Pocha L.A. Modern Mexicana Kitchen, a proudly Mexicana, "Angelina"-owned restaurant, has announced its imminent closure in Highland Park. The restaurant's last day for deconstructed blini-like "burritas," healthy salads, and chilaquiles will be this Sunday, August 4th, though owners say they are looking for a new location.
Owner and founder Claire Risoli opened Pocha in April 2020, in the thick of Pandemic paranoid, revealing the space's bright scheme of white walls, accented with a powerful, pink vintage photo mural of five proud women and pink neon signs announcing "jefa-owned... juntos crecemos" ("woman boss-owned... together we grow") as well as a menu set with plentiful vegan options.
Pocha's opening heralded a self-aware approach, not only to the creatively bent homestyle dishes it served, but to Mexican American identitiy in a time of rapid gentrification and East Coast invasion in the northeast L.A. neighborhood.
"Pocha or Pocho was/is a term that many of us were called growing up here who might’ve been considered, '"Americanized,'" Risoli told Canvas Rebel earlier this year. "It was at one time considered somewhat of a derogatory term or at least a term tinged with a hint of negativity. To be honest, I hated being called it. It made me feel like I wasn’t Mexican enough for the Mexicans and not white enough for the Caucasians. As time went on, the term became more of an empowering one. I felt a sense of pride for both my cultures and I started embracing it and having fun with it. I stopped trying to prove my Mexican-ness and just really started enjoying who I was and the rich culture that I came from, along with the beautiful privilege of being American."
Pocha has been an eye-grabbing, fun, and tongue-slightly-in-cheek neighborhood Mexican restaurant headed by a local L.A. woman fueled by L.A. pride and a penchant for fucking with the format of every abuela's dearest dishes. An attitude you arguably don't see enough of in L.A.'s vast world of restaurants from all over.