available on weekends to guide visitors through the galleries and, more important, through the mini-mansion, which is in pretty much the same condition it was in when the last owners slept, ate and partied here.

"The dining room has the same furniture and (it is) exactly as it was when the Work family owned the house," said Barbara Codd, special events manager for La Mirada. "A lot of the original wallpaper and furnishings from the '30s and '40s are still here. I guess they traveled a bit, and a lot of the pieces are still here from their travels."

The family of Thomas Albert Work, who moved into La Mirada in the 1930s and deeded the land to the local museum association in 1983, was the last in a long line of residents, including:

-- Jose Castro, governor of California and general of the Mexican forces while California was under Mexican rule.

-- Fremont's wife, Jessie, who rented a portion of the adobe and entertained the California Constitutional Convention delegates in 1849 (the schmoozing and drinking was probably more productive than the arguing and grandstanding over at the convention site at Colton Hall).

-- Hollywood writer Gouverneur Morris, who bought the home in the early 1920s, remolded it into an elegant, 8,000-square-foot mansion with a 40-foot-long drawing room, gardens and a two-story guest wing. He once entertained stars such as Charlie Chaplin and Rudolph Valentino - until he lost the home after the stock-market crash of 1929.

At 2 p.m. on weekends, docents lead tours through the house, taking care to explain the furnishings, wallpaper, artwork and even the linens. Not to be missed: the two bathrooms on the second floor, one almost entirely in black tile, the other in striking white and cobalt blue.

The furniture and wallpaper aren't the only remnants of family life; the rose garden includes more than 100 varieties, Codd said, "some going back 30 years."

Amid the history, it's easy to forget La Mirada's primary occupation these days - until you follow the hallway to the four stunning contemporary galleries in the Dart Wing, designed by architect Charles Moore. Now through Sept. 7, three of the galleries will host a major retrospective of Chicago photographer Art Sinsabaugh's work that, according to organizers, is the first complete survey of the artist's career. Also on display, through Feb. 1, 2009, is the museum's collection of Asian ceramics. {sbox}

Monterey Museum of Art at La Mirada: 720 Via Mirada, Monterey. Hours: 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Wed.-Sat., 1-4 p.m. Sun. Admission: adults $5, students and active military $2.50, children 12 and younger free. Tickets are also good for the day at the main museum on Pacific Street. (831) 372-3689; www.montereyart.org.

LA SELVA BEACH — For Cindy Kaster, wine is more than just a social catalyst or a beverage to be enjoyed with dinner.

To the longtime La Selva Beach resident and her two business partners, Westside resident Sarah Silverman and Susan Burke of Redwood City, wine is also a living — and a good one at that.

The three women are co-owners of Monterey Bay Wine Co., a wine distribution brokerage based out of Kaster”s home office. With 25 representatives and 50 employees, the company distributes wine for about 40 wineries all over California. The company”s portfolio is selective, Kaster said, but includes many local winemakers, including Richard Alfaro, Windy Oaks and Morgan Winery.

Kaster, who first came to work for Monterey Bay Wine Co. as a sales rep in 1980, said she”d always had an abiding passion for wine, even while studying dance and theater at UC Santa Cruz. When the company went up for sale in 1989, Kaster mobilized Silverman and Burke to bid on the business with her. Although there were a number of other interested parties, the women were given first right of refusal, and successfully took minority control.

“We banded together, mortgaged our homes and we bought [then owner] Joe Kinbro out,” Kaster said.

At that point, the business had three owners and one secretary. Silverman said, while they don”t have a lot of time to reflect, she thinks the three-woman partnership was pioneering in an industry that was then typically male dominated.

“I wouldn”t say it was a struggle to be taken seriously,” Silverman said. “But there would be a lot of times, when we were in negotiations where it was surprising to other people involved that it was an all-female company. That wasn”t really part of the template in the industry back then.”

The co-owners were ambitious, Kaster said, and expanded their business into numerous counties, eventually going statewide. The company sells wine to restaurants and stores of all sizes, from Shopper”s Corner in Santa Cruz to Whole Foods and beyond. Monterey Bay Wine Co. keeps wineries abreast, sometimes weekly, of sales.

By 1997, the minority owners made their final payment on Monterey Bay Wine Co., and took full control. The weakest link in the business at that time, Kaster said, was delivery. The company was depending on outside trucking resources to deliver time-sensitive wine, which didn”t come with any guarantees.

As a solution, Kaster, Silverman and Burke started their own trucking company, called Vinvision Trucking and Storage, so they could ensure delivery themselves. They rented a 16,000-square-foot warehouse in Watsonville and, in 2009, added a second warehouse in Castroville.

