| Casa Vega | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Restaurant information | |
| Established | 1956 |
| Food type | Mexican cuisine |
| Street address | 13301 Ventura Blvd. |
| City | Sherman Oaks |
| State | California |
| Postal/ZIP Code | 91423 |
| Country | United States |
| Website | www |
Casa Vega is a restaurant in Sherman Oaks, California. In 2022 it was named one of America's Classics by the James Beard Foundation.
The restaurant was opened by Rafael Vega, whose mother crossed the U.S.-Mexico border into National City in 1934 to give birth to him, in 1956 when he was 22. [1] [2] [3] It is located at the corner of Ventura Blvd. and Fulton Avenue. [3] At the time it was one of the few restaurants serving Mexican cuisine located outside the Olvera Street area; [4] Vega's parents, who had immigrated from Tijuana, had operated a restaurant in Olvera Street. [5]
Many employees have worked there for decades. [2] According to the Los Angeles Daily News and the Hollywood Reporter, actors such as Jane Fonda, Marlon Brando, Cary Grant, Dean Martin and Desi Arnaz were regulars from time of the restaurant's beginnings and the restaurant continued to attract high-profile Hollywood people, such as Dakota Fanning, Charlize Theron and Sandra Bullock, over the subsequent decades. [3] [4]
Portions of the 2019 Movie Once Upon a Time in Hollywood were shot at the restaurant. [6]
The menu focuses on staples of Mexican cuisine such as flautas, tostadas, tamales, enchiladas, and albondigas. [1] [3]
In 2022 the restaurant was named one of America's Classics by the James Beard Foundation, which credited it for popularizing Mexican cuisine in the area. [1] The Infatuation called it "easily one of LA’s most recognizable Mexican restaurants". [7] According to Eater LA it is "one of Los Angeles’s most beloved restaurants". [8] CBS News called it "iconic". [6] People Magazine called it "a fixture in LA". [5]
The restaurant was taken over by Vega's daughter, Christina Vega, in 2012. [1] Rafael Vega died in 2021 of COVID. [1]
Wolfgang Johannes Puck is an Austrian-American chef and restaurateur.
José Ramón Andrés Puerta is a Washington, D.C.-based, Spanish-American chef and restaurateur. He owns restaurants in several cities around the United States, and has won a number of awards, both for his cooking, and for his humanitarian work. He is a professor and the founder of the Global Food Institute at George Washington University.
Nancy Silverton is an American chef, baker, and author. The winner of the James Beard Foundation's Outstanding Chef Award in 2014, Silverton is recognized for her role in popularizing sourdough and artisan breads in the United States.
David Chang is an American restaurateur, author, podcaster, and television personality. He is the founder of the Momofuku restaurant group. In 2009, Momofuku Ko was awarded two Michelin stars, which the restaurant has retained each year since. He co-founded the influential food magazine Lucky Peach in 2011 which lasted for 25 quarterly volumes into 2017. In 2018, Chang created, produced, and starred in a Netflix original series called Ugly Delicious, and through his Majordomo Media group, he has produced and/or starred in more television and podcasts. On November 29, 2020, he became the first celebrity to win the $1,000,000 top prize for his charity, Southern Smoke Foundation, and the fourteenth overall million dollar winner on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.
Ludovic Lefebvre is a Michelin-star French chef, restaurateur, author, and television personality. He trained in France for 12 years before moving to Los Angeles. He was awarded the prestigious Forbes Travel Guide Five Star Award at two different restaurants, L'Orangerie in 1999 and 2000 and Bastide in 2006.
Michael Voltaggio is an American celebrity chef, restaurateur, and author. He is a Top Chef television series alum and the winner of season 6. His brother Bryan Voltaggio is also a celebrity chef. He resides in Los Angeles, California.
Pok Pok was a group of Thai restaurants based in Portland, Oregon, founded and led by chef Andy Ricker. Pok Pok won both local recognition and major industry awards, with The Oregonian describing the restaurant as "one of those quintessentially Portland institutions, a sort of rags-to-riches story of the street cart that became a restaurant that became a legend." The main restaurant was located on Southeast Division Street in Portland; with its success Ricker opened satellite locations elsewhere in Portland, and at various times in Brooklyn, Los Angeles, and Las Vegas. Its remaining locations closed in 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Melissa Perello is an American chef, she is best known for holding a Michelin star at her restaurant Frances in San Francisco. She had previously won a star at restaurant Fifth Floor, and has won awards from both Chronicles and Food & Wine magazines.
Michael Solomonov is an Israeli chef known for his restaurants in Center City, Philadelphia. His first restaurant Zahav, founded in 2008, has received national recognition including the James Beard Foundation "Outstanding Restaurant" in 2019. Solomonov was also awarded Best Chef: Mid-Atlantic in 2011, Cookbook of the Year in 2016, and Outstanding Chef in 2017 from the James Beard Foundation. In 2021, The New York Times named his restaurant Laser Wolf as one of "the 50 places in America we're most excited about right now."
Jessica Largey is an American chef, who was named the Rising Star Chef of the Year at the James Beard Foundation Awards in 2015. She was the opening head chef at restaurant, Simone, in Los Angeles.
Eater is a food website by Vox Media. It was co-founded by Lockhart Steele and Ben Leventhal in 2005, and originally focused on dining and nightlife in New York City. Eater launched a national site in 2009, and covered nearly 20 cities by 2012. Vox Media acquired Eater, along with two others comprising the Curbed Network, in late 2013. In 2017, Eater had around 25 local sites in the United States, Canada, and England. The site has been recognized twelve times by the James Beard Foundation Awards.
Mei Lin is a Chinese-born American chef and television personality, best known as the winner of the twelfth season of the Bravo television network's reality television series, Top Chef. After winning Top Chef in 2014, Lin worked as a personal chef for Oprah Winfrey before going on to open her first restaurant, Nightshade in Los Angeles in 2019. She became engaged to her fiancé Andrew Skala on January 14, 2023. On April 9, 2023, Lin won the fourth season of Food Network's Tournament of Champions.
The James Beard Foundation Awards are annual awards presented by the James Beard Foundation to recognize culinary professionals in the United States. The awards recognize chefs, restaurateurs, authors and journalists each year, and are generally scheduled around James Beard's May birthday.
Mama Đút is a vegan restaurant serving Vietnamese cuisine in Portland, Oregon.
El Taco de Mexico is a restaurant in Denver, Colorado. In 2020 it was named one of America's Classics by the James Beard Foundation.
Pho 79 is a restaurant in Garden Grove, California. In 2019 it was named one of America's Classics by the James Beard Foundation. It has a Bib Gourmand designation from Michelin.
Los Hernandez is a restaurant in Union Gap, Washington. In 2018 it was named one of America's Classics by the James Beard Foundation.
Anajak Thai is a Thai restaurant in Sherman Oaks, California. The business earned Justin Pichetrungsi a James Beard Foundation Award in the Best Chef: California category.
Poppy was a restaurant in Seattle, in the U.S. state of Washington. The business earned chef Jerry Traunfeld James Beard Foundation Award nomination in the Outstanding Chef category.
34°8′48.5″N118°25′22″W / 34.146806°N 118.42278°W
