Power at the metal-themed El Sereno taqueria Evil Cooks had been out for more than a day before lights flickered back on late Wednesday night.
The restaurant closed after a severe windstorm knocked out power for thousands on the Eastside and sparked deadly fires across Los Angeles County.
When owner Alex Garcia finally heard the refrigerators and freezers begin to hum – signs the electricity was back on – he knew it was already too late for the contents inside.
Close to $2,000 worth of food spoiled inside a refrigerator at Garcia’s eatery on Huntington Drive.
The 40-year-old chef, who for years ran the taqueria as a pop-up with his wife, Elvia Garcia, before opening the brick-and-mortar last November, said he wasn’t too worried about the monetary loss.
Instead, he focused on community resilience in a time of regional disaster.
“We’re gonna try to help a lot of the local fire departments here because they supported us a lot when we were at the house,” Garcia said, referencing their previous location outside of his family’s home.
Garcia and Evil Cooks, along with a dozen other Los Angeles-based taquerias, plan to offer plates of food to first responders in the area in an act of appreciation for their resiliencies during this regional crisis.
“We’re gonna try to give them free food if they need it. Other than that, we’re gonna be open and see if anyone comes over, if anyone needs food. If it’s too slow, we close down and we’ll go home.”
Even though the fires may be miles away, local residents that depend on electricity for their businesses were finding ways to adapt and support each other during a time of devastation, power outages and poor air quality.
High winds from an extreme event that began Tuesday in the Los Angeles region were to blame for many cases of power outages across the Southland. Los Angeles Department of Water and Power and Southern California Edison, two electricity companies that supply power to millions of people across L.A. County, had tens of thousands of customers without service into Thursday and cut service for thousands of others out of precaution in high-risk fire areas.
Several businesses on 1st Street in East L.A. were impacted by the power outages. On Thursday morning, crews were out working to restore traffic lights and put stop signs in several intersections to control traffic on the normally busy street.
Jose Luis’ East L.A. birrieria in East L.A. had to close on Wednesday due to power outages. Power didn’t return until Thursday morning, forcing Luis to act fast when a shipment of fresh goat meat was en route to Birrieria Chalio.
“Thank God I sent everything back to the companies. I told them we didn’t have power and they took all of the meat back and they dropped them back off in the morning, today,” Luis said, later joking that if he wasn’t able to return the meat, he would’ve had to give out plates of birria for free.
“The whole block was dead. It did affect us that day, all of us.”
Jose Luis, Birrieria Cahlio
When asked if he felt more prepared for another outage or other regional disaster, Garcia said that every disaster or crisis comes with a level of uncertainty. He said protecting his loved ones is paramount and he can always count on his community in the L.A. food scene to support his dream and business.
“You can never fully prepare. I’ve lived [through] multiple events that’ve happened like this in Mexico. I think the most prepared thing that you can do is not stress. It’s just about mentally telling yourself, ‘You know what? I’m gonna see what’s going on, and we’re gonna solve it, yeah?’ I think that that’s the most prepared that you can be.”
