Just east of Soto and the Metro Station’s E Line, where street vendors and taco stands abound, a small mariscos restaurant quietly provides the flavors of Mexico’s Pacific coast to Boyle Heights.
In 2007, Isauro Solis, who is from Zacatecas, took over the 1st Street restaurant, located just steps from Boyle Heights’ landmark restaurant “Otomisan." He kept the original name of the space, "El Sarape," which specialized in tortas. But he changed the menu.
“The previous owner couldn’t keep up with the place. So I offered to take it over, and he agreed,” Solis tells L.A. TACO. “But he wanted me to keep it as a torta restaurant, but I told him that I love mariscos and want to make it a mariscos spot.”
Solis is not a cook, but the timing couldn’t have been more perfect, as Solis may be the owner, but the kitchen here belongs to Maria Benitez.
“I had just met Maria, an amazing cook from Nayarit,” Solis says. “Back home, she was studying to be a baker. That is her specialty, but she also knows how to make amazing mariscos dishes from Nayarit.”