Eatery Chips In To L.A. History

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El Cholo, the venerable Mexican restaurant on Western Avenue, is celebrating its 85th anniversary this year with a slate of menu options that recognize the history of the eatery.


It isn’t an anniversary special, but the restaurant has a deliciously simple nacho recipe that’s worth the trip. It makes sense the eatery’s nachos would be so good: El Cholo was the first Los Angeles restaurant to serve the dish.

In 1959 a waitress named Carmen Rocha began working at El Cholo. Previously, she had worked at a Mexican restaurant in San Antonio, where nachos were part of the local cuisine. She said that some L.A. diners who knew she was from San Antonio asked for nachos and she obliged with a spartan recipe: a dish of tortilla chips covered in melted cheese. The kicker: a jalapeno slice on top of each gooey chip. Rocha said that at first El Cholo’s owners didn’t want to add the dish to the menu, so for a few years she made the nachos on the sly and rung them up as “tostadas with cheese” on bills.

Eventually the nachos made it onto the menu and Rocha picked up fans along the way. “Jack Nicholson said I was the only one who knew how to make them right,” she said.

Ron Salisbury, the grandson of El Cholo’s founders and current owner of the restaurant, furthered El Cholo’s nacho lore five years ago when he introduced the “El Cholo Famous Nacho Table.” It’s the worst table in the house, so Salisbury figured he needed to give diners an incentive to sit there.

“If you sit here you get free nachos,” he said.


Las Lomas Curse?

While L.A. County Supervisor Gloria Molina was the intended target of pointed barbs at the 11th annual Los Angeles Political Roast benefit for the American Diabetes Association late last month, others came in for their share of insults and barbs.

The most unexpected humor, though, came from an unintended corner. The two leading sponsors of the roast were companies Las Lomas Land Co. and NBC Universal, both of which are planning major developments in L.A. County. The Las Lomas development plans, though, were recently dealt a major setback when the Los Angeles City Council rejected a bid to review the project environmental impact report and then to have the unincorporated county land annexed to the city. NBC Universal’s plans are still pending.

That prompted one of the roast participants, state Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Van Nuys, to quip: “Las Lomas and NBC Universal. Hmmm NBC Universal might want to reconsider being on the same list as Las Lomas ”


Fashion Blogging

Last week, the Curbed Network of blogs launched a new local site about shopping and the local retail and fashion scene. Called Racked L.A., the site is helmed by editor Tasha Adams, a veteran of the local blogging community.

“It’s territory I’m already interested in, so I’d be paying attention anyway,” said Adams.

She said that there are perks that come with blogging like wearing pajamas to work.


Staff reporter Howard Fine contributed to this column. Daniel Miller can be reached at [email protected].

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