Spot Check! Welcome to L.A. TACO’s column where we bring you the latest and most exciting things to eat and drink around all of Los Angeles.
Tacos Culiacán is now open in Paramount under Tomateros-inspired signage for Sinaloan-style asada al carbon in tacos “machos” entailing that same charcoal-grilled asada on flour tortillas with Anaheim chile and cheese. The business also sells quesadillas, mulitas, and vampiros with asada or its own birria de res. The owner says they may add lengua to the menu in “the near future.”
9040 Rosecrans Blvd. Paramount, CA 90706. Closest Metro lines and stop: Bus Lines 125 or 266 - “Rosecrans/Lakewood.”
Yeogiyo opened in Koreatown in March, quickly gaining great word of mouth for a well-executed menu, which includes beef tripe hot pot, monkfish hot pot, soondubu, galbi, spicy knife-cut noodles, kimchi black ribs hot pot, and fish selections, served grilled or braised.
301 S. Western Ave. Los Angeles, CA 90020. Closest Metro lines and stop: Bus Lines 16, 207 or 210 - “Western/3rd.”
Durango Cantina grand opens this Friday on Melrose, with a menu from Bee Taquería owner Alex Carrasco inspired by the cooking of the Northwestern Mexican state of Durango. Dishes will include charred beef ribs, braised overnight and served with frijoles charros, a wedding-style guisado “de bodas” with braised lamb shank mixiote, served aside three types of handmade corn tortillas, and Durango’s classic “Discadas,” mixtures of grilled meats that will include chorizo made in-house and linguica sausage, finished in a charcoal oven. For dessert? Bunuelos with arroz con leche natilla.
7661 Melrose Ave. Los Angeles, CA 90046. Closest Metro lines and stop: Bus Line 10 - “Melrose/Spaulding” or Bus Lines 217 and 218 - "Fairfax/Melrose."
Elemento is popping up weekly at the Saturday morning Downey Farmers Market. The Jalisco-style menu includes fried-on-the spot flautas, tacos dorados with meat, beans, and ribbons of pickled onion, and sopes with chile de puerco, as well as quesabirrias. Elemento also offers catering and sells tamales online.
Saturdays, 9am-1pm, 11102 La Reina Ave. Downey, CA 90241. Closest Metro lines and stop: Bus Lines 115 or 127 - “Firestone/Downey.”
Mr. Torta Fruit & Juice is now open in Huntington Park, from the neighborhood where Slayer was spawned. If you can somehow manage to keep your mind off this titanic tostada de pierna with pulled pork leg you see before you, they also have tortas, esquites, boba fruit smoothies, vasito locos, banana splits, and other snacks.
3003 Gage Ave. Huntington Park, CA 90255. Closest Metro line and stop: Bus Line 110 - “Gage/Marconi.”
Westminster’s Banh Khot Lady now has a brick-and-mortar restaurant space for its beloved Vietnamese mushroom-and-shrimp-stuffed crepe/sope-looking treats known as banh khot, which come in big boxes of 5, 30, and 50. The business also sells eggrolls. But that’s it!
10032 McFadden Ave. Westminster, CA 92638
South Bay cidery SoCal Vibes Club has a new taproom now soft-open on Abbot Kinney in Venice. There’s a lengthy menu of its own ciders, mead, beer, and brandy, including a watermelon-habanero cider, a Cactus Kooler orange and pineapple mead, and a high-and-extra-dry 8% abv Wipeout apple cider. Food, which is still forthcoming, will include black cherry brandy-braised beef, a pineapple cider-braised pork, and tacos with that same pork, cider-braised jackfruit, or grilled harissa whitefish.
1522 Abbot Kinney Blvd. Venice, CA 90291. Closest Metro line and stop: Bus Line 33 - “Venice/Abbot Kinney.”
Florence-born Lorenzo is now open in Beverly Hills for simple, impeccably-sourced Tuscan sandwiches. We’ll let this photo of a mortadella on schiacciata with toasted pistachios, roasted red peppers, and parmigiano sauce speak for itself… our all too human incapacity to conceive of words equal to its beauty being what it is.
9529 S Santa Monica Blvd. Beverly Hills, CA 90210. Closest Metro line and stop: Bus Line 4 - “Santa Monica/Camden.”
Tacos Árabes de Puebla announces it is now open for lunch in Boyle Heights. Catch the truck, which preserves the Lebanese roots of Puebla’s street food, now starting at 11 a.m., Weds.-Sun. at…
3600 E. Olympic Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90023. Closest Metro lines and stop: Bus Line 62 - “Olympic/Mirasol” or Bus Line 66 - "8th/Mirasol."
PATH is hosting its second annual Taste of Home food festival fundraiser at Sunset Las Palmas Studios in Hollywood this Saturday, April 29 from 4 – 7 PM. The non-profit’s food festival will offer unlimited tastings from popular restaurants and food vendors from around L.A., including Coni’Seafood, Ayara Thai, Chimmelier Korean fried chicken, Holy Basil, Holbox, Madre, and Mian. Tickets here.
