Breathing life back into a long-closed—but extremely beloved—restaurant takes a special kind of grit and perseverance.
But anyone who knows chef Josh Gil, one of the co-founders of Santa Monica’s still-missed fish taco and tostada joint, Taco Punta Cabras, understands that these qualities only begin to describe the self-described cooking “pirate.” Now, he has successfully revived the dead—in the form of vermillion fish tacos on handmade corn tortillas, scallop cócteles, and many more dishes fans have been craving to see come back.
All this while battling stage four colorectal cancer with everything he’s got and litigating with his ex-business partner from Mírate.
“I’m just fighting to be able to keep fighting,” he tells L.A. TACO while preparing for the grand re-opening of Three Flames Mongolian BBQ, a 52-year-old bonafide strip mall gem he has taken over for his latest project.