Julian E. Montoya, an immigrant from Colombia, opened the restaurant in 1968, when Echo Park was attracting an influx of immigrants from Mexico and Central America. At its height in the \u201980s, Burrito King grew to 20 outposts<\/a>, with locations in Anaheim, Houston and Bogot\u00e1, but by the early 2000s, it had shrunk to just two: the original ketchup-and-mustard-painted building in Echo Park and a bungalow in Silver Lake off Hyperion and Rowena avenues that closed in 2011<\/a>.<\/p>\n In addition to big chains like Chipotle and Pitfire Pizza, a host of Mexican food options ranging from late-night taco trucks to sit-down restaurants now line Sunset Boulevard. It\u2019s unclear when Montoya turned over ownership or who took over Burrito King, but the Eastsider newsletter reported that the space was listed for sale<\/a> in 2021 by Urbanlime Real Estate. Urbanlime declined requests for comment on the listing.<\/p>\n In its prime, Burrito King opened for breakfast and didn\u2019t close until after midnight, making it the perfect last stop after a night out. A neighboring liquor store and smoke shop have been around long enough to see the burrito shop\u2019s evolution.<\/p>\n Tony Gonzalez, owner of Brazil Discount Tobacco, worked next door to Burrito King for almost two decades. He\u2019s seen different owners pass though the stand as its fate has remained in limbo the last few years. As new real estate projects break ground, he\u2019s watched the local cuisine change along with his neighborhood.<\/p>\n \u201cWith the new community here, they don\u2019t like the Mexican food,\u201d he said. \u201cIt definitely is a new environment.\u201d<\/p>\n A combination plate from Burrito King.<\/p>\n (Lucas Kwan Peterson \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n Two stores down from the old Burrito King space, Heavy Manners Library<\/a> recently reopened after moving from a smaller location in Echo Park. Matthew James-Wilson founded the independent library in 2021 and has lived in Echo Park for the last eight years.<\/p>\n Before Heavy Manners moved in, the space had been vacant for six months as the initial rental price was \u201cunrealistic,\u201d James-Wilson said. He was eventually able to negotiate to a more affordable rate, but rising rental prices continue to impact everyone in the area, he said. When it closed, the Burrito King space was listed for rent at $6,000 a month<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cThat is an absolutely ridiculous price for the amount of space that is,\u201d James-Wilson said. When he first moved to the neighborhood, he paid $600 to live in his apartment \u2014 an amount he says is unheard of today.<\/p>\n Despite rising costs<\/a>, James-Wilson wanted to keep his business in Echo Park to increase foot traffic. He was especially motivated after the closure of Taix<\/a>, a historic French restaurant that attracted major controversy when it shut its doors in March to make room for a six-story residential development.<\/p>\n \u201cI think that there\u2019s a lot of housing being built without consideration,\u201d he said. \u201cWhat is it worth to destroy historic landmarks, important parts of the neighborhood and the character of the city?\u201d<\/p>\n In recent decades, nightlife venues like Spaceland and the Echoplex drew young people to the area. Burrito King offered an accessible spot to eat and connect with friends before cellphones and social media. <\/p>\n \u201cIt never really claimed to be the best Mexican food in town, but everyone had a soft spot for it, especially with those little stools that they had outside that made it like sitting at a diner,\u201d said Pat Saperstein, a local journalist who previously founded EatingLA.com, which she describes as the city\u2019s first food blog. <\/p>\n For Molina, it was Burrito King\u2019s crowd-pleasing approach to Mexican food that appealed. She reveled in being able to order a gigantic chile relleno burrito that was nothing like what her Mexican family would make.<\/p>\n \u201c[I remember] that huge tortilla, bigger than your face \u2014 you never bought tortillas like that at home,\u201d she recalled. \u201cThe fried chile relleno that had a perfect ratio of melted, gooey American cheese, which also we didn\u2019t buy at home. Everything about it felt foreign, but in a familiar way.\u201d<\/p>\n James-Wilson loved the breakfast burrito. Gonzalez, who is originally from Mexico, said he enjoyed eating Mexican food for lunch everyday. Now he gets a burger from Habit, a fast-casual restaurant chain right across the street.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As a third-generation native of Echo Park, academic and author Natalia Molina doesn\u2019t remember a time without Burrito…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":392827,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[158015,1409,3747,158016,1073,3982,48,52,51,5936,47,50,49,63,158018,158017,60989,158019,1831,1744,72],"class_list":["post-392826","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-burrito-king","tag-city","tag-door","tag-echo-park-neighborhood","tag-home","tag-immigrant","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-location","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-los-angeles-times","tag-matthew-james-wilson","tag-mexican-food-option","tag-molina","tag-now-closed-restaurant","tag-owner","tag-space","tag-year"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392826","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=392826"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392826\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/392827"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=392826"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=392826"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=392826"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1783648329_57_.jpeg\")
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