El Tepeyac Café, Unique Mexican Restaurant in Los Angeles
Before opening El Tepeyac Café, the Rojas family founded a restaurant in downtown Los Angeles in 1942 called
El Tupinamba Café – the family's first venture into the restaurant business. The Rojas family would end up relocating to Lincoln Heights, however, where it opened another restaurant known as La Villa Café.
Several years later, the family once again relocated, this time to Boyle Heights, and El Tepeyac Café was born.
After the untimely death of grandfather Salvador Rojas, Manuel Rojas stepped in and, along with his mother Rebecca, developed El Tepeyac into a neighborhood favorite in East Los Angeles.
In 2013, father and founder, Manuel Rojas passed away leaving his daughter Elena Rojas to carry on the El Tepeyac name. Today, Elena continues the Rojas family tradition, now a 3rd generation legacy (and soon to be 4th generation with Carlos “Chuck” Thome, who is Manuel’s grandson).
Making a Name for Ourselves
In 2009, El Tepeyac was featured nationally on Travel Channel’s “Man v. Food” where the show highlighted the long running tradition ‘Manuel’s Special Burrito Challenge’. The challenge is one person eating the entire Manuel’s Special burrito in one sitting – that is 5 lbs. of burrito consumed by one person! Over the years, many have tried, but few have succeeded.
El Tepeyac has continually been recognized as a go-to restaurant over the years. “101 Best Chowdowns in America” previously ranked El Tepeyac #23 in the entire country while websites like Yelp, City Search, Wherethelocalseat.com, AOLCityBest.com and others alike have rated El Tepeyac Café with top stars.
Manuel Rojas with "Man v. Food" host Adam Richman