Mona Holmes Mona Holmes is an editor at Eater Southern California/Southwest, a regular contributor at KCRW radio, and a 2022 James Beard Award nominee. In 2013, Marcus Christiana-Beniger and his wife Eunah Kang-Beniger had a choice to make. The couple signed a lease to open a restaurant and adjacent bar in Chinatown, but because resources were limited, only one could happen first. They put aside Christiana-Beninger’s longtime dream to open a New Orleans-style bar to focus on their restaurant Little Jewel of New Orleans. The bar that would eventually become Evangeline Swamp Room, which opened in mid-December 2024, would have to wait another 10 years…