They’re not coming for criminals. They’re coming for the cooks. Award-winning LA food blogger Bill Esparza estimates up to 90% of L.A.’s Street Food Scene Is Gone
July 5, 2025
By Nick Valencia
LOS ANGELES — On the night we were supposed to be celebrating our freedom, they detained our taco guy.
He wasn’t hiding. He wasn’t running. He was just doing what he always does—grilling on the sidewalk along Eagle Rock Boulevard, surrounded by the smoke of carne asada.
People came from all corners of the city to wait in line for his food. They’d park blocks away, sometimes waiting over an hour just to get their hands on his tacos. This wasn’t just street food. It was community. And now he’s gone.
On Independence Day, of all days, suspected federal agents detained him. The guy who fed us. There was no warrant. No dramatic chase. Just the quiet removal of a beloved member of our neighborhood—a man who added value, not threat.
“You know, when you look at the food system, we’re in a country where people, they don’t want to know how the sausage is made, but they want to have it for breakfast every morning,” said acclaimed Los Angeles chef Ray Garcia in a recent conversation with Bill Esparza—a James Beard Award-winning food writer and author of LA Mexicano, television personality, and self-described tacorazzo, who has chronicled the rise and preservation of L.A.’s street food culture for decades.
Esparza, who’s spent years bridging culinary traditions with community storytelling, told me he’s seen this play out before—but never with this intensity.
“I was happy to patronize this stand during very tough times, at a time when our community is afraid of kidnappings by ICE,” he said recently on Instagram. “The other side of the street was empty. It was so sad. These vendors need us to come out and support them.”
On Saturday, Esparza told me he estimates that LA’s restaurants and street vendors are down 60% to 90%—“some have shut down completely,” he said.
“It’s worse than the pandemic,” Esparza added.
Listen to this episode with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Nick Valencia News to listen to this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.
