If the physical extension and menu refresh sound like a 2.0 moment for the budding community dining destination, that’s because it is: With cascading momentum from the Bad Bunny halftime performance, the timing seems more than ideal for growth for the Exposition Park restaurant. According to co-owner Federico Laboureau, the team behind Fuegos simply needed the room. “We started getting more people in the restaurant,” says the Buenos Aires native. “It was nice being cozy, but also nice getting the opportunity to get bigger and receive more people.”
Laboureau and his partner in work and life, Maximillian Pizzi (who is also a production designer), took over the adjacent space in November. The pair has a long career working on television and movie sets, including on Yara Shahidi’s Day Off and the BET Hip-Hop Awards, and know from those experiences how to construct and complete a set within two days. After inspections and approvals, Fuegos tripled its seating capacity to 60 indoors.
During the 2023 writer and actor strikes, Laboureau and Pizzi found themselves in need of work. Fuegos is the duo’s first entry into the food space. Their pop-up-to-permanent path began by selling empanadas out of their home kitchen in 2023. They secured a commercial space as demand increased, sold on third-party delivery apps, then found a space on Western Avenue slightly north of Martin Luther King Boulevard.
Though empanadas, a milanesa sandwich, potato tortillas, and the South American favorite choripan sandwich with chorizo have been on the menu since Fuegos opened in 2024, Laboureau and Pizzi have added entraña, a ribeye steak with chimichurri and french fries, plus Argentine-style pizzas that have puffy crusts more analogous to focaccia. It’s fairly common to see Laboureau manning the dramatic, old-school Ford truck that he converted into a grill, but, in recent weeks, the team added a portable pizza oven. They have also introduced medialuna breakfast sandwiches, and, of course, their home country’s highly caffeinated mate. Diners can arrive as early as 9 a.m. and be immersed in various shades of pink and red throughout the restaurant.
Laboureau originally designed Bad Bunny’s stage casita for his 31-day residency in Puerto Rico, which they repurposed for the Super Bowl performance. The set was inspired by his grandmother’s house, where he grew up, which Laboureau says could resemble any Latino family home.
Check Fuegos’s Instagram for its regular events. The restaurant has a recurring Thursday tango night, an evening dedicated to chess, wine tastings, a forthcoming special asado dinner, a small farmers’ market, plus a monthly yoga class with pink mats.
“We started doing this to pay the bills, but the empanadas are a connector,” says Laboureau. “People keep coming here to connect. Latinos believe in community, celebration, music, food, and the party.”