Yesenia Trujillo Carranza sells tamales across the road from Roosevelt High School at the intersection of South Fickett and Fourth streets.
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Marina Peña
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The LA Local
)
Topline:
Some of the best chefs and eateries in Los Angeles are elevating the portable masa meal to Michelin levels. These tamal makers offer a unique and adventurous take on the ancient masa masterpiece.
An L.A. icon: Founded by husband and wife Fernando Lopez and Maria Monterrubio in 1994, Guleaguetza has become one of the most lauded restaurants in the country, thanks in large part to the late Pulitzer Prize-winning food critic Jonathan Gold, who once called Guelaguetza “the most accomplished Oaxacan restaurant in the United States.” Their tamales come carefully wrapped in a large banana leaf so that there is just enough of an opening to decorate the masa with the Lopez family’s legendary black mole. Inside, you will find a treasure of juicy chicken breast meat.
Dessert tamales: Chef Andrew Ponce says he opened his fine dining-style Mexican restaurant A Tí as a tribute to his father. For his dessert tamal, Ponce uses blue masa quebrada — a crumbly, more coarse masa from Kernel of Truth Organics — whipped butter and a blend of seasonal squash from the farmers market. The sweet tamal is then topped with soft whipped cream and a pecan crumble.
Read on . . . for a list of other restaurants and their unique take on the Mexican classic.
If you’re lucky, an L.A. Christmas means you’re unwrapping some incredible tamales.
And if you’re really savvy, you probably have your go-to tamal lady.
“December is tamales season,” Carranza tells The LA Local. “It’s much busier for me, but I love it. I love anyone who really gets joy from my tamales.”
Carranza has been feeding the Boyle Heights community hot tamales, champurrado and café de olla for 20 years.
“I have a lot of enthusiasm for feeding the community,” she said from her tamales cart, located across the road from Roosevelt High School at the intersection of South Fickett and Fourth streets.
Carranza makes her Guerrero-style corn-husk tamales fresh each day — preparing about 50 pounds of masa and offering sweet tamales, classic chicken, pork and queso con rajas.
The stand-out is definitely the tamales de pollo served with a vibrant green salsa that has just the perfect hit of spice to make you shout, “It’s a wonderful life!” this Christmas.
But Carranza isn’t alone on these streets.
Some of the best chefs and eateries in Los Angeles are elevating the portable masa meal to Michelin levels.
Don’t get us wrong, tamales like the ones Carranza and your favorite tamales lady sell do not need the glow up.
But these tamal makers offer a unique and adventurous take on the ancient masa masterpiece.
Komal
3655 S. Grand Ave., Los Angeles, Historic South Central
A tamal rojo from Komal.
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Marina Peña
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The LA Local
)
Komal opened in September 2024 at Mercado La Paloma and immediately made headlines for being LA’s first craft molino, which basically means it makes some of the best masa this side of the border.
That masa excellence is on full display in their pretty and plump chuchito tamal, a staple on the menu. The chuchito is a ball of masa stuffed with pork and topped with roasted peppers, tomato sauce, and pickled vegetables.
“The chuchito is from Guatemala, and it represents my team. Most of the people who work with me in the kitchen are from Guatemala, so this dish is a way to represent them,” says Komal’s chef and co-owner, Fátima Juárez. “Without them, we truly wouldn’t be what we are today.”
The flavors feel like a heartfelt nod to traditional dishes found in Mexico City and Oaxaca. The tamales are made with Indigenous corn sourced directly from farmers in Mexico and nixtamalized on site.
“In general, the masa and its consistency make the tamal very light. It melts in your mouth, almost as if you were eating a savory or sweet cake. It’s not very dense; it’s juicy and has a lot of flavor,” Juarez says. “A big part of that has to do with how the masa is made, we don’t use lard; we use olive oil and grape-seed oil.”
For the holidays, Juárez has added some beautiful seasonal tamales. There’s a rojo that’s bursting at the seams with sweet corn and calabacitas, topped with a spicy red sauce. Komal also features a tamal verde with chicken and tomatillo sauce, along with a sweet tamal de leche made with oranges and strawberry jam.
Guelaguetza
3014 W. Olympic Blvd., Los Angeles, Koreatown
A mole tamal from Guelaguetza.
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Courtesy Guelaguetza
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Guelaguetza’s tamales are simply stunning to look at. Opening one is as close to unwrapping a Christmas present as it gets.
Founded by husband and wife Fernando Lopez and Maria Monterrubio in 1994, this ode to Oaxacan cuisine has become one of the most lauded restaurants in the country, thanks in large part to the late Pulitzer Prize-winning food critic Jonathan Gold, who once called Guelaguetza “the most accomplished Oaxacan restaurant in the United States.”
