“Cochinita is my fountain of youth,” jokes Marc Burgos, the second-generation owner of La Flor de Yucatán Bakery, off Hoover and 18th Streets in Pico-Union. At 50, he is younger than his father’s pioneering Yucatán bakery, the first in L.A. to offer cochinita pibil tacos.
For reference, that predates King Taco and the birth of L.A.’s two-bite taco by a whole year in 1972.
“I inherited this restaurant from my father,” Burgos tells L.A. TACO as he leans over the bakery case that has been here for over half a decade. He himself was born in Los Angeles but raised in Yucatán.
“I did my thing," he says. "I went to high school and college, and my parents got older. It was time for me to take over or let them retire. They sacrificed too much to end it, so I decided to give it a shot.”
That was 20 years ago.
“I definitely did not see myself going into the family business, but gradually, I came in and learned everything,” Burgos says.