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. \u201cIt 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,\u201d says Garc\u00eda. After Levy Restaurants\u2019 contract at the Walt Disney Concert Hall ended back in June, shuttering Asterid along with all food service at the venue for the group, Garc\u00eda has made big plans in his spare time. \u201cWe plan to open Broken Spanish in 2026, regardless of whether or not Broken Spanish Comedor continues into the new year,\u201d says Garcia.<\/p>\n
In 2009, Garc\u00eda was the opening chef for the Fig at Santa Monica\u2019s 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 Garc\u00eda set up a street-style taco bar for the hotel\u2019s brunch service, people took notice, including the late Los Angeles Times food critic Jonathan Gold<\/a>. The tacos at the Fig became a catalyst for Garc\u00eda to pursue his own passion projects.<\/p>\n \u201cWe plan to open Broken Spanish in 2026, regardless of whether or not Broken Spanish Comedor continues into the new year.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2014 Ray Garcia<\/p>\n He wasn\u2019t 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 \u00c1vila 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 Am\u00e1. Tortillas became a canvas for California\u2019s seasonal produce and modern expressions of Mexican recipes.<\/p>\n Garc\u00eda came out swinging in 2015 with a groundbreaking pair of restaurants, Broken Spanish and B.S. Taquer\u00eda, joining a small but dynamic group of Chicano chefs cooking Alta California cuisine. Broken Spanish ripened into a destination for a 36-hour chicharr\u00f3n, spicy lamb neck birria, and chile relleno coated in soubise. Local critics celebrated Garc\u00eda\u2019s bold takes on the Chicano carte formed in the barrios of East LA, Pacoima, and Chavez Ravine. (In 2015, Garc\u00eda was named Esquire\u2019s Chef of the Year<\/a>.) But the all too familiar tale of rising rents closed B.S. Taquer\u00eda in 2019<\/a>, followed by the closure of Broken Spanish as COVID-19 shut down local restaurants across the city.<\/p>\n Chef Ray Garcia. Jim Sullivan<\/p>\n Broken Spanish was revived at Neuehouse in 2021<\/a> as a wildly successful one-month residency set outdoors with COVID-19 protocols. Garc\u00eda, whose motto is \u201conward and upward,\u201d went on to open Viva in Las Vegas that same year, followed by Asterid in 2022, and a pair of concepts inside Moxy Hotel\u2019s Level 8<\/a>, Q\u00fae B\u00e1rbaro <\/a>and Brown Sheep, in 2023. Last year, Garc\u00eda stepped in for Neroni at Venice\u2019s the Rose, and just months ago, B.S Taquer\u00eda joined Howlin\u2019 Ray\u2019s, Ivan Ramen (New York City), Turkey and Wolf (New Orleans), and others inside a food hall within the Venetian hotel<\/a> in Las Vegas.<\/p>\n The porchetta-like, horseshoe-shaped chicharr\u00f3n, torn off morsel by morsel with c\u00f3nico azul corn tortillas, will return at Broken Spanish Comedor, as will the refried lentil seasoned with epazote, and enriched by quesillo. Garc\u00eda will have a nixtamal program in-house using various landrace corn from Masienda, and specifically c\u00f3nico azul. Garc\u00eda\u2019s hope is that Broken Spanish Comedor will appeal to a broad audience and allow the residency to extend into the new year. \u201cIt 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,\u201d says Garc\u00eda.<\/p>\n Beyond those signature dishes, Garc\u00eda plans to have carrot habanero aguachile, guisado de lengua, and fideos verdes, among other tempting plates in his \u201cneighborhood offshoot\u201d of Broken Spanish. There will also be a full bar menu to complement Garc\u00eda\u2019s return to Alta California cuisine in his hometown.<\/p>\n While Broken Spanish Comedor is preparing to open soon, Garc\u00eda and Sprout are actively seeking out a space for Broken Spanish 2.0, a restaurant that\u2019s Garc\u00eda\u2019s self-portrait as a Mexican-American chef. \u201cThis is my love, what I was born to do,\u201d says Garc\u00eda.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In Los Angeles, chef Ray Garc\u00eda gets an inevitable question almost everywhere he goes: \u201cWhen is Broken Spanish…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":194840,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[1582,276,2961,14730,224,5337],"class_list":{"0":"post-194839","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-california","10":"tag-la","11":"tag-la-restaurant-openings","12":"tag-los-angeles","13":"tag-losangeles"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115136267792961797","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194839","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=194839"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194839\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/194840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=194839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=194839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=194839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/ray_garcia.jpeg\"\/)
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