The tamales come carefully wrapped in a large banana leaf so that there is just enough of an opening to decorate the masa with the Lopez family’s legendary black mole. Inside, you will find a treasure of juicy chicken breast meat.
Lugya’h by Poncho’s Tlayudas
4301 W. Jefferson Blvd., Los Angeles, West Adams
Lugya’h by Poncho’s Tlayudas features a savory amarillo sauce.
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Erick Galindo
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The LA Local
)
When the humble culinary genius Alfonso “Poncho” Martinez sunsetted his weekend pop-up Poncho’s Tlayudas for a six-day-a-week brick and mortar shop called Lugya’h inside the swanky Maydan Market, LA’s street food lovers both rejoiced and shed a tear. There was nothing like Friday nights feasting on Poncho’s tlayudas. But now we can get them all week long, and there are some added benefits like access to his beautiful Zapotec-inspired tamales.
“In the hills of Oaxaca, we wrap tamales with whatever kind of leaves we can find,” he tells The LA Local.
Lugya’h’s tamales are quite beautiful to look at, but they are also quite lovely to devour. They are turkey tamales wrapped in banana leaves and feature Poncho’s savory amarillo sauce, a blend of hot peppers, tomatoes and turkey broth.
A Tí
1498 Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, Echo Park
A Tí serves a sweet dessert tamal.
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Erick Galindo
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The LA Local
)
Chef Andrew Ponce says he opened his fine dining-style Mexican restaurant A Tí as a tribute to his father. “My father worked his whole life and still had time to make it to my little league games,” he explained. “So this is for him.”
Ponce admits he was never great at baseball, but he hit it out of the park with his dessert tamal. Ponce uses blue masa quebrada — a crumbly, more coarse masa from Kernel of Truth Organics — whipped butter and a blend of seasonal squash from the farmers market.
“It can be from kabocha green and red squash or red curry squash and honey nut squash,” Ponce tells The LA Local. “And I season it with piloncillo and warm spices.”
The sweet tamal is topped with soft whipped cream and a pecan crumble.
Tamales La Güera
Southeast corner of Broadway and West Vernon Avenue in Historic South Central
The guajolota by Tamales La Güera.
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Kevin Martinez
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The LA Local
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LA Local community engagement director Kevin Martinez swears by Elisa Chaparro Garcia’s guajolota — a hot tamal stuffed inside a bolillo, creating a thick tamal torta — because it’s the closest thing to a Mexico City tamal experience you can find in Los Angeles.
The combination creates a perfect balance between the melty ephemerality of the tamal and the sweet stickiness of the bread. The tamales are served with pork, chicken, queso con rajas, strawberry, pineapple or mole.
“The bolillo allows the tamal to linger a little longer in the mouth,” Martinez explains. “It’s not too soggy, not too dry, creating the perfect bite.”
Tamales La Güera has been serving her Mexico City-style tamales in South Central for more than 20 years and has become so popular that she opened a second stand across the street.
La Flor de Yucatán
1800 Hoover St., Los Angeles, Pico Union
The colado from La Flor de Yucatán.
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Marina Peña
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The LA Local
)
This family-owned fixture in Pico Union specializes in Mayan-style, banana leaf tamales.
“Our tamales come from a family recipe from the Yucatán because that’s where our specialty is. We chose bits and pieces from aunts and uncles and made it our own,” says Annie Burgos, co-owner of the bakery.
La Flor de Yucatán has been in the neighborhood for more than 50 years, serving homestyle baked goods like hojaldra — a flaky, sugar-topped pastry with ham and cheese — and regional tamales.
Her parents, Antonio and Rosa Burgos, started the business after baking in their home kitchen in Pasadena in the late 1960s, with Antonio selling the goods door to door and from his vehicle.
“Yucatán is so far down in Mexico, so our tamales have more in common with those from Central America and the Caribbean,” Burgos says. “The consistency of the dough is different, the flavoring is different because you get some of the flavoring from the banana leaf itself, and the tamales tend to be moist.”
Today, they offer three classic Yucatecan tamales wrapped in banana leaves: the colado, a moist, fluffy tamal filled with chicken and pork; the tortiado, a hand-patted tamal with chicken and pork; and the dzotobichay, a chaya leaf tamal often filled with pepper jack cheese.
“My favorite would be the tortiado, but in all the pop-ups that we do, everywhere that we go, the one that reigns supreme is the colado,” Burgos says. “You can scoop into the colado, the other tamales you have to cut into.”
O.C. Japan Fest, corgi beach day, the grunions are back, a new play festival, a talk with Sen. Cory Booker and more of the best things to do this weekend.
