A Taste of
Boyle Heights:
Perseverance
in the Neighborhood

El Tepeyac

El Tepeyac Café had its birth in American food of the 1950s.
 
Here is the story of how it was created. Salvador and Rebeca Rojas immigrated to the US in 1914 during the Mexican Revolution. Salvador tried his hand at various occupations, even working as a barber in the 1930s before opening his first restaurant with his wife, Rojas in 1942. After two unsuccessful restaurant ventures, the couple opened El Tepeyac on N. Evergreen Avenue in Boyle Heights in 1955. 
 
The first menu at El Tepeyac had hamburgers, hot dogs, and milkshakes – the iconic and trendy 1950s café staples. But on his menu were also taquitos- a nod to Salvador’s Mexican American patrons and to his own Mexican roots.
 
His café became popular with local patrons but unexpectedly, Salvador passed away a year later. Rebeca asked her son Manuel, “Manny,” Rojas to take over the business. 
 
When Manny went to work with his mother, he was only twenty-four years old. He had served in the Army since he was a teenager- so adamant that he wanted to serve that he had asked Rebeca to sign for his early service. Manny saw Rebeca’s desire to keep the restaurant open and decided to run the business with her.
 
Manny was immediately received by his patrons. His personality, customer service, and good food made him popular in the neighborhood. He began to adjust the menu to foods to match his customer’s preferences.
 
Officers from the Los Angeles Police Department, Hollenbeck Community Police Station, started taking their breaks at the El Tepeyac. When they playfully asked Manny to add a little more to their burritos, Manny obliged, piling on the rice, beans, and avocado. He made a monster burrito to match his customer’s request and called it “The Hollenbeck.” Stuffed with goodness and covered in chili sauce, Manny began adjusting his menu to the desires of his patrons. 
 
He soon developed Manny’s Special- a burrito designed with the bantering and requests from the East LA college football players who asked him to add a little more. Manny’s Special captured the attention of people across the nation and the Food Network highlighted the restaurant, the long lines, and special food on their shows. 

“Many have tried but few have accomplished it,” reads the restaurant’s website of the giant five-pound burrito. The public highlights have drawn famous people and folks from all over the world to try the food at El Tepeyac but it is the local folks that have kept the business steady. 
It’s more than a sensation, it’s the recipes, according to Manny’s daughter Elena Rojas, that hasn’t changed, and the nostalgia and home-cooked food that brings the neighborhood back. 
 
By the time Manny started running the business he had been married but separated from Mercedes, also known as Mercy. Their daughter, Elena, was just a young girl and still remembers spending the weekends in the family restaurant. 
 
“I would sit right over there while he worked,” she says, pointing to the old-school counter. She got to know the regulars who lined up just to get a seat at the restaurant, and she got to know Manny’s staff. “When I was old enough the waitresses would let me take orders and serve the customers,” she remembered with a smile.
 
From the restaurant counter, Elena’s childhood point of view was centered on her father working. She remembers his smile beaming as he greeted and chatted with people waiting in line. Entertaining the couples, bending down to say hi to kids, and laughing it up with the old-timers. She smiles as she recalls his ease with people. Customers would wait up to 45 minutes just to get a seat, but they would keep a careful eye on the line as sometimes celebrities would often show up and try to cut in. Everyone was treated the same, like friends and neighbors, with no special treatment even for celebrities or camera crews. But Manny made sure those waiting in line were greeted- shaking hands and kissing cheeks as he caught up with his regular customers. 
 
Even though Elena’s parents had split up, they still had an amicable relationship. One day when Mercy was dropping the young Elena off at the restaurant for a weekend visit, Manny asked if Mercy would fill in because they were short-staffed. Mercy stayed to help, “and she never stopped,” Elena recalled. The restaurant employed about 40 to 50 employees, a sizable crew for the small but busy restaurant. “He was old school,” Elena remembered smiling, “he paid everyone cash.” But the large crew and the cash flow needed management and Mercy took over as General Manager and kept the business in shape.
 
