It was a wet January Saturday when I finally made it to Sonoratown, and honestly, the rain might have been the best thing that could have happened. The line that typically snakes out the door of this tiny Sonoran-style taqueria on 7th Street, just east of downtown, was almost manageable. Almost. I still waited about twenty minutes, standing under a too-small awning with a half-dozen other people who clearly had the same idea, and not one of us was leaving.
Sonoratown is the kind of place that doesn’t need to explain itself. The menu is short — burritos, quesadillas, tacos — and everything runs through two things: flour tortillas made from scratch every morning and beef sourced from ranches in Sonora, Mexico. That’s it. That’s the whole pitch, and it’s more than enough.
I ordered two carne asada tacos and a quesillo, which is their cheese quesadilla, and took my number to a table wedged near the window. The tortillas come out soft and faintly charred, still warm, pliable enough to fold without cracking. The carne asada is the real thing — not that uniform, thinly sliced stuff from a steam tray, but actual pieces of grilled beef with edges that have some char on them, a little smoke, a little salt. The salsa verde they hand you in a small cup is bright and sharp, and you’ll want more of it. Ask for more of it.
The quesillo arrived as a folded flour tortilla packed with cheese that pulled apart in long strands, browned along the outside from the plancha. It cost around four dollars. I ate it in about ninety seconds and considered ordering another one.
The two people running the whole operation — Teo Diaz and Jennifer Feltham — opened this place in 2016, and it still feels like it’s running at exactly the scale they intended. There are maybe eight tables inside. The prep area is open and you can watch the tortillas being pressed and cooked while you eat. Nothing about it is designed to impress you, which is precisely why it does.
On that rainy Saturday, the windows were fogged and someone had propped the door open slightly despite the weather. It smelled incredible. A family at the table next to me was sharing what looked like four burritos between two adults and two kids, all of them eating with the quiet focus of people who aren’t wasting time talking when there’s food on the table.
Prices are low — tacos run around four to five dollars, burritos a bit more. Cash is easiest, though they take cards. It’s lunch and early dinner hours only, and they close when they sell out, which happens. If you show up at 1:30 on a weekend and they’re out of tortillas, that’s just how it goes.
Sonoratown is on 7th Street near Alvarado, close enough to the MacArthur Park Metro stop that you could reasonably take the B Line and walk five minutes. The neighborhood isn’t polished. That’s fine. The taco is not asking you to evaluate the surroundings.
Go on a Tuesday if you can. Or go on a rainy Saturday if that’s when you find yourself thinking about it. Either way, get the carne asada tacos and the quesillo, and ask for extra salsa verde before you sit down.
