“After 36 years of feeding the locals and visitors of Laguna Beach, it’s time for the next chapter of my journey here on Earth, my next adventure,” Taco Loco owner Gonzalo Rebollar wrote on his restaurant’s website.
Opening in 1987, the taco stand, with only a handful of seats and an expansive taco menu posted outside its door, quickly became a Laguna Beach institution that added to the city’s diminishing quirky charm. In addition to serving hungry surfers and countless tourists along Pacific Coast Highway, Taco Loco was featured in a GQ fashion spread as well as the occasional cut-away shot on MTV’s “Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County.”
Located just off PCH, Taco Loco’s menu offers such menu favorites as chicken and beef tacos, as well as clearly California options like hemp blackened burgers or vegan-forward mushroom and tofu tacos. The blackened seafood tacos, in particular, helped Rebollar’s taco stand gain a loyal following.
But this isn’t the end of Taco Loco entirely; while its brick-and-mortar version will cease at September’s end, Rebollar will rebirth his restaurant brand in a new digital form.
“Once I’ve taken some time off to relax, I will be starting a food blog, along with a YouTube channel, and many of the recipes from the Taco Loco menu will be put into a digital cookbook that you will be able to download from our website,” wrote Rebollar.
This is the second Laguna Beach institution to close this month. On Sept. 5, the Stand Natural Foods, a walk-up vegan eatery, shuttered after 48 years.
Taco Loco will close its doors on Saturday, Sept. 30.
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