Mexican restaurant La Serenata de Garibaldi is closing its doors after 32 years of business in Boyle Heights.
LA Eater is reporting that repeated phone calls to the long-standing eatery on First Street went unanswered. The Google and Yelp profiles for the restaurant lists La Serenata de Garibaldi as ‘closed.’ LA Eater writes that the restaurant may have been bought as part of the recent real estate boom in Boyle Heights.
La Serenata de Garibaldi was founded in 1985 by chef José Rodríguez and his wife Aurora. Soon after it opened, a Los Angeles Times review called it the “neighborhood Mexican place of your dreams,” and La Serenata de Garibaldi soon became one of Los Angeles’ favorite Mexican restaurant.
When Rodríguez died in 2010, a Times obituary noted that he had named his restaurant inspired in Boyle Height’s Mariachi tradition and the nearby plaza where mariachi musicians seek work. The name alludes to serenades provided by Mariachis at the famous Plaza de Garibaldi in Mexico City.
La Serenata de Garibaldi has a second location in West Los Angeles which remains open.
