La Barca: A South Central food odyssey
Beyond the restaurant’s mystic door lies a world where culture, tradition and exquisite cuisine converge.
By RUDY CARTAGENA
Large, welcoming tables, mariachi chords and bustling orders are what’s keeping a local Mexican restaurant lively and busy.
The richness of Latine culture in South Central is well-displayed by its local food scene, which boasts an impressive range of complex flavors offering a unique taste that sets it apart from other areas in the city. One testament to this cultural sentiment can be found through an evening dining experience at La Barca — a family-owned and operated establishment specializing in authentic Mexican cuisine and delicacies.
“If you have an idea and you really want to do it, you can go out and do it. In this case, it was family that got together and did it,” said La Barca general manager Sergio Padilla on the humble beginnings of his family’s business.
Fueled by an unyielding passion for food and family, the Padillas’ unwavering commitment and clear vision laid the foundation for the restaurant’s reputation and popularity today.
La Barca, aptly named “the boat” in English, is a quaint, unassuming restaurant with a timeless charm located on the corner of Vermont Avenue and West Adams Boulevard, established in 1976 by Padilla’s grandfather. An experienced head chef, he immigrated from the city of Guadalajara, Mexico and, after working the culinary scene around Los Angeles, fulfilled his dream of owning and operating a restaurant through La Barca that has now served the community for more than 45 years.
Padilla said the restaurant was a significantly smaller operation when it started, noting that everybody in the family pitched in to help run the day-to-day operations. In the early days, La Barca was a far cry from the bustling establishment it is today, but as the restaurant continued to grow in popularity, its backbone in achieving success continued to be the dedication and labor of love by family members.
“If it’s family now, it was all family back then. My aunts worked at the register, [and] my uncles were serving,” Padilla said.
Padilla himself has worked various stations at the restaurant, including washing dishes, cooking, serving and hosting. He and his family still “do a little bit of everything” to help run the restaurant to this day, he said. The restaurant has since expanded to two other locations — including a nightclub in Orange County and a grill and cantina in Downey — that the Padillas also manage.
“It’s a family atmosphere, and you see people from all walks of life that come and enjoy the delicious food there,” said Dolores Sotelo, associate director of the Latino Alumni Association at USC.
The resturant was founded in 1976 by the grandfather of Sergio Padilla, the current general manager. Their goal has always remained the same: serving patrons authentic Mexican cuisine with exceptional service. (Emma Silverstein / Daily Trojan)
A frequent patron of the restaurant since the early 1980s, Sotelo said she believes La Barca is an integral part of the greater South Central area, and that the establishment is a staple and an institution within the food scene around USC.
La Barca specializes in traditional Mexican cuisine inspired by flavors true to the restaurant’s Jalisco roots. The establishment boasts a seasoned staff composed of individuals from diverse industry backgrounds and exceptional culinary expertise. Many of the dedicated professionals working the grill or serving food have been with the restaurant for more than two decades. As such, innovation in flavor and a commitment to authenticity remain a priority to those cooking and assembling the restaurant’s diverse culinary offerings.
Some of the most popular menu items include the enchiladas served with a homemade red chile colorado sauce, the carne asada plates and the burritos. Sotelo personally recommends ordering the chile rellenos on any day, the queso fundido for a treat and the caldo de res on a sick day.
La Barca is open to hungry diners every day, opening its doors at 11 a.m. during the week and 10 a.m. on the weekends. For the best experience, make sure to go during the restaurant’s happy hour deal from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday for specials on food and drinks.
But perhaps what sets La Barca apart from other local restaurants does not lie with the restaurant’s culinary supremacy, but rather its unwavering commitment to its patrons.
“One thing my dad used to always tell me growing up was, ‘Anyone can make good food … You can learn how to cook and you can make good food … but what really counts is how you take it to the customer, how you take it to the table,’” Padilla said.
Excellence in customer service is a core value that’s been deeply ingrained in each subsequent generation of the family.
The staff at La Barca has transformed the traditional offering of customer service by finding new ways to support customers for special events and important milestones.
“[It’s] usually special occasions — I’ve been to two parties and once when family came to visit, so it was pretty special,” said Abdiel Ibarra, a senior majoring in mechanical engineering who frequents the restaurant.
La Barca not only caters events, but hosts everything from weddings to birthday and anniversary celebrations, ensuring that each one is a personalized experience that members of the community and longtime customers will remember.
When the coronavirus pandemic turned the food industry upside down and many restaurants were closing their doors, La Barca opened its arms to the community instead. Padilla and his family worked around the clock to personally deliver orders via phone calls to hungry residents seeking local food. Much of La Barca’s history has involved overcoming and adapting to obstacles in order to continue serving the community they consider to be a part of their own family.
“It’s something truly special … to be able to see generation after generation of people coming here and enjoying the restaurant just like their grandparents did, or their parents did,” Padilla said. “We grow with them … It’s our family, but also within the community, it’s an extended family that we’ve fortunately been able to share experiences with.”