When Elena was a teenager, she and her friends started working in downtown Los Angeles as stockers at Back Street, a department store that Elena said, “was real foo-foo,” an upscale shop that catered to the wealthy. It was because of Elena’s energetic personality and hard work that they offered her a position on the floor as a salesperson. Elena was excited to gain a position in which she could earn a commission, but her father objected since this would also put her on public transportation late at night. Instead, he offered her a job at the restaurant as a cashier. 
 
Though she missed out on the commission, she was thrilled to work with her parents. When I asked her how it felt to work with them every day, she said, “I was very spoiled. To have my parents with me, we were together all the time.” Elena ran the cash register, her mother Mercy ran the business, and her grandmother Rebeca waitressed while Manny captivated the hearts of the customers. Their clients became regulars as the business grew. 
 
Manny had a big heart. Everyone who knew him knew this about him. When Mercy got sick Manny insisted that she move back home with him. He cared for her until she passed.
Elena’s heart swells as she tells this story, a true testament to the way Manny cared for those around him. When Manny passed away in 2013 the lines to his funeral service reminded her of the lines of people who came to eat at their restaurant. People waited in line around the corner to pay their respects.
 
Elena is adamant about keeping the spirit of her father alive and in a very natural way, accomplishes this through her love of the customers. After his passing, Elena took over the family business, no longer with the support of Rebeca, Mercy, or her loving father, but nonetheless continuing with family support. 
 
When I ask Elena about the restaurant menu she tells me that the recipes have not changed. For example, the man who makes the green chili arrives early every morning to make it and has been doing so for the past 37 years. She jokes, “and the man before that for 37 years!” The people that work there are consistent and keep the quality and the spirit of the place unchanging. But her smile really lights up when I ask about their customers. 
 
Scrolling through her phone she tells me story after story of their longtime customers. She tells me about Rudy as she stops on his image. She smiles and tells me that he had been coming to the restaurant since the 1960s. He was a morning customer and the waitresses always knew what he would order. Then she tells me the story of the man who used to visit the restaurant with his family when he was a child. When he became a teacher, he started bringing 60 to 70 students to eat at the restaurant whenever they had out-of-school field trips. Looking through more photos she then tells me about the 95 and older club- meaning that anyone who is 95 or older eats for free. One of their longtime customers, Roy, stopped driving when he turned 95 so he would get a ride to visit the restaurant. He lived in the neighborhood until he passed away at 99 years old. Though there are celebrities and people who traveled a long way to try their food, it is the local people she sees day in and day out that she tells me about. 
 
As we wrapped up our talk, Elena tells me about a woman who lives in the neighborhood, who is at times unsheltered. One day a staff member told her there was a woman looking for discarded food in the garbage. Elena went to speak with the woman, telling her that if she wanted to eat to just simply ask. She got to know her over some time and found out that the woman had suffered abuse along with dealing with mental illness. When they first met “she wouldn’t look me in the eye,” Elena remembered, “But now, she’s built up some trust with me and will come by if she needs to. I haven’t seen her in a year.”
 
Every story seems to warm Elena as we talk. After our interview, we walked outdoors to get some photos. We had not made it out the door before someone got up from their seat to hug her. 
“Elena!” 

Hugs, chisme, laughter. 

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We continued outdoors. Another gentleman walks up to her, “Elena!” They, too, hugged and asked me to take their picture. “How long have you been coming here?” Elena asked him. He responded, laughing, “I don’t know, thirty, forty years?”

As he chuckled and waved goodbye, we turned around to finish our conversation, and Elena spotted walking up the hill towards El Tepeyac, the woman she had told me about. She waves at Elena and they hug each other. “I haven’t seen you in a year!” Elena tells her. The woman whispered to Elena as I walked away, carrying a Manny’s Special burrito with me.