For more than two decades, Tartine has been known for its sugar-crusted morning buns, its exceptional sourdough bread and, more recently, its expansion into Los Angeles and other markets. But the iconic San Francisco bakery also has a claim to fame as the launchpad for what has become one of LA’s most successful taco chains.

Loqui, the taqueria popular for its outstanding flour tortillas and sleek, modern design, celebrates its 10-year anniversary this week. It’s now grown to six locations across Los Angeles, but the concept got its start as a weekly pop-up at Tartine in 2013 when co-founder Cameron Wallace was working there as a baker.

Wallace and Loqui co-founder Ari Ampudia, who’s from Mexico City, took over an unused space between the bakery and neighboring Pizzeria Delfina to serve Mexican street food and antojitos to lines of people on Fridays and Saturdays from 7 p.m. until they sold out, usually around 9 or 10 p.m. 

Wallace, who grew up in San Diego, taught himself to make Mexican food while living in New York City, where he attended culinary school and worked in fine dining restaurants. He took inspiration from the food he grew up with in a city that, at the time, didn’t have great Mexican food options. Later, while at Tartine, he often cooked Mexican food for the staff during family meal. 

“Tartine was going to use the space as an express lane for its coffee and pastries so people didn’t have to wait in line. [Owner] Chad [Robertson] just said, ‘Why don’t you do your taco thing out there?’” Wallace says. 

He adds with a laugh, “It was a crazy time. I would do one rotating taco on a flour or corn tortilla. I was pressing the corn to order and grilling on the roof.”

After two years of a wildly successful pop-up — and a fruitless search for a brick-and-mortar location in the Bay Area — the duo decided to relocate to LA to be closer to Wallace’s hometown. They opened the first Loqui at the upscale Platform shopping complex in Culver City to long lines in 2016. A second location opened in the Arts District in 2019; the duo debuted their sixth outpost on La Brea in March.

Both Wallace and Ampudia point to the ingredient-focused food as the reason for Loqui’s success over the past 10 years. Although the menu is compact, featuring mostly tacos and bowls, its flavor combinations sing: Achiote-and-citrus–marinated chicken is paired with guacamole, pickled red onion, cilantro and habanero salsa; the popular mushroom taco, for a while the only vegetarian option, gets cheese, pinto beans, guacamole, white onion, cilantro and that same smoky habanero salsa.

“Our goal was always to do a few things but do them really well. We take inspiration from the In-N-Outs and the roadside stands in Mexico, where it’s just one guy making one thing for his entire life,” Ampudia says.

To celebrate the anniversary, Wallace and Ampudia are throwing a party on April 15 at the original Culver City location, complete with a mariachi band, a Mexican fruit vendor and more. To mark the occasion, Wallace is also bringing back his signature mesquite-grilled carne asada tacos, which were popular both at the SF pop-up and when the pair first opened in Culver City.

“They’re labor-intensive,” Wallace says. “We still have people ask for them, though.”

As for what’s next, Wallace and Ampudia are focused on driving business to the new La Brea location — but they also still have their eyes set on expansion. In addition to LA, they’re focusing on Orange County, and they may even bring Loqui back to its birthplace, the Bay Area.

“We’ve been looking at the Bay Area for eight or nine months now,” Ampudia says. “There was never really any grand plan. The first year or so was just, ‘Can we stay in business?’ After that, the expansion has been just more organic and free-flowing.”