In Los Angeles, chef Ray García gets an inevitable question almost everywhere he goes: “When is Broken Spanish coming back?”
Five years after Broken Spanish, one of the most important Alta California cuisine restaurants in the country, closed amid the pandemic, García will open Broken Spanish Comedor with Sprout Hospitality (Bestia, Republique, Vespertine) as a residency within chef Jason Neroni and Sprout’s Best Bet Pizzeria, which abruptly closed in 2023 after only five months in operation. Starting in October, Broken Spanish Comedor will begin its residency in the A-frame building that will run until the end of the year, and, if all things go well, García intends to keep it going — a la perma-residency Dear John’s in Culver City.
The menu will delight long-time followers of Broken Spanish and B.S. Taqueria (the latter of which maintains a Las Vegas location) with approachable modern Mexican American fare. “It is a neighborhood offshoot of Broken Spanish with the same quality, same passion, but with a community-centric approach in terms of food and drinks,” says García. After Levy Restaurants’ contract at the Walt Disney Concert Hall ended back in June, shuttering Asterid along with all food service at the venue for the group, García has made big plans in his spare time. “We plan to open Broken Spanish in 2026, regardless of whether or not Broken Spanish Comedor continues into the new year,” says Garcia.
In 2009, García was the opening chef for the Fig at Santa Monica’s swanky Fairmont Miramar, where his long experience in California cuisine took center stage. Still, he longed to cook the foods of his childhood in the barrio of Cypress Park. After García set up a street-style taco bar for the hotel’s brunch service, people took notice, including the late Los Angeles Times food critic Jonathan Gold. The tacos at the Fig became a catalyst for García to pursue his own passion projects.
“We plan to open Broken Spanish in 2026, regardless of whether or not Broken Spanish Comedor continues into the new year.”
— Ray Garcia
He wasn’t alone: In the years prior, chef Carlos Salgado, who had formidable chops honed in California cuisine stalwarts Coi and Commis in San Francisco, opened a lonchera in Orange County named Taco Maria in 2011. On the same plane, chef Wes Ávila opened Guerrilla Tacos in 2012 as a street stand in the Arts District serving fine dining tacos. On the opposite end of Skid Row, chef Josef Centeno offered contemporary renditions of Tex-Mex classics at Bar Amá. Tortillas became a canvas for California’s seasonal produce and modern expressions of Mexican recipes.
García came out swinging in 2015 with a groundbreaking pair of restaurants, Broken Spanish and B.S. Taquería, joining a small but dynamic group of Chicano chefs cooking Alta California cuisine. Broken Spanish ripened into a destination for a 36-hour chicharrón, spicy lamb neck birria, and chile relleno coated in soubise. Local critics celebrated García’s bold takes on the Chicano carte formed in the barrios of East LA, Pacoima, and Chavez Ravine. (In 2015, García was named Esquire’s Chef of the Year.) But the all too familiar tale of rising rents closed B.S. Taquería in 2019, followed by the closure of Broken Spanish as COVID-19 shut down local restaurants across the city.
Chef Ray Garcia. Jim Sullivan
Broken Spanish was revived at Neuehouse in 2021 as a wildly successful one-month residency set outdoors with COVID-19 protocols. García, whose motto is “onward and upward,” went on to open Viva in Las Vegas that same year, followed by Asterid in 2022, and a pair of concepts inside Moxy Hotel’s Level 8, Qúe Bárbaro and Brown Sheep, in 2023. Last year, García stepped in for Neroni at Venice’s the Rose, and just months ago, B.S Taquería joined Howlin’ Ray’s, Ivan Ramen (New York City), Turkey and Wolf (New Orleans), and others inside a food hall within the Venetian hotel in Las Vegas.
The porchetta-like, horseshoe-shaped chicharrón, torn off morsel by morsel with cónico azul corn tortillas, will return at Broken Spanish Comedor, as will the refried lentil seasoned with epazote, and enriched by quesillo. García will have a nixtamal program in-house using various landrace corn from Masienda, and specifically cónico azul. García’s hope is that Broken Spanish Comedor will appeal to a broad audience and allow the residency to extend into the new year. “It will be the type of place that people would come back to, not just for special occasions but because we have fideos on a Tuesday,” says García.
Beyond those signature dishes, García plans to have carrot habanero aguachile, guisado de lengua, and fideos verdes, among other tempting plates in his “neighborhood offshoot” of Broken Spanish. There will also be a full bar menu to complement García’s return to Alta California cuisine in his hometown.
While Broken Spanish Comedor is preparing to open soon, García and Sprout are actively seeking out a space for Broken Spanish 2.0, a restaurant that’s García’s self-portrait as a Mexican-American chef. “This is my love, what I was born to do,” says García.