{"id":269351,"date":"2026-04-15T17:18:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-15T17:18:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/269351\/"},"modified":"2026-04-15T17:18:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T17:18:12","slug":"greek-marinade-latin-heat-the-recipe-at-dinos-famous-chicken-tells-the-history-of-pico-union","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/269351\/","title":{"rendered":"Greek marinade, Latin heat: The recipe at Dino\u2019s Famous Chicken tells the history of Pico Union"},"content":{"rendered":"

This\u00a0story<\/a>\u00a0first appeared on\u00a0The LA Local<\/a>.<\/p>\n

For many Pico Union neighbors who keep going to Dino\u2019s Famous Chicken, the marinated chicken is definitely the star of the menu.<\/p>\n

Jenaro Aviles, 24, has been going to the restaurant with his grandfather and mom since he was a child and sees it as a neighborhood gem.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat isn\u2019t there to love about Dino\u2019s?\u201d Aviles said. \u201cIt\u2019s family-oriented, it\u2019s a monument to L.A. If you come to L.A., it\u2019s a must.\u201d<\/p>\n

Keep up with LAist.<\/p>\n

If you’re enjoying this article, you’ll love our daily newsletter, The LA Report. Each weekday, catch up on the 5 most pressing stories to start your morning in 3 minutes or less. <\/p>\n

At Dino\u2019s Famous Chicken in Pico Union\u2019s Byzantine-Latino Quarter, the restaurant\u2019s story is told through its signature dish \u2014 a reminder of a once predominantly Greek neighborhood that has adapted over time to its largely Latino immigrant community.<\/p>\n

In 1980, encouraged by his wife Eleni, owner Demetrios Pantazis, an immigrant from Patras, Greece, developed a chicken marinade that combined elements of Mediterranean cooking with the bold, spicy flavors common in Latin cuisine, mirroring the surrounding neighborhood.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe chicken arrives with this unmistakable orange-red color \u2014 the marinade does that. It\u2019s the first thing you notice, and it tells you before you even take a bite that something specific happened here,\u201d said Gab Chabr\u00e1n, Food and Culture writer at LAist.<\/p>\n

The chicken is served over a bed of fries with corn tortillas ready for makeshift tacos. The dish is as Chabr\u00e1n notes, \u201cundoubtedly Los Angeles,\u201d and helped turn Dino\u2019s into a success in the area.<\/p>\n

\"Signage<\/p>\n

Dino\u2019s Famous Chicken founder Demetrios Pantazis developed a chicken marinade that blended elements of Greek cooking with the bold, spicy flavors common in Latin cuisine \u2014 paving the way for the chicken\u2019s signature flavor.<\/p>\n

(<\/p>\n

Marina Pe\u00f1a<\/p>\n

\/<\/p>\n

The LA Local<\/p>\n

)<\/p>\n

If you stop by the restaurant around noon or after 6 p.m., you\u2019ll likely see a line of people eagerly waiting for their meal. The restaurant, which opened as a burger stand in 1968, continues to be operated as a family-run chain.<\/p>\n

From the outside, you can tell the restaurant is fast-paced and lively, with customers lining up to order plates of grilled chicken, fries, rice and beans.<\/p>\n

The smell of the signature marinade fills the space as workers move quickly behind the counter. They\u2019re working on serving up trays of chicken topped with the chain\u2019s well-known sauce.<\/p>\n

Photos lining the walls show Pantazis over the decades, along with architectural renderings of the restaurant when it first opened and articles from Eater LA and the LA Times. The history on the walls is reinforced by the steady stream of customers, from the neighborhood and abroad.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just generational for us,\u201d Aviles said, who feels like he\u2019s carrying on a family tradition by eating at Dino\u2019s. \u201cNo matter how far I go, I\u2019m always going to come down to Dino\u2019s.\u201d<\/p>\n

The restaurant at Pico Boulevard and Berendo Street is the flagship and the business has since expanded to five locations across Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

After Pantazis died in 2017, his four daughters took over the operations of the chicken empire.<\/p>\n

In a Facebook post, Pantazis\u2019s family described Dino\u2019s<\/a> as his \u201clife, his mission, his glory and his legacy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was nothing more he loved than to make people happy and to provide his customers with personal service and the best quality food possible,\u201d the family said.<\/p>\n

Some neighbors in Pico Union say their proximity is part of what makes it special. William Martinez, 26, describes the restaurant as part of the fabric of his community.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis place is more of a childhood restaurant that I used to pass by,\u201d Martinez said. \u201cI always get the chicken and the fries. That\u2019s the main thing here.\u201d<\/p>\n

That signature chicken dish typically comes in black takeout containers with fries, tortillas, a side of coleslaw and a tangy sauce. The marinade at Dino\u2019s Famous Chicken is tangy, garlicky, and slightly smoky \u2014 not too spicy, which makes it easy to keep going back for more.<\/p>\n

Aside from locals, the Pico Union spot also draws visitors from out of town. Friends Gabriel Mathenge, Kendall Holmes and Jackson Edwards were visiting from North Carolina and stopped by Dino\u2019s after hearing it was a must-try spot in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really like the flavoring of the chicken and $16 out here in L.A., it\u2019s pretty good,\u201d Mathenge said, who got a plate of their marinated chicken with rice and beans. \u201cIt\u2019s a lot of food, overall a good experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

Holmes agreed, adding that the meal felt worth the price and that he would go back again.<\/p>\n

Edwards said the Latino workers at Dino\u2019s and the relaxed ambience of the place make it feel like L.A.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt feels historic, like it\u2019s been here for a long time based on the pictures on the walls,\u201d he said. \u201cIt feels like a home for a home that I\u2019m not at.\u201d<\/p>\n

That sense of history is rooted in the part of Pico Union where Dino\u2019s stands \u2014 an area long shaped by a Greek enclave centered around St. Sophia Greek Orthodox Cathedral and institutions like Papa Cristo\u2019s, which for decades served as a cultural and community hub.<\/p>\n

\u201cSomething real was lost when Papa Cristo\u2019s closed,\u201d Chabr\u00e1n said. \u201cThat was an explicitly Greek institutional presence \u2014 a market, a taverna, a community anchor for the nearby Orthodox congregation.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Dino\u2019s, he explained, reflects a different kind of legacy. \u201cGreek culture in that neighborhood didn\u2019t survive by staying Greek in isolation,\u201d Chabr\u00e1n said. \u201cIt survived by becoming part of the neighborhood. The chicken is the document.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This\u00a0story\u00a0first appeared on\u00a0The LA Local. For many Pico Union neighbors who keep going to Dino\u2019s Famous Chicken, the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":269352,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[117317,117318,117319,117320,117321,48,52,51,47,50,49,5120],"class_list":["post-269351","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-dinos-chicken","tag-dinos-famous-chicken","tag-famous-los-angeles-food","tag-grilled-chicken","tag-iconic-la-food","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-pico-union"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269351","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=269351"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269351\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/269352"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=269351"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=269351"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=269351"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}