Highlights:
Experience sakura season without leaving the area at the O.C. Japan Fair, featuring 250 vendors, craftspeople, food booths, art activities and more, all celebrating Japanese culture.
Check out readings of five new plays – all for free! – at the Play L.A. New Works Festival, put on by Stage Raw and the Greenway Arts Alliance along with a number of L.A. indie theater powerhouses.
Spend Friday night with New Jersey Senator Cory Booker, whose new book, Stand, tells stories from his political life that aim to share “actionable insights” to help preserve democracy in these challenging times.
I hope you had luck in securing the first round of LA28 Olympics tickets — and that you’re not still waiting for page refreshes this morning! We’ve got all the info on how to get your tickets and why you shouldn’t fret if it doesn’t work out on this first try.
LAist’s Mariana Dale went to Hollywood High School this week to see how students and teachers felt about Mitski bringing a concert to the historic space. Seems like no one was missing class since perfect attendance meant a shot at tickets.
No matter your music taste, there’s a show for you this weekend. It may not be the height of summer yet, but things will be heating up at the Hollywood Bowl as Ben Platt and Rachel Zegler reunite for their concert performance of Broadway hit The Last Five Years. Plus, Licorice Pizza recommends Mercury Prize-winning London rapper Dave at the Palladium, St. Paul & the Broken Bones are at the Belasco, Calum Scott plays the Wiltern, and there’s a really cool First Fridays night at the Natural History Museum with dub legend Adrian Sherwood. Saturday has pop trio LANY at the Intuit Dome, Lamb of God slaughtering the YouTube Theater, SoundCloud rapper Rich Amiri at the Fonda, post-hardcore band Hail the Sun at the Wiltern, pop sensation Nessa Barrett at the Masonic Lodge, and another rising pop star, Alexander Stewart, at Chinatown’s cool new venue, Pacific Electric.
Experience sakura season without leaving the area at the O.C. Japan Fair, featuring 250 vendors, craftspeople, food booths, art activities and more, all celebrating Japanese culture. From sake tastings to sushi-making workshops to musical performances and kimono try-ons, the annual event is one of the largest Japanese cultural fairs in California.
Play L.A. New Works Festival
April 3-4 Greenway Court Theatre 544 North Fairfax Ave., Mid-City COST: FREE, MORE INFO
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PLAY LA Festival
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Check out readings of five new plays — all for free! — at the Play L.A. New Works Festival, put on by Stage Raw and the Greenway Arts Alliance, along with a number of L.A. indie theater powerhouses. This year’s plays are Stonewall’s Bouncer by Louisa Hill, produced by The Victory Theatre; At Olduvai Gorge by India Kotis, produced by The Odyssey Theatre Company; Ghost Play by Mathew Scott Montgomery, produced by InHouse Theatre; The Incident by Rachel Borders, produced by The Road Theatre Ensemble; and Three Dates by Erica Wachs, produced by IAMA Theatre Company. Go see one, or go see them all!
SoCal Corgi Beach Day
Saturday, April 4, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. 21351 California 1, Huntington Beach COST: FREE; MORE INFO
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Vlad D
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Unsplash
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Head to Huntington Beach for the cutest event of the year, the annual SoCal Corgi Beach Day. This year’s theme is "Tiki Beach Pawty," because of course it is. Honor Queen Elizabeth II’s favorite pets and spend the day at the beach with these short, stout, snuggly friends while they frolic and compete in events like — I am not making this up – Corgi Limbo.
Plaza Mexico Celebrates Easter
Sunday, April 5, 12:00 p.m. to 4 p.m. 3100 E. Imperial Highway, Lynwood COST: FREE; MORE INFO
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Plaza México
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You have your pick of Easter Bunny photo ops and egg hunts around town, and Plaza Mexico would be a great one with the family. Meet and take a picture with the Easter bunny, enjoy kids' arts & crafts, family activities, vendors and sweet treats.
Writers Bloc: Cory Booker
Friday, April 3, 7:30 p.m. John Adams Middle School (JAMS) Performing Arts Center 2425 16th St., Santa Monica COST: $33; MORE INFO
NEW YORK, NEW YORK - FEBRUARY 05: Senator Cory Booker attends PBS' "Black & Jewish America: An Interwoven History" Screening With Henry Louis Gates, Jr. And Conversation With Sen. Cory Booker at 92NY on February 05, 2026 in New York City. (Photo by Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images)
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Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images
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Getty Images North America
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Spend Friday night with New Jersey Senator Cory Booker, whose new book, Stand, tells stories from his political life that aim to share "actionable insights" to help preserve democracy in these challenging times. The conversation with Writers Bloc will be hosted by Sean Bailey, the former head of Walt Disney Studios Motion Picture Production for 14 years and the current CEO of the new multi-platform production company B5 Studios. The event is sold out, but there is a waitlist available.
