“Do you have tacos Ensenada?”
Manuel Garcia-Rulfo is standing in front of La Tostaderia inside Grand Central Market, contemplating his lunch order. Nearly 6 feet 3, the actor towers over the counter. He’s wearing sunglasses, jeans and a short-sleeved silk bowling shirt.
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The man behind the counter explains that the restaurant doesn’t serve Ensenada-style tacos but that it does have fried fish tacos on the menu. Garcia-Rulfo pauses for a moment, then grins conspiratorially.
“This is a bit much,” he says. “Let’s order it.”
1:48 p.m. La Tostaderia
He proceeds to order aguachile and a fried fish taco along with a bottle of Jarritos tamarind soda, all in Spanish.
La Tostaderia is Garcia-Rulfo’s first stop on a taco crawl around downtown Los Angeles. Just down the street is where the actor spent a good amount of time filming the Netflix show “The Lincoln Lawyer,” based on Michael Connelly’s series of novels about defense attorney Mickey Haller. Part 2 of the show’s second season premieres Aug. 3. (Our crawl took place before the start of the SAG-AFTRA strike.)
Haller, played by Garcia-Rulfo, is a Los Angeles-based attorney. A sizable portion of the show features Haller visiting the downtown courthouse and various restaurants and food trucks around the city.
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Restaurants play an integral part in the novels and in the television series, with Haller constantly eating and snacking. Pink’s Hot Dogs, Pann’s Restaurant, Philippe the Original and Taylor’s steakhouse in Koreatown are all featured. In one episode, Haller introduces his driver, Izzy Letts, played by Jazz Raycole, to birria at the Tacos y Birria La Unica truck.
“Food is a big part of the show and my character,” Garcia-Rulfo says while we wait for our food. “There is something about Mickey Haller where he’s always moving. Eating gives him movement and it’s part of how he focuses.”
Garcia-Rulfo wanted to ensure that his character’s Mexican heritage (Haller’s mother is Mexican and his father is American) was represented in the foods he eats.
“A lot of people didn’t know the character was Mexican,” he says. “They saw the movie with Matthew McConaughey and didn’t know.”
Garcia-Rulfo, who was born in Guadalajara and grew up on his grandfather’s Jalisco ranch, weighed in on some of the foods featured on the show.
“You know, one time they said he was going to eat a hot dog or something, and I said, ‘OK, a taco instead,’” he says. “It’s a part of the character. It’s part of who he is.”
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Although he doesn’t get around as much as Haller, Garcia-Rulfo says he tries to visit Grand Central Market about twice a month, but he never seems to eat beyond La Tostaderia.
“I always wanted to try a sandwich,” he says. “I think it’s called Eggslut? Every time I come, I go, ‘Nah nah, I’ll go for the things I like,’ you know?”
When our tacos and aguachile arrive, he wastes no time before digging in. He squeezes some lime onto his taco, then takes a bite that demolishes more than half.
It’s a formidable taco, with a fat strip of battered and fried black cod folded into a corn tortilla with cabbage slaw, chipotle aioli, avocado purée, sour cream and a squirt of salsa roja.
“I couldn’t remember if they had tacos Ensenada here,” he says, still chewing. “I love that sauce on the tacos Ensenada. These aren’t really those, but it’s really good.”
He finishes the taco in three bites, then turns his attention to the aguachile, served in a large bowl under a fan of avocado alongside rounds of fried corn tortilla. He breaks apart some of the tortillas and layers on some shrimp, radish, red onion and avocado.
“You need to get a little of everything in each bite,” he says.
The shrimp are ballasted with a charred habanero sauce and lots of lime, the citrus cooking the fish to just firm and plump.
“I love ordering the aguachiles here because they throw a lot of lime and chile in there and it’s very fresh and spicy,” he says. “It’s so good for, you know, it’s not like I party, but if you get a rough night for a hangover, this is the best thing.”
2:32 p.m. Ditroit Taquería
When Garcia-Rulfo reaches the order window at Ditroit, Enrique Olvera’s taqueria adjacent to his Arts District restaurant Damian, he asks if the chef is there.
“I never met Enrique, but he’s amazing,” he tells me. “He’s a genius. I’ve been to Pujol in Mexico and it was so good.”
He orders a carnitas taco, a fish flauta and a fresh coconut to drink, then takes a seat on the shaded patio.
He uses his straw to chip away at the meat inside the coconut while he tells me about growing up on his grandfather’s ranch.
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“There were like 31 of us cousins,” he said. “It was crazy. My grandma and my mom would cook. The best thing is the fresh tortillas. We grow the corn on the ranch and my grandma or my mom would make them. Pat, pat with their hands. When they are fresh and warm, with a little salt and butter, they’re amazing.”
