{"id":430662,"date":"2026-08-12T11:06:14","date_gmt":"2026-08-12T11:06:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/430662\/"},"modified":"2026-08-12T11:06:14","modified_gmt":"2026-08-12T11:06:14","slug":"el-ruso-taqueria-opens-its-first-restaurant-in-studio-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/430662\/","title":{"rendered":"El Ruso taqueria opens its first restaurant in Studio City"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

After years of location shuffles and tens of thousands of dollars in parking tickets, some of L.A.\u2019s top tacos<\/a> have found a permanent home. The award-winning El Ruso<\/a>, famed in Netflix\u2019s \u201cTaco Chronicles,\u201d The Times<\/a> and others for its fresh flour tortillas, char-grilled meats and silken braises, recently debuted its first brick-and-mortar restaurant, bringing founders Walter Soto and Julia Silva to Studio City.<\/p>\n

The meats \u2014 some butchered on-site by Soto \u2014 sear over mesquite charcoal, with smoke wafting through the large patio and over the restaurant\u2019s bright pink walls. Flames occasionally rise through the adjustable metal grate of the taquero\u2019s grill, overwhelming the rib-eye, costillas and carne asada for pitch-perfect charring. <\/p>\n

Meals are punctuated by the heavy thwack of Soto\u2019s butcher knife chopping the meats against a large block of Sinaloan alamo wood, while music and TVs complete the din. Behind him Silva, who has been making flour tortillas since the age of 4, casually passes some of L.A.\u2019s best tortillas between her hands, then throws them onto the plancha and smothers one side in cheese.<\/p>\n

\"El <\/p>\n

El Ruso chef and co-owner Walter Soto mans the grill at his new taqueria.<\/p>\n

(Stephanie Breijo \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

Tijuana-born Soto sold tacos on the streets for more than 15 years and says he\u2019s simply grateful to have found a permanent home for his food and more stability for his family. He and Silva, former romantic partners and current professional partners, share a daughter, Suri, who can also frequently be spotted at the Studio City space. After popping up through Boyle Heights, Highland Park, Echo Park and beyond, they yearned for a brick-and-mortar restaurant the last five years; in 2021 they came close with a space in Silver Lake, but Soto said that rapid rent increases caused them to bow out of the deal.<\/p>\n

Now they\u2019ve found a stable location where they can serve roughly 150 guests at once, and have often found themselves selling out of tacos since their July 22 launch.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s better working here, because in the trailer it\u2019s too [many] problems, and temporary,\u201d Soto said. \u201c[With] the ticket guys and LAPD, moving from one place to another place, it was too hard for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Soto estimates he was paying $10,000 annually in parking tickets. He also paid $1,200 monthly to rent a commissary kitchen. But one of his largest hurdles as a street vendor came not from cost but from his colleagues: Soto said that in L.A. competition is fierce, and it was sometimes fellow taqueros who spurred fights and called parking officers to report him once he began to pull customers away from their stands.<\/p>\n

\"A <\/p>\n

A bone-in costilla taco special at El Ruso\u2019s new Studio City restaurant.<\/p>\n

(Stephanie Breijo \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

Restaurateur and bar owner Vincent Laresca owns the building and, as the lease ended for his previous tenant, Roadside Tacos, was searching for a new vendor to take over the space. As a longtime fan of El Ruso he\u2019d already introduced himself to Soto. One day in July, he and the taquero spoke by phone; Soto mentioned he was tiring of the instability of street vending, while Laresca was hunting for a new chef. Hearing Soto\u2019s woes, he called a meeting with business partner Ben Goglia and they hashed out a deal to launch El Ruso\u2019s first brick-and-mortar. It opened days later.<\/p>\n

Soto and Silva are offering the El Ruso signatures of chile colorado, carne asada and birria de res, among others, all available as tacos or hefty sobaqueras<\/a>. Their salsas remain the same, too, but with the addition of a new, bright molcajete salsa.<\/p>\n

But with a prep kitchen and a larger cooking space \u2014 featuring ample room for the grill and the tortillas at a far end of the patio \u2014 they\u2019re also able to add what were once occasional specials as permanent items, such as the marinated shrimp sauteed over the grill, and the battered fish. And they\u2019re still making room for specials, with options like bone-in or shaved costilla tacos.<\/p>\n

Longtime fans might notice a slight price increase; tacos \u2014 most priced at two for $12 \u2014 are only slightly more than the $5.25 cost of yore, though the rib-eye taco costs $13 and the sobaqueras, which once sat at $16.50, are now $20. It\u2019s a growing trend for many restaurants, not just El Ruso<\/a>, as they contend with rising costs for ingredients, insurance and labor.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe price of goods has gone through the roof,\u201d said Goglia. \u201cIt\u2019s hard to raise the prices people associate it with, but I know, I see what [Soto is] doing and the time they put into it. This is still a good deal.\u201d<\/p>\n

The new restaurant also includes a full liquor license, meaning margaritas and beers are available to sip alongside El Ruso\u2019s cuisine for the first time. Laresca and Goglia, with ties to local cocktail bars Blue Collar, Cold Shoulder and more, chose to pare down the beverage program. Here, they say they just want to boost Soto\u2019s cooking.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the real star here is the food,\u201d said Goglia. \u201cWhat [Soto] does is impressive: Not only does he do it quick, but it\u2019s all fresh and made to order. We need to be able to keep the drinks coming quick, so people can complement it with their food \u2014 especially when it\u2019s hot like this.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"An <\/p>\n

On July 22, the award-winning street taqueria El Ruso debuted its first restaurant. The space features a large patio and an indoor bar.<\/p>\n

(Stephanie Breijo \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

Daily aguas frescas are also on offer, as are locally made paletas in a range of colors and flavors.<\/p>\n

Soto and Silva\u2019s trucks are temporarily out of commission as they focus on the restaurant, but they say they might pull them out of retirement for catering and other services someday. For now they\u2019ve got their hands full \u2014 with fresh flour tortillas and more \u2014 in Studio City.<\/p>\n

El Ruso is located at 10628 Ventura Blvd., Studio City, and is open Thursday, Sunday and Monday from 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m., and Friday and Saturday from 11:30 a.m. to 11 p.m.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After years of location shuffles and tens of thousands of dollars in parking tickets, some of L.A.\u2019s top…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":430663,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[1750,171201,171206,36092,171204,11733,171202,2303,48,52,51,47,50,49,171203,1594,62722,23914,28196,171205,72],"class_list":["post-430662","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-cost","tag-el-ruso-taqueria","tag-first-brick-and-mortar-restaurant","tag-first-restaurant","tag-fresh-flour-tortilla","tag-grill","tag-julia-silva","tag-l-a","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-mesquite-meat","tag-other","tag-soto","tag-studio-city","tag-taco","tag-taquero","tag-year"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430662","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=430662"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430662\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/430663"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=430662"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=430662"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=430662"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}