Thursday, February 6, 2025

Sonoratown Long Beach to open late every night of the week (and why that’s important for DTLB)

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Praise the Taco Gods: Sonoratown Long Beach will open seven days a week from 11AM to 10PM beginning Monday, Feb. 3.

“Even Mondays?” co-owner Jennifer Feltham said. “Yes, even on Mondays. And this extends to all locations, so that means Downtown L.A. and Mid-City as well.”

best long beach food brian addison's favorite things
The taco de tripa [left] and taco de cabeza [right] from Sonoratown. Photo by Brian Addison.

Downtown Long Beach faces both misconceptions and hard truths.

There is no question that the Downtown very much has its issues. (To such an extent I even hosted a private meet-up between DTLB business owners, the mayor, and the chief of police a few months back to figure out how to address those very issues.) Break-ins. A barrage of mentally unwell folks without homes or safe spaces. A seemingly heavily decreased amount of foot traffic since the office buildings have been left nearly depleted since the pandemic. All issues that have plagued every downtown in the nation. All issues resulting in a 8% decrease in city-center populations across our country’s largest metros.

But the extent to which the Downtown is vilified—particularly by media outlets and social media users who spend more time behind screens than actually visiting businesses and walking the streets—is unjustified. And I am not saying “unjustified” as to whether or not their observations lack truth or not. Rather, it widely dismisses the daily work put in by small business owners, local organizations, patrons, and residents who slowly but surely shifting the neighborhood toward the better.

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The Downtown Long Beach skyline. Photo by Brian Addison.

How small businesses in Downtown are leading the charge in a shift toward the better. And how Sonoratown Long Beach is helping.

The ultimate thing being ignored—and it is something I will flesh out in a much larger piece—are the DTLB businesses that are truly keeping it all together. And this all comes in layers. There is the choice by Promenade business owners to stay open seven days a week, even as many are seeing numbers in the red as they hope those will disappear. There’s local firm Studio One Eleven leading the charge to create a Design District in DTLB, activating empty spaces and harnessing the creative pool that Downtown holds. Then there’s the array of small businesses hosting the Downtown Art Walk, bringing out people at night. And there are other outside-Long Beach business owners like Leonard Chan trying to alter existing spaces and staying open late with food like The Ordinary already does. Or coffee shops like Recreational experimenting with wine and beer and expanded hours

And Sonoratown? They have, somewhat magically, brought in a lunch crowd that only Ammatolí had succeeded in grasping on the regular. It has brought with it a renewed sense of what foot traffic can and should be in the Downtown. And with late-night hours, that will only benefit the entire neighborhood, especially The Promenade.

sonoratown 101 best restaurants long beach
Sonoratown owners Jennifer Feltham [right] and Teo Díaz-Rodríguez Jr. [left] stand on stage with the other spaces recognized at the Los Angeles Times 101 reveal party in Hollywood in December of 2024. Photo by Brian Addison.

The importance of Sonoratown to the Long Beach food scene.

In the era of Social Media Food—what many call “hype food”—it is hard to distinguish what is hype-worthy and what is just fun for your Instagram wall or hot-take TikTok account. Sonoratown, with its consistent waft of mesquite-grilled meats and lard tortillas, has long lived up to the hype.

“The magnificence of Teodoro Díaz Rodriguez Jr. and Jennifer Feltham’s Sonoratown taqueria rests first on the flour tortillas cranked out by their master tortilla maker, Julia Guerrero… [It] is the flour tortilla against which to judge all others in Los Angeles.”

These are the words of Los Angeles Times food critic Bill Addison, who placed Sonoratown at number 12 on his 101 Best Restaurants list (which also included three other Long Beach establishments). And the importance of Sonoratown in the larger discussion of SoCal’s taco game is paramount: They helped usher in regional Mexican tacos in a way that emphasized specificity. Their menu? Minimal, tight, focused. In fact, it had had only one significant addition—cabeza—which they added when it opened its Mid-City location. Their quality? Unparalleled. 

It is, through and through, an Angeleno legend arriving in Long Beach. So when you see the line, be sure to check those rolled eyes before tasting.

Sonoratown is located at 244 E. 3rd St.

Brian Addison
Brian Addisonhttp://www.longbeachize.com
Brian Addison has been a writer, editor, and photographer for more than 15 years, covering everything from food and culture to transportation and housing. In 2015, he was named Journalist of the Year by the Los Angeles Press Club and has since garnered 30 nominations and three additional wins. In 2019, he was awarded the Food/Culture Critic of the Year across any platform at the National Arts & Entertainment Journalism Awards. He has since been nominated in that category every year, joining fellow food writers from the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, Eater, the Orange County Register, and more.

1 COMMENT

  1. Worked in downtown Long Beach for almost 50 years. Walked the streets all the time.
    Never had a problem. Downtown has a bad reputation , undeserved.

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