El Huarache Azteca ~ 5225 York Blvd. Highland Park, CA 90042 (323) 478-9572
The most valuable piece of Los Angeles real estate should be whichever abodes currently bookend HP's famed El Huarache Azteca. Some days I imagine living next to this spectacular restaurant and swelling to King Kong Bundy-sized proportions before dying at age 41 of a massive coronary. Instead, El Huarache's neighbor is one pissed off family man in a 'beater. Park in front of his shit, and you might get your tires popped. Just warning you, I saw him lose his temper.
But the restaurant itself is no less than saturated with home-cooked love. This is soul food and everything makes you "ooh" and "aah" when you get it on your tongue, with flavors rich, pleasing, and often unique. A small dining room of red tile rocks a corner shrine to the Virgin. Then where a counter to order should be is just a tiny kitchen crammed with 3 abuelas and one large dude, hustling to and fro, standing over an Everest of sizzling meat with adjacent peaks. The cozy energy in the air is charged with a feeling of family, no matter if you recognize the faces or not. Everyone simply seems at home here.
