The New Thrash Metal-Themed Modern Mexican Restaurant From Evil Cooks Is Now Open

Chefs Alex and Elvia García are opening Evil Cooks Corazón Abierto in El Sereno today, November 13, where they will serve some of the most creative modern Mexican food in Los Angeles . After slinging dishes like black-tinted octopus al pastor and bacon cheeseburger tacos out of their home and at Smorgasburg for the past five years, the chefs finally have a permanent space. The new restaurant on North Eastern Avenue has just five counter seats facing a small kitchen and an outdoor patio that seats 25 diners.

In 2020, Evil Cooks was named one of Los Angeles’s 101 best restaurants by the Los Angeles Times , with critic Bill Addison including the pop-up among his list of the city’s 13 best tacos . Along with the acclaim came offers from investors to open a brick-and-mortar restaurant, but the Garcías chose to operate without partners. (Evil Cooks’ defiant streak was recently highlighted in Life & Thyme’s Rebel Kitchens series .



) The new El Sereno restaurant is located a few blocks from their home. “I think the stars aligned for us because we wanted to wait for our daughter to begin school before even considering a restaurant,” says Elvia. “And the fact that it’s in our neighborhood, where lots of people have supported us, was perfect,” says Alex.

Evil Cooks Corazón Abierto is a love letter to all who have supported the duo over the years. Alex started working in the food industry as a baker at his father’s bakery in Guanajuato, Mexico, and his grandfather’s bakery in Querétaro, Mexico. He endured a tumultuous home life in Guanajuato before moving to the United States without a visa as a teenager to join his mother in Southern California.

“I was ready to give up, but then I saw how dedicated Elvia was, so I couldn’t walk away.” In an industry where ambitious chefs rise swiftly through the kitchen ranks, Alex followed a different path, working as a prep cook at Ferraro’s Cucina Italiana in Long Beach before moving to Cafe Sevilla in Riverside, where he eventually became the sous chef. “My coworkers thought I was crazy, and no one would hire a guy like me,” says Alex, who sports a full beard, tattoos, and multiple piercings.

By 2007, at age 22, Alex was already burned out. Depressed and increasingly dependent on drugs and alcohol, he took a dishwasher job at DaVinci’s, a white tablecloth Italian restaurant next to the Long Beach airport. “I needed a break.

Back then in the kitchen, some of these guys went Gordon Ramsey on me, and at some point, it’s too much,” he says. Alex continued to work in various jobs in the hospitality industry through the mid-2010s while enduring a difficult personal period that included a divorce. Things began falling into place when he took on the role of chef de cuisine at the innovative Chicano restaurant Dia de Los Puercos in West Covina in 2018 and became a DACA recipient .

It was also the first time he began cooking Mexican food professionally. Alex spent hours at the local library reading cookbooks, including The Silver Spoon , El Bulli , and Alinea . Alex left Dia de Los Puercos soon after it relocated to Pomona in late 2018, intending to start his own project.

All that was missing from Alex’s life was a grounding force, which he found in Elvia “La Bruja” Huerta (she changed her name to García after marrying Alex). Elvia graduated from Le Cordon Bleu in Pasadena and worked at Wolfgang Puck Catering before spending a decade at UCLA’s dining calls. After following Alex on Instagram, Elvia was smitten with the rebellious chef’s attitude.

“I was watching what Alex was doing and was like, ‘I could never do that,’ and then I was like, ‘Let me pick your brain,’” she says. Elvia reached out to Alex over direct message, and the two hatched a plan to bring their rebellious styles of cooking to a wider audience. The couple started cooking their trademark street food-inspired Mexican dishes in 2018 under the Evil Cooks banner.

Alex was sober, separated from his first wife, and free from what he saw as the oppressiveness of traditional restaurant kitchens. While the chef’s vision and purpose were clear, not many people showed up for the pop-up’s early days. “I was ready to give up, but then I saw how dedicated Elvia was, so I couldn’t walk away,” says Alex.

In 2019, Evil Cooks joined Smorgasburg , drawing long lines for its sinister-looking black al pastor, Goth-inspired black carne asada, and Double Fist bacon cheeseburger burritos. They served the dishes from their home during the week. At Evil Cooks Corazón Abierto, the chefs have a compact space with a black thrash metal interior and a black-painted, succulent-accented patio.

A garden fountain features angels crying what seems like blood but is agua de jamaica. The interior walls are adorned with metal album covers, heavy metal skulls, Evil Cooks T-shirts, and classic horror movie posters. A garden fountain features angels crying what seems like blood but is agua de jamaica.

The menu includes the pop-up’s beloved tacos, tortas, mulitas, and burritos, like the Poseidon (octopus al pastor taco), Asesino (pork al pastor and octopus taco), chorizo verde burrito, and “chilakiller” (chilaquiles) torta. “The lunch menu will be mostly tacos and burritos, but for dinner, we’ll have a sit-down menu,” says Alex. The dinner menu brings crispy fideo croquettes topped with truffles, chorizo verde pot stickers, along with playful shared plates such as a spicy tom yum aguachile, and carne en su jugo noodles — a mashup of the Guadalajara dish and Japanese ramen.

Evil Cooks’ take on beef Wellington gets an unconventional spin: Pork ribs are wrapped in phyllo dough and topped with pashmak (Persian candy floss). The Devil’s Rib consists of a tomahawk steak served with corn tortillas, grilled onions, chiles, and a pair of salsas, one with Maggi and sesame seeds, the other a pipián chimichurri. The Poseidon, one of Evil Cooks’ signature recipes, will be available in a larger format with the grilled octopus placed over a bed of recaudo negro risotto.

Flan tacos and churro cheesecake tacos are available for dessert, along with elotes tiernos (ears of corn) in a sweet atole de piloncillo (brown sugar). “I imagine things in my mind and I’m like, there has to be a way to do that. That’s the way my mind works,” says Alex.

In the months to come, the chefs will relaunch their Kamikaze tasting menus with dishes influenced by Los Angeles’s diverse cultures. Alex turns 40 next month and couldn’t be happier and more grateful for where he is and what he has accomplished. He has survived childhood traumas, personal alcohol addiction, and shouldering the responsibility of providing for his family while still in high school.

But now, Alex is achieving a lifelong dream, and the two kitchen rebels finally have a place to call their own. Evil Cooks Corazón Abierto is a monument to the chefs’ mentors, family, and followers. “This is my thank you to everyone, especially Elvia, my mom for bringing me to the United States, and even the people who were hard on me,” says Alex.

“I’m doing what I love because of them.” Evil Cooks Corazón Abierto is located at 3333 N. Eastern Avenue, Los Angeles, CA, 90032, and is open Tuesday to Thursday from 10 a.

m. to 9 p.m.

, and until 10 p.m. on Friday and Saturday.

Evil Cooks will continue to serve at Smorgasburg on Sundays. Related Sign up for our newsletter. Check your inbox for a welcome email.

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