How a Salvadoran immigrant and a former investment banker built LA's most ambitious food scene

Los Angeles' restaurant renaissance isn't written in Michelin guides or celebrity chef profiles. It's written in the hands of people like María Elena Romero and David Chen, who met at a farmer's market in 2015 and decided to stop working for other people's dreams.

Today, their footprint stretches across Echo Park and Los Feliz—four distinct venues that have collectively drawn over 12,000 covers monthly and reshaped how the city thinks about accessible fine dining. But the path from Romero's modest food truck on Alvarado Street to their flagship on Sunset Boulevard reads like a masterclass in resilience.

Romero arrived in Los Angeles from San Salvador in 1998 with $200 and worked sixteen-hour shifts at restaurants throughout the San Fernando Valley. She saved for seven years before purchasing her first food truck in 2005, serving pupusas and tamales from a cramped kitchen on wheels. "People told me I was crazy," she reflected in a 2024 interview with LAist. "But my mother came here with nothing. This was my inheritance."

Chen's journey proved equally unconventional. After burning out from a decade in investment banking, he moved to Los Angeles in 2012 and took a job managing a small wine bar in Silver Lake. The two crossed paths while Romero supplied fresh ingredients to his establishment. Their collaboration began informally—weekend pop-ups featuring Central American-inspired cuisine with California produce—but demand quickly outpaced supply.

By 2017, they opened their first brick-and-mortar restaurant on Vermont Avenue. The 45-seat venue maintained Romero's commitment to affordability (entrées averaged $16-22) while elevating traditional recipes. Within eighteen months, they'd expanded to three additional locations, each reflecting different cultural influences: Mexican coastal fare in Echo Park, Salvadoran-Korean fusion near Los Feliz Boulevard, and a dedicated breakfast concept on Franklin Avenue.

Their model has proven instructive for a city often criticized for culinary exclusivity. Unlike the celebrity-chef-driven restaurants dominating Hancock Park and West Hollywood, these establishments prioritize community over prestige. Average spend remains under $35 per person, and staff retention rates exceed 78%—substantially above industry standard.

Today, as Los Angeles restaurant closures hit a five-year high, their story stands as counterpoint. "We're not trying to be fancy," Chen observed. "We're trying to be honest." For a city built by immigrants and dreamers, perhaps that's the real culinary revolution.

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