“The Lincoln Lawyer” is Garcia-Rulfo’s first lead in an American television series. He’s appeared in a string of notable films, including the recent “A Man Called Otto” opposite Tom Hanks and alongside Ryan Reynolds in “6 Underground,” but says he was hesitant to take on the role of the savvy Mickey Haller.
“Everything was going to be in English, legal terms and all that,” he says. “I didn’t know if I can pull it off. The TV pace is a lot faster than movies, with not a lot of time to prepare. But I thought, if you’re afraid, then you just have to do it.
“Oh wow,” he says when our food arrives. “Look at these things.”
The carnitas taco, on a deep indigo tortilla, crowds the plate next to a mammoth flauta in the same shade of blue.
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He starts with the flauta, blanketed in crema, salsa verde, finely shredded cabbage and crumbled queso. It hangs off the side of the plate.
“This is the flauta with fish,” he says, gesturing to his plate. “I get it here because usually there is meat inside and I never see it with fish.”
The crackly-skinned cylinder shatters when he takes a bite, sending fragments of tortilla all over the table. As he makes his way to the center, globs of crema and salsa keep threatening to drip on his nice silk shirt but never do.
He squeezes some lime onto his taco, then takes a bite, ignoring the salsa bar near the register.
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The hunks of pork are wobbly with fat, simply dressed with chopped onion and cilantro and a few rounds of pickled carrot.
“I don’t put salsa on it because I want to taste the meat and the tortilla,” he says. “These are good,” he adds, pointing to the now half-eaten tortilla. “They are not the ranch tortillas, but they are good.”
Garcia-Rulfo still spends time on the ranch, where he started a lime farm a few years back.
“I was shooting something I didn’t really like in Mexico and I thought I was not really liking acting anymore,” he says. “I started the lime farm, but then I got into acting again. Now I go back and forth.”
The actor has about 300 lime trees on the ranch and sells his produce exclusively to local vendors in Mexico.
“It’s really rewarding working with your hands,” he says. “It’s hard work, but I love it.”
3:16 p.m. Guerrilla Tacos
Guerrilla Tacos is one of the many places on Garcia-Rulfo’s list of restaurants to try in Los Angeles. Despite the in-between hour, the dining room is full. We slide into a booth in the bar, with the outline of the late L.A. Times critic Jonathan Gold drawn on the wall behind us.
Owner Brittney Valles stops by our table to take our order. She suggests trying the pork belly taco or the lomo saltado, but this being his first time, Garcia-Rulfo is set on ordering the sweet potato taco.
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While we wait for our tacos, Garcia-Rulfo shares a few details from the second season of “The Lincoln Lawyer.”
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“It just feels more exciting, and everything happens faster,” he says. “The stakes are higher, there’s another love interest and some really cool new characters. I think people will receive it really well.”
A third season of the show has yet to be confirmed, but the actor has a handful of other projects he’s excited about. He recently wrapped the upcoming Netflix film “Pedro Páramo,” in which he plays the lead character in the film adaptation of Juan Rulfo’s 1958 novella.
Valles returns with our tacos and his eyes widen.
“Es bellísimo!” he says.
The taco is beautiful and overstuffed, with thick rounds of roasted sweet potato reaching the edges of the blue corn tortilla. The vegetable is heavily dressed with an orange almond and cashew chile sauce, crumbled feta cheese, fried bits of corn and diced green onion.
“It’s so packed,” he says, taking a bite and dropping half of the contents onto his plate. “I’ve never had a taco like this before in my life.”
Garcia-Rulfo motions for Valles to visit the table. He is transfixed by the bottles lining the bar, pointing out labels he’s familiar with.
“You have one of the best tequila and mezcal selections I’ve seen,” he says. “I’m from Jalisco. I’m going to bring you a bottle.”
“Where do you live?” Valles asks.
“Most of the time in Guadalajara in Mexico, but here in L.A. too,” he says. “I love this. You’re going to see me here.”
Your plan for a taco crawl
La Tostaderia, 317 S. Broadway, Los Angeles, (213) 624-2378, grandcentralmarket.com/vendors/la-tostaderia
Ditroit Taqueria, 2117 Violet St., Los Angeles, (213) 559-7257, downtownla.com/go/ditroit-taqueria
Guerrilla Tacos, 2000 E. 7th St., Los Angeles, (213) 375-3300, guerrillatacos.com
Watch L.A. Times Today at 7 p.m. on Spectrum News 1 on Channel 1 or live stream on the Spectrum News App. Palos Verdes Peninsula and Orange County viewers can watch on Cox Systems on channel 99.
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