Taco Trucks Feed Workers After the Palisades Fire

Food|Amid the Rubble of the Palisades Fire, Taco Trucks Feed the Recovery

At the heart of downtown Pacific Palisades, the current lunch crowd wears orange and fluorescent yellow safety vests. General contractors and heavy equipment operators, cleanup crew members and internet linemen rush to grab sustenance and get back to work restoring the neighborhood ravaged by January’s fire. Waiting to serve them is a line of taco trucks.

“Food trucks are like first responders,” said Rodolfo Barrientos, the owner of the Gracias Señor taco truck. “We’re able to get nourishing food, not pre-prepared, where the need is.” He looked out at the smoke-scarred rubble of what was once a Ralph’s supermarket and added, “It’s sad food trucks are not as accepted as they should be.”

In tourism advertising and popular media, taco trucks are celebrated as Los Angeles’s mascots. But they are a rare sight in the downtowns of exclusive neighborhoods. In 2024, Ralph’s threatened legal action against him, accusing his customers of using its parking lot, although Mr. Barrientos had parked his truck outside the grocery store on Sunset Boulevard for years without complaints.

One former regular, Jaden Tash, stopped by to get a surf-and-turf burrito. He discovered Gracias Señor when he was a student at Palisades Charter High School, known locally as “Pali High.” When he came home from college to his mother’s house, which still didn’t have water service, the truck was his first stop.