“When we decided to invest in the trucking company that was a huge decision,” Kaster said. “It takes a lot of energy, funding, attention and sources to really make it work.”

A typical day, Silverman said, involves a combination of managing her own sales accounts, being involved in some of the overall administration of the company and communicating frequently with her co-owners and staff. Silverman, who has a sales and electronic media background, supervises the Central Coast sales team. She said the company”s growth has been a mixed blessing, since the owners don”t come from a big business background.

“It”s always challenging when you grow as a company as rapidly as we have,” she said. “All in all, though, we”ve done a good job in balancing different challenges and personalities. We all wear a lot of hats.”

Charles Maier, who works as operator of the Crow”s Nest in Santa Cruz, has had weekly meetings about wine with Kaster for at least 12 years, he said, and the restaurant has been with the company for at least 20 years.

“They work hard,” Maier said. “They do a good job in keeping the good brands in their portfolio. They”re a good company, they”re local, they always take care of things and they”re pleasant to work with.”

One of the wines that the Crow”s Nest buys from Monterey Bay Winery is Morgan Wines, Maier said.

Dan Morgan Lee, co-founder of the Morgan Winery in the Carmel Valley, said that his winery has been loyal to the Monterey Bay Wine Co. since 1984.

“They”ve done a great job representing our wines to the local restaurants and fine wine shops in their home territory,” Lee said.

Morgan Winery, which was founded 29 years ago, gave Monterey Bay Wine Co. their distribution rights in San Francisco, the East Bay and Marin County 15 years ago and recently started working with them in Santa Barbara and the Ventura area, Lee said.

“They”ve performed very well for us,” he said.

The company declined to discuss sales figures but Kaster said the future of Monterey Bay Wine is bright, crediting her “phenomenal staff.” Last year was a banner year for the company, she said, which is thriving amid an economic slump.

“All in all, we anticipate a slow growth,” Kaster said. “I”d like a few more sales reps, but we”re pretty comfortable where we are. We take pride in what we do and have fun along the way.”

SALINAS VALLEY — Monterey County Dance Theatre will host its spring show, “La Sylphide,” this weekend at the Robert Stanton Theater in King City.

The local performance is a debut within Monterey County.

“‘La Sylphide’ is the oldest classical romantic ballet in classical dance history,” MCDT Director Janette Harkness said. “It is a timeless story, 190 years old.”

The plot of “La Sylphide” involves fairies, a witch and a hero and heroine. Harkness said the story comes from the romantic period, when ballets took on long stories usually infused with supernatural elements.

She explained that the story is about choice, but because of the love and magic, it is more suitable for older children. The youngest performers in the show will be 8 years old.

“I’ve been wanting to do the ballet for a long time because you need to have the right age group to be able to put on this mature ballet,” Harkness said. “It’s a little deep for the young ones to understand.”

The ballet is set in the Scottish Highlands and tells the story of a farmer named James, who is engaged to a woman named Effie. A fairy enters the scene on the day of their wedding and becomes enraptured with James. Harkness said handkerchiefs are highly recommended.

Three nights of performances will include three main casts, which Harkness said was due to the intensity of the dance moves. The triple casting also allowed for rehearsal adaptation in the event of Covid interruptions, and gave more dancers a chance at taking on lead roles.

A total cast of 50 performers from South Monterey County will take part in the weekend of dance.

Performing the role of Sylph are Olivia Garcia on Friday, Kali Jimenez on Saturday and Chloe Arriaga on Sunday. Madge the Witch will be performed by Kelly Tate on Friday, Natalyse Solomon on Saturday and Daisy Picazo on Sunday.

In the role of Effie will be Rachel Garcia on Friday, Carlie Johnson on Saturday and Sheccid Salas on Sunday. James will be played by Gideon Brown, and his best man Gurn will be played by his brother Shadrach Brown.

Harkness said “La Sylphide” is currently being staged at the San Francisco Ballet and has only been staged an estimated five times in California. That rarity was one reason to go see it, she noted.

The dancing itself is more intense, with movements reflecting fairies, and Harkness said the production’s challenging footwork has a connection to the implementation of point shoes in ballet. The setting will also be reflected with live bagpipe performance, as well as traditional kilts obtained from Edinburgh, Scotland.

Tickets will be available at the door. The March 18 and 19 performances begin at 7 p.m., and the March 20 show begins at 2 p.m. Proceeds will go toward the Monterey County Dance Foundation, which assists MCDT dancers with performance fees and scholarships.

The Foundation will also host an outdoor fair outside the doors an hour before each performance.

Foundation President Teri Storelli said in addition to the trinkets and food available for purchase at the fair, there would also be an opportunity for individuals and businesses to sponsor the upcoming “Nutcracker” mural.