Paying a Price for Progress

Ernie Jr.’s Taco House was about the last thing old in Old Pasadena. The 43-year-old chili con carne joint closed last week, and its guacamole-green and maraschino-red booths will soon be cleared out.

When they go, little will be left from the days when Colorado Boulevard restaurants posted signs like the one in Ernie Jr.’s doorway reminding folks that “No one with bare feet will be allowed in these premises.”

Starting in 1955, before bookstores sold coffee and coffee shops sold books, Ernie Jr.’s served up cheesy enchiladas and beefy burritos for the big appetites whetted by post-war prosperity. Eating there was a Southland initiation rite for an earlier wave of immigrants, folks from the prairies and places where beans are baked, who stopped by after rooting for the Big Ten team in the Rose Bowl.

“A lot of people were moving to L.A. from out of state then, and they tried Mexican food for the first time here,” said Ernie Cruz Jr., who ran the restaurant with his sister Tina. Though updated and expanded for contemporary tastes, the restaurant’s menu kept a few remnants of that era, such as the beverage list featuring buttermilk, sarsaparilla and Shirley Temples.

While many will lament the passing of a neighborhood landmark, Cruz’s feelings are mixed. He owns the building, and he’ll pay the price of progress for future profits. “As you get older, it’s hard to accept change. Most people refer to the street as being taken over by corporate America. But as a property owner, if it increases the value of something you own, it’s a plus.”

Ernie Jr.’s will become a “natural, healthy home furnishings” shop run by people from Berkeley. It will fit in the new neighborhood. On one side of Ernie Jr.’s, there’s already an origami store that also sells anodized aluminum vent louvers for those who want artsy luft in their lofts. On the other side, there’s a clothes shop with seemingly any kind of pullover you want as long as it’s a black V-neck. Across the street there’s a “body shop” that doesn’t fix cars but sells aromatherapy oils, and the busiest restaurant these days is a “factory” producing cheesecakes.

Despite the mismatch with its surroundings, Ernie Jr.’s had still been drawing customers. But Cruz said business in the last decade had slowed some as more restaurants opened and parking in Old Town became scarce. The Taco House had once relied heavily on carry-out sales, which nearly vanished when free street parking was eliminated, Cruz said.

In the end, the family decided that the income from the restaurant wouldn’t be enough to offset the heavy bill they will be footing to retrofit the building to meet earthquake safety standards. Leasing the space to a retailer was the better business option, Cruz said.

The Pasadena taco house was the youngest of the Cruz family’s restaurants. Ernie and Albina Cruz opened their first restaurant, Ernie’s, in their hometown of Lincoln Heights in 1944, when Ernie returned from Army service.

Ernie Jr. remembers the first restaurant making only a few dollars a day in the early years, but with the end of the war and the subsequent economic boom, the business took off. New locations were added at Lankershim Boulevard in North Hollywood and in Eagle Rock before the Pasadena restaurant’s opening.

When Ernie and Albina divorced in 1955, they split ownership of the restaurants, with Ernie taking the Lincoln Heights and North Hollywood locations and Albina keeping the branches in Eagle Rock and Pasadena, as well as the kids, Ernie Jr., Tere and Tina. After the split, Albina decided to name her restaurants after Ernie Jr.

The children, along with cousin Marina Munoz, took over the restaurant operations after Albina retired in 1982. Ernie Jr.’s grown children, Ernie III, Christopher and Angela have helped in the restaurant since childhood, when they stood on beer boxes to reach the kitchen counter.

Ernie Jr. and Tina will continue to run their other Ernie Jr.’s Taco House in Eagle Rock, which has the same menu. So for those whose idea of aromatherapy is a steaming bowl of menudo, satisfaction remains a few minutes drive away.