When Tony Barragan labored at his household’s Echo Park Mexican restaurant within the Nineteen Seventies, he recurrently heard longtime prospects inform newcomers concerning the story of his father.
How Ramon Barragan got here to Los Angeles as a 16-year-old immigrant. How he went from dishwasher to go chef at a restaurant run by somebody from his small hometown of Tecuala, Nayarit. How Barragan opened up a spot bearing his final identify in 1961 at a former espresso store that seated solely 24. How he saved sufficient cash to purchase six storefronts subsequent door and expanded Barragan’s so it grew right into a sprawling palace that might seat 300 in its two bars, banquet room and patio.
“Prospects would supply like a guided tour in a museum, as a result of it wasn’t only a restaurant to them, it was a human phenomenon,” stated Tony. “They might discuss how they beloved the meals, after which level at us. ‘Look, that is the son! That’s Ramon!’”
Barragan’s was a part of a gaggle of Mexican eating places on Sundown Boulevard in Echo Park and Silver Lake run by immigrants from Nayarit that launched conventional Mexican dishes like cocido and sopes to Angelenos in sit-down environments past the Eastside. Ramon and his youngsters ultimately opened Barragan’s in Burbank and Glendale, nevertheless it was the unique one which grew to become a part of L.A.’s culinary panorama, {that a} 1983 Occasions evaluation praised for providing “very, excellent … Mexican dishes not generally seen in eating places relatively than being confined to the standard taco-enchilada combos.”
In its heyday within the Nineteen Seventies and Eighties, the Echo Park Barragan’s attracted lengthy strains, celeb regulars like Jackson Browne and even a go to from England’s Prince Philip, who arrived one night time with safety to eat “numerous guacamole and shmooze [sic] with the waiter about inexperienced playing cards,” based on a 1984 LA Weekly story. As soon as the hype died down and crowds moved on to different types of Mexican meals, Barragan’s nonetheless attracted longtimers with its stiff margaritas and reliably scrumptious meals, all primarily based on Ramon’s recipes that known as for freshly made sauces and restricted the “components out of cans to tomatoes and possibly olives,” based on his daughter, Carmen.
Barragan’s in Glendale on Thursday, August 8, 2019.
(Tim Berger / Glendale Information Press)
The Barragan’s patriarch died April 13 of pure causes at his house in Duarte, surrounded by household. He was 94.
He was born in 1930 to a father who was an itinerant salesman and a mom who ran a small retailer. Barragan inherited their entrepreneurial streak, hawking cheese in surrounding villages for a quesero when he was 12. However life in Tecuala was onerous, and Ramon had aspirations of shifting to america to work for Natalia Barraza, a buddy of his dad and mom who operated a profitable Mexican restaurant in downtown L.A. known as the Nayarit.
“He had that imaginative and prescient that this woman from Nayarit had come [to the U.S.] and constructed one thing,” stated Tony. “He wished to faucet into that.”
Ramon helped Barraza open a second Nayarit in Echo Park in 1951 and ultimately grew to become the top chef. He additionally satisfied a niece to begin her personal Mexican restaurant on Sundown, La Villa Taxco, which ultimately grew to become its personal profitable chain and beloved L.A. establishment. Quickly after, he opened Barragan’s just some blocks down from the Nayarit with seed cash from Barraza and borrowing in opposition to his house, which was a mile away.
Slender however powerful, he slowly transitioned the menu from a mixture of American and Mexican American classics in favor of guisados (stews) and soups that appealed to Echo Park’s rising Mexican and Chicano group. Working double shifts at a restaurant that was open six days every week within the early years from 7 within the morning to 10 at night time, Tony and his siblings bear in mind a father dedicated to his restaurant and prospects.
“If you watched him cook dinner, he would watch the flame to verify it was excellent,” he stated. “There was a service mentality to my father. He was right here to serve mankind, and it was to serve scrumptious sizzling meals.”
“He wished his waitresses to have their lipstick on and their footwear shined,” stated Carmen. “He wished perfection from his workers and his youngsters.”
However she and her siblings additionally bear in mind a young facet to their father, somebody who enrolled them in Catholic colleges for a greater schooling, tried to deal with them to donuts each morning or sneaked off on buying journeys “so we might personal two pairs of footwear as an alternative of 1,” based on Carmen. Ramon additionally inspired his employees to advance at Barragan’s or mentored them about how one can department out on their very own.
The Barragan story was advised by USC historical past professor Natalia Molina in her 2022 e-book “A Place on the Nayarit: How a Mexican Restaurant Nourished a Group.” The granddaughter of Natalia Barraza, Molina and her household frequented the unique Barragan’s as a baby. As an grownup, Barragan’s was a favourite place for drinks earlier than or after a recreation at Dodger Stadium, just some blocks east. The MacArthur fellow had fond recollections of the person she known as Tío Ramon sitting at a stool between the kitchen and counter to “vigilar [keep watch],” identical to her grandmother taught him.
“We take it with no consideration the cultural work that my grandma and Ramon did to have Mexican meals have a seat on the desk” in Los Angeles, Molina advised The Occasions, referring to their spots in her e-book as “city anchors” the place immigrants had been in a position to create and foster a group of their new nation. She and others had been heartbroken when the unique Barragan’s closed in 2013, the final of the unique Mexican eating places on Sundown run by Nayarit alumni.
“If it was simply concerning the meals, you’d say, ‘OK, I can simply go to a different Barragan’s,’” Molina stated. “However it represented, ‘We’re right here, we’re seen.’ For that to go away it, felt like an actual loss.”
The final Barragan’s remaining is in Burbank and run by Ramon’s son, Armando. In his later years, Ramon favored to cease by to talk with employees, many who had labored along with his household for many years, and revel in his birthdays with the meals that earned the Barragans their American dream.
“We’ve prospects who ate on the authentic location 40 years in the past they usually style the identical meals, they usually’re simply so completely satisfied,” Armando stated. “And all credit score goes to my dad insisting we by no means change any of his recipes.”
Ramon Barragan is survived by his second spouse, Josie; his youngsters Frank, Tony, Armando, Carmen, Grace Douglass and Rita Hiller; 17 grandchildren; and a number of great-grandchildren. Providers had been personal.
