В Студио-Сити открылся первый постоянный ресторан легендарных уличных тако El Ruso

- Click here to listen to this article - Share via See more from the L.A. Times in Google Search. Set us as preferred After years of location shuffles and tens of thousands of dollars in parking tickets, some of L.A.’s top tacos have found a permanent home. The award-winning El Ruso, famed in Netflix’s “Taco Chronicles,” The Times and others for its fresh flour tortillas, char-grilled meats and silken braises, recently debuted its first brick-and-mortar restaurant, bringing founders Walter Soto and Julia Silva to Studio City. The meats — some butchered on-site by Soto — sear over mesquite charcoal, with smoke wafting through the large patio and over the restaurant’s bright pink walls. Flames occasionally rise through the adjustable metal grate of the taquero’s grill, overwhelming the rib-eye, costillas and carne asada for pitch-perfect charring. Meals are punctuated by the heavy thwack of Soto’s butcher knife chopping the meats against a large block of Sinaloan alamo wood, while music and TVs complete the din. Behind him Silva, who has been making flour tortillas since the age of 4, casually passes some of L.A.’s best tortillas between her hands, then throws them onto the plancha and smothers one side in cheese. Tijuana-born Soto sold tacos on the streets for more than 15 years and says he’s simply grateful to have found a permanent home for his food and more stability for his family. He and Silva, former romantic partners and current professional partners, share a daughter, Suri, who can also frequently be spotted at the Studio City space. After popping up through Boyle Heights, Highland Park, Echo Park and beyond, they yearned for a brick-and-mortar restaurant the last five years; in 2021 they came close with a space in Silver Lake, but Soto said that rapid rent increases caused them to bow out of the deal. Now they’ve found a stable location where they can serve roughly 150 guests at once, and have often found themselves selling out of tacos since their July 22 launch. Bill Addison reviews El Ruso, a taco trailer in Boyle Heights. “It’s better working here, because in the trailer it’s too [many] problems, and temporary,” Soto said. “[With] the ticket guys and LAPD, moving from one place to another place, it was too hard for me.” Soto estimates he was paying $10,000 annually in parking tickets. He also paid $1,200 monthly to rent a commissary kitchen. But one of his largest hurdles as a street vendor came not from cost but from his colleagues: Soto said that in L.A. competition is fierce, and it was sometimes fellow taqueros who spurred fights and called parking officers to report him once he began to pull customers away from their stands. Restaurateur and bar owner Vincent Laresca owns the building and, as the lease ended for his previous tenant, Roadside Tacos, was searching for a new vendor to take over the space. As a longtime fan of El Ruso he’d already introduced himself to Soto. One day in July, he and the taquero spoke by phone; Soto mentioned he was tiring of the instability of street vending, while Laresca was hunting for a new chef. Hearing Soto’s woes, he called a meeting with business partner Ben Goglia and they hashed out a deal to launch El Ruso’s first brick-and-mortar. It opened days later. The sobaquera from El Ruso showcases amazing flour tortillas Soto and Silva are offering the El Ruso signatures of chile colorado, carne asada and birria de res, among others, all available as tacos or hefty sobaqueras. Their salsas remain the same, too, but with the addition of a new, bright molcajete salsa. But with a prep kitchen and a larger cooking space — featuring ample room for the grill and the tortillas at a far end of the patio — they’re also able to add what were once occasional specials as permanent items, such as the marinated shrimp sauteed over the grill, and the battered fish. And they’re still making room for specials, with options like bone-in or shaved costilla tacos. Longtime fans might notice a slight price increase; tacos — most priced at two for $12 — are only slightly more than the $5.25 cost of yore, though the rib-eye taco costs $13 and the sobaqueras, which once sat at $16.50, are now $20. It’s a growing trend for many restaurants, not just El Ruso, as they contend with rising costs for ingredients, insurance and labor. Conservatives debate online whether college students should be more frugal on food, or if the younger generation is contending with a larger affordability issue. “The price of goods has gone through the roof,” said Goglia. “It’s hard to raise the prices people associate it with, but I know, I see what [Soto is] doing and the time they put into it. This is still a good deal.” The new restaurant also includes a full liquor license, meaning margaritas and beers are available to sip alongside El Ruso’s cuisine for the first time. Laresca and Goglia, with ties to local cocktail bars Blue Collar, Cold Shoulder and more, chose to pare down the beverage program. Here, they say they just want to boost Soto’s cooking. “I think the real star here is the food,” said Goglia. “What [Soto] does is impressive: Not only does he do it quick, but it’s all fresh and made to order. We need to be able to keep the drinks coming quick, so people can complement it with their food — especially when it’s hot like this.” Daily aguas frescas are also on offer, as are locally made paletas in a range of colors and flavors. Soto and Silva’s trucks are temporarily out of commission as they focus on the restaurant, but they say they might pull them out of retirement for catering and other services someday. For now they’ve got their hands full — with fresh flour tortillas and more — in Studio City. El Ruso is located at 10628 Ventura Blvd., Studio City, and is open Thursday, Sunday and Monday from 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m., and Friday and Saturday from 11:30 a.m. to 11 p.m.