The party, to which there was an admission charge, collected by the Korean owner, catered mostly to male Japanese tourists.

"We do volume, no outcalls," the Korean owner, a woman who was all business, brisk and precise, had told the woman on the first day.

The Korean owner said, "You're lucky I'm just letting you go.

Across the street the Korean owners of a grocery store field racial gibes and dish out their own.

At a convenience store, the Korean owner (Chan) refuses to give change for a telephone call.

"I see no reason to run," he said, standing in the fenced-in lot that was the furniture store, whose Korean owner also wants to reopen.

About eight years ago he also bought the land on Prospect Avenue from its Korean owners.

She recently tried to recruit the Korean owner of a laundry she patronizes, who was once a teacher in Korea.

Korean owners of low-margin textile and shoe factories in Indonesia have gained a reputation for being harsh employers who pay low wages.

Just across was the temporarily famed 104 Store, a bodega where for a time everything cost $1.04, this being the only English its Korean owners knew.