Behind the Canvas — An Exclusive Art Talk with the Jurors of A Woman's Place: Framing the Future
Saturday, April 4, 11 a.m. Ebell of Los Angeles 741 S. Lucerne Blvd., Mid-Wilshire COST: FREE; MORE INFO
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The Ebell
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Have coffee and doughnuts with the curators of the Ebell’s Women’s History Month exhibit, "A Woman’s Place: Framing the Future." You can catch the show before it closes and see work from women artists exploring new interpretations of womanhood, feminism and art.
Grunion Run
Saturday, April 4, starting at 10:30 p.m. Venice Breakwater Ocean Front Walk, Venice COST: FREE; MORE INFO
Thousands of grunions on the shore.
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Courtesy of the Cabrillo Marine Aquarium
)
I have lived in Venice for more than 20 years and never actually seen a grunion, despite efforts, but that doesn’t mean it’s not fun to see all your neighbors scouring the beach by moonlight on a Saturday night. The Venice Oceanarium folks always organize an educational tent with lessons on how these unique fish show up on our shores to reproduce, and maybe you’ll luck out and time it right this year.
She’s Auspicious
Saturday, April 4, 7 p.m. Broad Stage 1310 11th St., Santa Monica COST: FROM $40; MORE INFO
L.A. native Mythili Prakash takes the Tamil dance form Bharatanatyam to new heights as a choreographer and performer. Her short dance film Mollika, commissioned by Sadler’s Wells Digital Stage in London, was nominated for a 2025 National Dance Award for Best Short Dance Film. She’s Auspicious, her latest production, "blurs the line between goddess and woman, exploring the dichotomy between celebration of the goddess versus the treatment of women in society." It was nominated for an Olivier Award in the category Best New Dance Performance in the U.K., and lucky for us, is on for one performance only at the Broad Stage in Santa Monica.
Julia Barajas
explores how college students achieve their goals, whether they’re fresh out of high school, pursuing graduate work or looking to join the labor force through alternative pathways.
Published April 2, 2026 5:00 AM
Cal State Long Beach is one of the 23 CSU campuses where Teamsters-represented workers held a strike last month.
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Brian Feinzimer
/
LAist
)
Topline:
The California Public Employment Relations Board (has issued a formal complaint against California State University trustees over the system’s alleged refusal to give raises to trades workers. The complaint follows a statewide strike earlier this year, in which workers at every campus walked off the job.
Why it matters: Teamsters Local 2010 represents 1,100 plumbers, electricians, HVAC techs, locksmiths and other building maintenance staff who work across the CSU system. A formal complaint from the Public Employment Relations Board means the two parties must resolve the dispute in a formal hearing process.
The backstory: According to Teamsters Local 2010, union members won wage increases in 2024 “after nearly three decades of stagnation.” That year, the union was on the verge of striking alongside the system's faculty, but it reached a last-minute deal with the CSU. The union has filed an unfair labor practice charge against the system, arguing that the CSU refused to honor contractually obligated raises and step increases for its members.
What the CSU says: The CSU maintains that conditions described in its collective bargaining agreement with the union — which “tied certain salary increases to the receipt of new, unallocated, ongoing state budget funding” — were not met.
What’s next: In an emailed statement, spokesperson Amy Bentley-Smith said the CSU welcomes “the opportunity to present the facts of this case before an administrative law judge.” After the formal hearing, the state board will propose a resolution to the dispute.
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Wind moves palm trees on Monday, Dec. 29, 2025, in Stanton.
(
Mel Melcon
/
Los Angeles Times
)
QUICK FACTS
Today’s weather: Mostly cloudy then sunny
Beaches: mid to upper 60s
Mountains: mid 60s to around 70 degrees
Inland: 64 to 71 degrees
Warnings and advisories: Wind advisory
What to expect: A mostly sunny afternoon with temperatures sticking to the low to mid 70s for most of Southern California. Breezy conditions will pick up in the afternoon for some valleys and mountain communities.
Read on ... for more details.
QUICK FACTS
Today’s weather: Mostly cloudy then sunny
Beaches: mid to upper 60s
Mountains: mid 60s to around 70 degrees
Inland: 64 to 71 degrees
Warnings and advisories: Wind advisory
The cool weather continues for one more day in Southern California. Later this evening, strong winds will kick in for some mountains and highway corridors ahead of a Santa Ana wind event slated for Friday.
