Approximately one month after taquero Rudy Barrientos received a restraining order from Ralphs over operating his beloved taco truck, Gracias Señor, outside of their Pacific Palisades parking lot, the supermarket burned to the ground in the tragic fire that began there last week.
Nonetheless, Barrientos holds no ill will towards the corporation and instead, has been focusing his energy on feeding the hundreds of first responders helping to contain the fire in the Palisades, the neighborhood he’s been serving for over 10 years.
“I’m the kind of person that focuses his energy wherever my energy can flow,” he tells L.A. TACO, noting that the restraining order had also been dismissed. “And right now, I think that’s helping the community that allowed me to earn an honest living, which put me through school.”
Working with the emergency response non-profit World Central Kitchen, Barrientos has been working the graveyard shift for six nights since the fires started last Tuesday. Every night, starting at 10 PM and ending at 7 AM, he and his crew have been burning the midnight oil to serve his famous burritos complimentary to cops, firemen, paramedics, and anyone else pitching in to help during the Palisades fire.
“The Pacific Palisades is the community I grew to love and appreciate,” he says. “My mind and heart is with those devastated by the disaster and I just look forward to seeing some of these folk again.”
Gracias Señor was expecting to celebrate 11 happy years of service to the Pacific Palisades community at the intersection of Sunset Boulevard and Carey Street. Barrientos says that his customer base was made of at least 70% locals, including many high school students from the nearby Palisades High School, which also burned down.
Barrientos remembers that infamous Tuesday when the Palisades fire was first reported at 10:30 AM near the Skull Rock trailhead. He was setting up shop at his new location at 881 Alma Real Drive—3.5 miles away from the fire. Spurned from even entering Ralph’s, whether to shop there or use the restroom, he was preparing to serve his tacos for the day when he noticed the smoke growing thicker and the fire drawing closer.
“I didn’t think much of it; I thought firefighters would put it out like any other fire, especially because this is an affluent city,” Barrientos says. “There’s no way firefighters can let this nice neighborhood burn.”
Barrientos and his crew stayed there for their usual shift and closed at 2:30 PM. By then, though, the fire had already moved close to the truck.
“My guys started to worry, “ he says.
Barrientos knew this wasn’t like any other fire, especially as he tried to begin the drive back to the commissary where he keeps his trick in Downtown Los Angeles. The bumper-to-bumper traffic was not moving on Chautauqua Boulevard. Instead, he took Sunset Boulevard down to the coast before driving along a few tiny streets to get to Pacific Coast Highway.
It wasn’t until later that night, when Rudye got to his home in Compton that he saw the fire coverage on local broadcast news. It dawned on him that if he had stayed to wait in that gridlocked traffic on Chautauqua, he would likely have been forced to abandon and lose his precious taco truck, like countless other evacuees who had to leave their vehicles behind as the fire came closer.
Like the rest of the city who watched this part of L.A. burn that night, Barrientos felt helpless. The tragedy cut even deeper because he knew this community so personally after the decade he’s spent feeding it. The following day, Rudy was connected with World Central Kitchen, which dispatched him to the Palisades control center for first responders off Pacific Coast Highway. He fed the emergency workers all through the night.
“That first night was really sad, and you can feel the energy from everyone who came up for food,” he says. “I also couldn’t stop thinking of my customers, who have lost everything.”
However, as the sun started to rise, he confirmed another night of service would take place the following day. Barrientos felt that serving tacos and burritos to first responders in the Palisades had helped him cope with the enormity of the disaster.
“Serving our food allows me to not focus on the sadness but on how people are united to help,” he says. “You have to be there to understand the energy of appreciation and gratitude from every single first responder. They’re all incredibly grateful for a hot meal. That, to me, is priceless and energizing. It allows me to focus on the good.”
Barrientos is grateful to World Central Kitchen for asking him to serve the community and giving him security clearance to be in the neighborhood, especially as police double down on trespassers and even prevent evacuees from visiting the burn sites.
Rudy’s menu for the first responders has included caldo de res (Mexican-style beef stew), inspired by a revitalizing meal his mother made for Barrientos in between his graveyard taquero shifts. There’s also the customer favorite, his “OG Gracias Señor breakfast burrito,” which is made with eggs that he soft-scrambles and tater tots he makes as crispy as possible. He sources his flour tortillas from Acapulco Tortillería in East Los Angeles. The breakfast burrito is so tasty; Barrientos says he’s even won over a few firefighters from Texas, who say it’s as good as their breakfast tacos back home.
“I’ve met so many firemen from different states, and everyone I serve is so grateful,”Rudy says.
The taquero has received handwritten notes from first responders, some of whichhave poured their hearts out in gratitude for his uplifting sazón.
“Someone wrote down a quick note that said, ‘Thank you so much for doing to us. This food means so much to us.’”
A police officer even asked him for a hug right after eating one of his breakfast burrito.
“I never thought I would get a hug from a cop,” Barrientos reflects. “Even one of my staffers was nervous to take a photo.”
As for the future of Gracias Señor, Barrientos doesn't know where he will set up next.
“I really don’t know, if anyone has a space for us, please hit us up.”
