While it may not have the crispest air or the most beautiful landscapes, there is something about waking up in the morning to hazy palm trees as small businesses turn on the grill at their family restaurants that I can’t seem to get out of my head.Â
Yet, despite how I remember it, Los Angeles (LA) has gained a fairly poor reputation recently. It has too many influencers, it is dirty, and the people are rude. And while I can admit far too many influencers have set up home base here, the culture makes the city flourish in a way that does not necessarily require a lot of trees.Â
In many ways, the city of Los Angeles has watched me grow as I have watched it grow alongside me. Being raised in the heart of West Hollywood (please do not call it WeHo), I would walk the streets of Melrose Ave., getting blueberry smoothies at Fratelli with my little brother and begging my mom for ice cream from the carts at Pan Pacific Park. I would make chalk art on our horribly paved sidewalks with my neighbors, and try to look inside Paramount Studios’ enormous lot every time we drove past it.
As I neared the end of elementary school, my family packed up their bags and moved to the artsy, hipster neighborhood of Silverlake. My friends and I would hit the Silverlake flea market, where we would always overheat while bargaining with sellers for an overpriced going-out top. My dad would drive us to every single new taco stand I would randomly spot on a whim, and my brothers and I would somehow venture to Jeni’s ice cream at least once a week.Â
With all the memories I’ve made in the city, I find it hard to put into words how to describe my love for LA, or at least what it means to me. My family and I recently went to Villas Tacos, after it blew up from Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl performance, and I came to the realization that it is the epitome of how I perceive my love for the city.
Villas is a taco pop-up that began in Victor Villa’s grandmother’s backyard in 2018. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Villas transitioned to a backyard pickup mode until it finally got its first brick-and-mortar storefront in Highland Park in 2023. Now awarded as a Michelin Bib Gourmand-awarded restaurant, everyone can see how it encapsulates familial bonds and true heart.Â
The restaurant, in a strip mall, becomes immediately noticeable by its long line. Highland Park represents one of the city’s first suburbs and is filled with a mix of family-owned restaurants and unique cafes. People from all walks of life will wait in line for some good tacos. The store, small but robust, is filled with flavor, passion, and a really good DJ set. A man waits at the front, making genuine conversation with each customer as they wait with the delightful smell of carne asada to hit their tongue. Their signature blue corn tortillas and simple yet flavorful proteins make for the perfect bite. The benches outside fill up quickly, but people will willingly sit on the floor, sipping their agua frescas out of plastic containers as they wait for their meal to be prepared. Police officers, families, and friends will sit at benches together, reveling in how amazing the food and environment feel. You feel like you are in a family kitchen, and food is their way of showing love.Â
Villas Tacos is nowhere near a gourmet restaurant, yet that is precisely what makes it so meaningful. LA quickly gets written off as a shallow city full of facades, yet restaurants like Victor Villa’s represent the city at its best: a community built around something humble and honest and made with genuine love. LA is not one thing, nor is it for one kind of person. That is the kind of LA I keep excitedly waiting to come back to, and I do not think I could encapsulate it better than a Highland Park strip mall and a fresh blue corn tortilla already do.
That is not to say that LA does not have its struggles. Housing problems and droughts overwhelm the city. When the Palisades and Eaton fires took over the entire city, I remember just coming back to school from winter break. Amid the devastation, it was so incredibly beautiful to watch communities donate old clothes and toys to those who lost their homes, and to see small businesses donate food to families in crisis. The city helped each other through the lows and showed true compassion in a time when they needed each other the most. It highlighted to me the reasons why LA will always be my home.
Los Angeles, you have never asked me to be something other than exactly who I am. I grew up consuming media that wrote my city off as too shallow, too spread out, and too much of everything and not enough of anything. For the longest time, I never knew how to fight back or fully understood why I loved this place so much. It was not until I came to Seattle (no shade to Seattle, although your Mexican food could use some improving) that I realized what I had been taking for granted. While the beaches are attractive, and landmarks such as the LACMA and Griffith Park are a cool addition to an awesome city, I have come to realize that I love my home because of how it feels to come back.Â
The food is divine, there is no mold forcing you to be someone you are not, the weather is heavenly, and above all, I see heart, and there is nowhere else I would rather be from.Â