Temperatures at the beaches are going to stick around the mid to upper 60s, and around 70 degrees more inland.
Coachella Valley, San Bernardino and Riverside County mountains will continue to see gusty winds until tonight.
At noon, the Antelope Valley will be under a wind advisory, with winds expected to reach 20 to 30 mph, and some gusts up to 50 mph. Wind advisories will also kick in for the 5 Freeway corridor, Ventura County mountains and the Santa Susana mountains, where gusts could reach 45 mph.
Voters wait in line at the Riverside County Registrar of Voters office in Riverside on Nov. 5, 2024
(
Jules Hotz
/
CalMatters
)
Topline:
CalMatters and a national consortium of news organizations Wednesday filed a motion in Riverside County court seeking public access to the warrants a judge approved allowing Sheriff Chad Bianco to seize hundreds of thousands of ballots for an unprecedented investigation into the outcome of the November 2025 special election.
Background: A Riverside County judge had ordered the warrants sealed, along with the sworn statements Bianco’s deputies made to a judge justifying their request to seize more than 1,400 boxes of Proposition 50 election materials from the Riverside County Registrar of Voters.
Why it matters: The coalition argues that it’s vitally important for the records to be made public, since they’re central to a bitter dispute over election integrity between two powerful state officials: Bianco, who is running for governor as a Republican, and Attorney General Rob Bonta, a Democrat who is running for re-election.
Read on ... for more on the case.
CalMatters and a national consortium of news organizations Wednesday filed a motion in Riverside County court seeking public access to the warrants a judge approved allowing Sheriff Chad Bianco to seize hundreds of thousands of ballots for an unprecedented investigation into the outcome of the November 2025 special election.
The groups are also filing a separate petition with the California Supreme Court that also seeks to have the records unsealed.
A Riverside County judge had ordered the warrants sealed, along with the sworn statements Bianco’s deputies made to a judge justifying their request to seize more than 1,400 boxes of Proposition 50 election materials from the Riverside County Registrar of Voters.
Lawyers representing CalMatters along with The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, The Riverside Record, other newspapers and local television network affiliates filed a motion to unseal the warrants and the sworn statements.
The coalition argues that it’s vitally important for the records to be made public, since they’re central to a bitter dispute over election integrity between two powerful state officials: Bianco, who is running for governor as a Republican, and Attorney General Rob Bonta, a Democrat who is running for re-election.
“The public should not be forced to navigate these competing allegations without the facts on which the investigation is based,” Jean-Paul Jassy, attorney for the news outlets, wrote in the motion. “Nor does the law require them to.”
Bianco obtained three warrants in February and March from Riverside County Judge Jay Kiel authorizing the sheriff’s office to begin seizing ballots and other election materials from Riverside County elections officials. Kiel, whom Bianco endorsed when he ran for the bench in 2022, sealed the warrants at the request of the sheriff’s office.
Bianco intended for his deputies to recount the more than 600,000 ballots cast in the county last year as part of an investigation over what a local activist group called discrepancies between the number of ballots cast and number tallied. The county’s top elections official, Art Tinoco, has rejected those claims and explained in February to the county’s Board of Supervisors that they were the result of the activist group using flawed and incomplete data.
The investigation and recount are on hold, Bianco said earlier this week, after Bonta and the UCLA Voting Rights Project filed several legal challenges seeking to halt them. Bonta had ordered Bianco to turn over the warrants and supporting statements. He said in his lawsuits that the sheriff had failed to allege a crime or provide enough cause to justify seizing the ballots, and accused Bianco of using the investigation as a campaign stunt.
Bonta’s office has refused to release those documents, citing the judge’s order sealing them.
Keeping them under seal has prevented the public from being able to scrutinize both politicians’ statements, in a hyper-partisan dispute ahead of a contentious election.
Bianco, in an interview last week, also refused CalMatters’ request for copies of the warrants. “No, you’re not going to,” he said. “When (the investigation’s) over, like every other case that’s sealed, when it’s unsealed, you’ll get to see it. … Don’t you act like this is something out of the ordinary, because it is not.”
Under state law, police must execute warrants within 10 days of obtaining them, after which the documents and the police’s supporting statements must be made public. But it is common for law enforcement to ask for them to remain sealed during active criminal investigations.
In the ballot case, attorneys for the media outlets argue Bianco himself publicized the investigation during a press conference on March 20. They wrote that even if Bianco’s department had confidential information to protect, that does not justify Kiel’s sealing of all the records.
“It is hard to imagine a stronger public interest,” Jassy wrote, than “access to a proceeding purporting to resolve allegations relating to election integrity — allegations at the heart of our democracy.”
