The Los Angeles restaurant that sold Hollywood on Mexican food

GROWING UP in Stockton, California in the 1970s and 80s, there were only two special occasion restaurants acceptable to my family. They were both located on the south side of town, in the barrio. My Mexican ancestry abuelo I liked Mi Ranchito and for my dad it was Arroyo’s Cafe. No matter where we went, my order was always the same: rib steak ranchero with rice, refried beans and iceberg lettuce wilted in salsa soup. I rub torn pieces of machine-pressed flour tortillas around the steak slices and stir on all sides. It was a celebratory meal if ever there was one.

Today, Mexican restaurants may be ubiquitous in California, but, in those days, even Chicano restaurants, where traditional recipes were adapted for American ingredients and palates, were rarely found outside of Latino enclaves.

A notable exception is Casa Vega, which opened in 1956 in Sherman Oaks, Los Angeles, an upscale, predominantly white neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley. Founder, Rafael “Ray” Vega was born in National City, California and raised in Tijuana and Burbank., he drew on his mother’s recipes, serving, among other homemade Mexican-American dishes, plates of chile Colorado, a savory beef stew, and mole rojo, grilled chicken in mole with its blend of dried chiles, peanut butter, plantains, raisins and other ingredients, thickened by ground tortilla chips. For many in the neighborhood, Casa Vega was their gateway to Mexican flavors.

By 1958, the restaurant needed a larger space and moved to its current location, a squat white building with a red tile roof two blocks away at the corner of Ventura Avenue and Fulton Avenue. At the time, Sherman Oaks, a short distance from film and television studios, was home to a growing number of entertainment industry executives and actors. Early on, Casa Vega attracted a celebrity crowd. Marlon Brando, among many others, was a regular. “My dad used to go at least once a week, or we’d get takeout, from before the ’60s until he died in 2004,” says Miko Castaneda Brando, 63, one of the actor’s sons. Brando’s favorite order: a Carta Blanca beer, corn tortilla quesadilla and steak picado (a beef and vegetable stew).

In Quentin Tarantino’s 2019 film Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood, which is set in 1969 and features iconic Hollywood haunts, some scenes take place in the brick dining room of Casa Vega, featuring Brad Pitt and Leonardo’s characters DiCaprio to be covered. a leather booth. During filming, Christy Vega, 46, Ray Vega’s daughter, says Tarantino went behind the bar to make margaritas “his way,” with Casamigos Añejo tequila, a mix of citrus juices and stevia as a sweetener.. “It’s now on the menu as Tarantino,” he adds.

Christy’s grandparents, Rafael Sr. and Maria “Mary” Vega, moved to Los Angeles from Tijuana, Mexico, in 1930 after quitting their jobs at the Agua Caliente Casino, a Prohibition-era hot spot, to set up their own restaurant on the newly revitalized Olvera Street. it was reborn that same year as a Mexico-themed tourist attraction. After two decades of operating Café Caliente, Rafael Sr. and Maria opened another Mexican restaurant, in Hollywood, but the reception was cool and it closed after four years.

“My dad opened Casa Vega so my grandparents would have something to do,” says Christy. Her grandparents prepared the restaurant for dinner while Ray sold life insurance during the day he worked evening shifts at the restaurant. After a few years, Ray turned his full-time attention to Casa Vega, turning it into one of the most popular Mexican cantinas in town. Christy took over the restaurant in 2010 after Ray retired and finally took ownership. Ray died in 2021 at the age of 86.

THE DECOR OF Casa Vega hasn’t changed much in decades. It’s a romantic throwback, inspired by those early days at the Agua Caliente Casino, Christy says. The warmly lit dining room consists mainly of red leather booths and tables for two, all with burgundy tablecloths. Paintings by Western artist Lester Burton Hawks depict Mexican life and bullfighting culture. The rug, also a deep red, is from an overflow of buns that Christy bought from a restaurant inside Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas. “Once a year we tear it up and paint the whole place,” he says. The adjacent bar is lined with high-backed stools upholstered in the same tufted leather as the booths. An ample supply of wide-rimmed margarita glasses hang above the bar. “We’re a Chicano restaurant, proudly,” says Christy.

Other touches, such as the newer wooden Spanish Colonial door in the entryway, wrought iron chandeliers and ceramic pots, were chosen by members of the Vega family and added slowly over time. In 2022, a 100-seat outdoor patio opened in the old parking lot. In recent years, Christy and head chef Braulio Arellano, who started at Casa Vega in the 1990s, have gradually revamped the menu as well. The kitchen now turns out shrimp ceviche, lobster enchiladas and a molcajete, a mixed grill served in a volcanic stone mortar. Bartenders rely more on fresh ingredients for their concoctions than aged concoctions, and offer craft mezcal as well as wine from Mexico’s Valle de Guadalupe. But despite a few concessions to culinary trends, Casa Vega retains the same clubby, convivial spirit that Ray cultivated all those years ago.

Last month, on a late Friday afternoon, I stood at the bar and watched Antonio Navarro, who has been shaking margaritas at Casa Vega for the past 20 years and speaks great Spanglish, woo some locals. One woman ordered her usual: a frozen mango margarita and a steak quesadilla. Don Armado, a long-retired waiter who worked at Casa Vega for more than 30 years, sipped Coke on the rocks while Navarro gently cajoled him into accepting a refill of warm tortilla chips and salsa.

By 5 p.m., the sound of whirring blenders and soaring mariachi trumpets on the playlist had peaked along with the chatter of the growing crowd. As I made my oven-style chile verde burrito, I suddenly felt nostalgic for those Sunday lunches with my grandparents. America has always loved our food, but not always our people, an irony that may be lost on some of the glamorous customers who have passed through the doors of the hacienda-style Casa Vega. I thought about how Ray Vega lured Hollywood’s elite to his Chicano restaurant, winning their loyalty with shots of tequila and elaborate plates of tacos, tamales and enchiladas, slyly paving the way for countless other Mexican-American restaurateurs to plant their own flag far beyond. from Olvera Street.