The Long Beach Taco Company has been purportedly bought by Madres Brunch, an Insta-centric breakfast and brunch destination with five locations across SoCal. As to when the changeover will formally happen is up in the air—but it replaces a spot that never quite seemed to click with the community beyond brief blow-ups with hype food like birria ramen.
Hype-food for the ‘Gram: Madres Brunch is all about excess
It is a bit serendipitous (or darkly ironic) that a business with a home in Placentia replaces a business in Long Beach that was once had a home in Placentia. (Long Beach Taco Company owner Armando Velazquez owned the now-shuttered Salt & Ash in Placentia when he opened the taco joint in 2019. Madres Brunch opened their Placentia location earlier this year.)
But one thing is for sure: Madres Brunch has built a name for itself on hype-food. Bright green pistachio waffles. Birria deviled eggs. Halves of avocado stuffed with meat. Mimosa flights that could easily color a rainbow.
This isn’t to say there isn’t some genuine heart behind the hype. Madres Brunch’s signature is “The Journey.” A play on the much-loved strawberry shortcake frozen dessert popsicle, this notable ode relates directly to co-owner Mel Zepeda. Becoming a dad at age 15, he couldn’t afford to buy strawberry shortcake ice cream from the local paletero for his son, one of the most popular desserts amongst kids. Hence: “The Journey.”
All we ask for? Connect to the community. Speaking of which…
So what is Long Beach Taco Company—and why didn’t it succeed in the city of, well, its own namesake?
The brainchild of, and at-the-time second restaurant from, Armando Velazquez, owner of Placentia’s shuttered Salt & Ash, Long Beach Taco Company marked Velazquez’s shift away from Salt & Ash’s bone marrow and French toast fare that opted instead for tacos that range from traditional to experimental.
And it could very be Velazquez’s ego that brought him down: He talked a very big game while never really living up to the tacos of his day—Amorcito, Playa Amor, Los Reyes immediately come to mind—or the tacos of nowadays—the amazing North Long Beach staple that is Tacos la Carreta, 4th Street staple El Barrio, or the incoming Sonoratown…
In fact, I remain, to this day, unsure if he knew I was standing directly next to him on the space’s patio when he proclaimed that “Long Beach doesn’t know tacos” but “soon there will be a Long Beach Taco Company on every corner,” appropriating convicted felon and insurrectionist Donald Trump’s famed worry that there will be a “taco truck on every corner” in the country should we permit people from Mexico entry. But I digress…
The reason Madres Brunch should learn about its community upon arrival
The taco is sacred in Southern California, as is all Mexican food, but particularly the taco. In that single folded up wonder hides myriad complexities: the dark history of both U.S. and Spanish colonialism; the beauty and resilience of immigrants; a worthy representation of Mexican cuisine in a single dish…
Long Beach—its name, the idea of it, its people—is also sacred. So the boldness of a place that chooses to name itself the Long Beach Taco Company cannot be overlooked since the name is a statement: We’re here, we’re Long Beach, and we’re Long Beach’s tacos. That’s a declaration, implying it would seem, that their tacos, in the least, are attempting to reach for glory of local staples. In the end, it didn’t quite know what it was—it bragged of handmade tortillas but never executed one correctly—and then depended on things birria ramen to remain relevant. All the while its owner proclaiming some ownership of something he nor his business never grasped: Long Beach tacos.
Madres Brunch is set to take over the space at 442 E. 1st St. in Downtown Long Beach.
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