25-Year Burrito Legend Tacos Villa Corona Expands Hours For First Time - Eater LA
"After 25 years of servicing passersby along Glendale Boulevard in Atwater Village, Tacos Villa Corona is ready to switch things up, adding new evening hours for the first time in the restaurant’s history. The massively popular weekend burrito shop is now doing weeknight food in addition to its usual breakfast and lunch routine, running until 8 p.m. The 200-square-foot takeaway restaurant first hinted at the possibility of expanding its hours for the first time since opening in 1993, dropping a tweet (yes, Tacos Villa Corona is on Twitter) to all of its 145 followers earlier this week. Passing by last night, Eater found co-owner David Flores, who runs the restaurant along with his mother Maria and sister Felicia, still working the front ordering window. He confirmed that Tacos Villa Corona has indeed been experimenting with longer hours, and that if anything it’s something he felt they should have been doing long ago. Flores usually gets to the tiny storefront around 3 a.m. every day to do prep work, but had been switching things up and coming in around 5 a.m. instead, leaving prep work until after closing at 2 p.m. Eventually Flores decided that since he was still inside the restaurant anyway, he might as well serve customers who passed by and wanted some food, and the exploration into longer hours grew from there. Now Tacos Villa Corona is doing hours Tuesday through Friday until 8 p.m., but will still close at 2 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday because they usually sell out anyway. For those unfamiliar, Tacos Villa Corona is among the most well-known burrito restaurants in all of Los Angeles. Long lines queue up on weekend mornings for the cash-only spot’s famous breakfast burritos, though they also do brisk weekday business with their lunch (and now dinner) menu as well, which includes $5 burritos, nachos, and more. While Tacos Villa Corona has long been a staple for the greater Eastside, it really blew up seven years ago when Anthony Bourdain stopped in while filming an episode of his travel show The Layover." - Farley Elliott
