The Los Angeles taqueria where soft tacos were popularized starting 50 years ago is poised to become a city-designated historic-cultural site.
The original King Taco sparked interest for generations of Angelenos in more varieties of Mexican cuisine and eventually influenced taco culture across the country.
In the 1970s, an era rife with hard-shelled tacos stuffed with ground beef, cheddar cheese and shredded lettuce, founders Raúl and Lupe Martinez helped proselytize soft, tender corn tortillas piled with grilled meats, cilantro, onions and fresh salsas. They spread that gospel through a small fleet of food trucks and nearly two dozen restaurants, helping to change the way Angelenos conceptualize Mexican food.
“They told me I was crazy,” Raúl Martinez told The Times in 1987, “but … here I am.”
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Their first storefront, a casual walk-up counter founded in 1975, is currently under consideration as a historic-cultural monument, a testimony to its “significant contributions to the broad cultural, economic or social history of the nation, state, city, or community,” according to the city’s Cultural Heritage Commission.
The commission voted unanimously in favor of the designation this month. Next, City Council’s Planning and Land Use Management Committee will weigh in on the original King Taco, followed by City Council. Though no meetings have been scheduled yet, city representatives say these will likely occur by late April.
The commission’s report found that the Martinezes “created the first taco truck in the United States,” also noted by L.A. Times columnist and author Gustavo Arellano in his book “Taco USA.”
Following Raúl Martinez’s death in 2013, the late L.A. Times Food critic Jonathan Gold called King Taco’s al pastor “the essential Los Angeles taco.”
If granted monument status, the restaurant’s building could see delays in any efforts to demolish or significantly alter the site in order to preserve the building’s original state for its historical significance.
Company representatives of King Taco could not immediately be reached for comment.
In 1969, after leaving Mexico City for L.A. by way of Tijuana, the husband-and-wife team sought a taste of home and began bringing their own tacos to local soccer matches. The tacos caught on, with players and other attendees asking to purchase them.
The Martinezes drew on their ancestral flavors — as well as Raúl’s experience as a butcher — to launch their own taco truck out of a former ice cream van in 1974. Their first night in business they sold $70 of tacos. Soon, they were selling more than twice as much every night, and they took a gamble on a building that once housed a hot dog and ice cream stand.
Four tacos at King Taco’s original location, in Cypress Park, clockwise from left: cabeza, chicken tinga, carne asada and al pastor.
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
It debuted in 1975, and became a hub for Cypress Park and surrounding Latino and Mexican American communities. It became the central kitchen for a burgeoning fleet of food trucks, which helped their al pastor, cabeza and other fresh meats to fan out across the region. It’s also the birthplace of Lupe Martinez’s signature lightly smoky salsa roja, which can still smother King Taco’s dishes today.
Today the chain operates nearly two dozen storefronts, but multiple fans say the first Cypress Park restaurant holds a special place in their hearts and memories.
“This is the original one — it’s always been ‘the one,’” said Jaime Martinez, a customer of roughly 40 years and no relation to the King Taco founders. “It’s just a cool little hole-in-the-wall restaurant.”
He grew up in nearby Silver Lake, with a mother who regularly brought him to the first King Taco. Now that she’s in her senior years, he comes to the restaurant to pick up food for her. He’s also introduced his own children to the local chain, and while they sometimes visit other locations, Cypress Park’s is always the family favorite.
The patio at King Taco’s original location in Cypress Park.
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
He usually opts for sopes — requested as extra crispy, for more crunch on the edges of the masa cakes. He said that decades of consistency keep him coming back, and he hopes that historic denotation could keep King Taco going for years to come.
“I think they deserve it, to be honest,” he said.
Across the dining room, another King Taco enthusiast dug into a burrito, though he, too, usually orders the sopes. David Hernandez has been visiting King Taco for decades, since high school. Now that he’s taken a job near the Cypress Park location, he stops in for lunch two or three times a week.
He’s rooting for the historic designation too. “I hope it happens because this is the first one,” Hernandez said. “I know the story: At first it was a stand, then they bought this [restaurant], then it became huge.”
Today, a plaque hangs along one wall of the cream-colored Cypress Park dining room. It honors co-founder Raúl Martinez as the man who brought the first al pastor tacos to Los Angeles. Soon, another plaque — this time from the city itself — might hang on the restaurant in recognition of his efforts.
King Taco’s original restaurant is at 1118 Cypress Ave., Los Angeles, and is open 8:30 a.m. to 11 p.m. Sunday to Thursday and 8:30 a.m. to 1 a.m. Friday and Saturday.