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Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Hey, it's Neil Saavedra. You're listening to KFI AM640, The Fork Report, on demand on the iHeartRadio app. Let me teach you how to eat. Let me teach you how to eat. How to marinate the meat. Let me teach you how to eat. It's a culinary treat. Let me teach you how to eat. KFI AM 640 live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app. Happy Saturday to you.
It is the Fork Report, all things food, beverage, and beyond. I am your well-fed host, Neil Saavedra. How do you do? Every Saturday, we get together for three hours, and we celebrate food, the culture behind it, the people that make it, cooking going out to eat tipping a glass and everything in between i've said this before uh the very word companion the root word is bread pun
companion means someone you break bread with so we celebrate those things on the show every week and uh my next guest christy vega is from casa vega we've had her on on the phone once before we've never had her in studio and i know she was with our buddy tim conway jr the other day but we welcome her back to the studio today hi hi nice to see you thank you thank you for having me oh no i'm thrilled um i it is
It's so strange because being in L.A., growing up in this area, being born in Encino, but I like to clarify to people it was the north side of the boulevard. So they're like, oh, it's, you know, I'm like, no, Burbank Boulevard. Sorry. So loving everything LA, it's a staple. Tell everybody that might not know about Casa Vega, how long it's been there and the family background.
So Casa Vega, we are celebrating our 70th year in September. Wow, just like Disneyland. That's right. 1956, and it was founded by my father, Rafael Ray Vega, at the age of 22. And he founded Casa Vega as a way to put his parents back to work. My grandparents were restaurateurs in L.A. when they immigrated from Tijuana, and they owned a very famous restaurant.
It was the first sit-down Mexican restaurant on Olvera Street. And then when they, I don't know if you know this little bit of history about L.A., they were considering banning alcohol because it became part of the state park district. Mm-hmm. And so my grandpa was like, well, we can't survive without the margaritas in the bar. No one can. Nobody can. So they went to Hollywood.
It didn't turn out so well for them over there. It was a little bit of anti-Latino sentiment. Operation Wetback. So they closed. And then my dad came back to support his family. So he had just been in hospitality school. He quit. to come home, and then he and my grandmother would cater every night, and by day he would sell life insurance to support his parents.
And when he was selling life insurance, he met a woman who was like, you guys are the Vegas from Alvarez Street, you need to reopen. And he's like, well, we're belly up, we don't need money. And she said, I have a place in Studio City, and I'll give you three months free rent. And so he borrowed from everybody he knew, and then he put his parents back to work.
So my grandmother got busy in the kitchen, And my grandfather got busy behind the bar and my dad still sold life insurance by day to keep the income coming in. But then he'd work the restaurant all night and let his parents rest. But when we got to the valley and we were just a few blocks east of where Casa Vega is now, there's a barbecues galore. If you know. And so it was wonderful.
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Chapter 2: What is Casa Vega and its significance in Los Angeles?
Thanks for hanging out. It's the day before the Oscars. So, of course, we do our Oscars show. I started this a handful of years ago. And it ties in to food, of course. You know, Wolfgang Puck when it comes to catering the actual event. But we have so many places that have been around for a long time that are...
really that have fed the artists, have fed the actors, the people behind the scenes forever. And Casa Vega is one of them on Ventura Boulevard there. Christy Vega is with us. It took years in the making, but finally you've got that stunning. Now I've only seen pictures. I'm going to grab the fam and we're going to come out and check it out. But I've seen the beautiful pictures of the new patio.
Tell us about that. Thank you. Yeah, the patio was a three year journey because I knew Alfresco with the city wasn't going to be very permissive or really allow us to do anything. So I went through the massive CUP process and changed the use of land, which means that I now have a 3000 square foot patio.
I'm able to put a retractable roof on it to keep the customers shaded from the valley heat or, you know, kind of close it and we can keep the heat in. And then I've got an 18-seat bar, full-plumbed bar, which you're not allowed to do in Alfresco. I added two bathrooms, and the patio seat's 100. Wow, that's awesome. Is there a fire pit out there too? There's not a fire pit.
Because there's something that is stunning that goes the length or part of it. It's waters, but I do have fire on there too. So I built, I call it the heartbeat of the patio. And so there's a big fountain in the middle. And you can sit. It has seating. So you can grab a seat by the fountain. I dedicated it to date nights because we have so many date nights at Casa Vega.
And I hear that from my customers. This was our first date. This was our first date. So we get families and first dates. So the fountain is dedicated to date night. But I piped in gas, natural gas, to the lanterns because I really wanted to bring in that old world charm. Wow. From Casa Vega, from the interior. So you'll see a lot of elements like that.
So we have gas lanterns all around with the live flicker flame. And I mirrored little boxes of smoke glass so that dance is in it. And then it's really beautiful. And so I did a totem rod iron. I have outdoor leather tufted boots. So it gives that old Hollywood vibe that the restaurant has. Looks gorgeous. And I can tell by just how you dress that you have an eye for detail.
Did you have a lot of say in that? Did you really say, hey, listen, can we do gas out here? Can we do those types of things? Absolutely. Every decision, I was involved. I was there. I approved. I picked it.
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Chapter 3: How did the Vega family establish Casa Vega in Los Angeles?
Of course, it takes a huge team to do something like this. We had architects and designers and X, Y, and Z. But I think they were a little thrown off about how every single decision I was like, no, I need to know. I need to know. I need to approve. I need to do this. I want it to look like this. I was very specific because this is my family. It's my dad. And I really want to take care of it.
And I want to honor the customers that have kept us in business for so long. And the crown weighs heavy. I don't want to mess anything up. I want to keep Casa Vega relevant, but I don't want to dishonor what's made it so famous for all these years. Did you name? Yes. And what is the name? I named the patio, the Ray Vega patio. I love it. Yeah.
That's after my father and our founder and we lost him in COVID and he always had the dream of a patio and we had like four different renditions and architects, but he always got very frustrated with the city. And so. What? L.A. ? Yeah. And so he'd give up and just like throw up his hands and not deal with it. But I thought, I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it for him.
I'm going to get this through. And every year he would try and buy the property and he'd write the same landlord a letter from 1961. I found in the corporate books all the way through. And I just got the land this year. Wow. Good for you. That is an awesome story. That is awesome. Good for you. That is what legacy deserves.
I have a friend who owns, I don't know, 10 different restaurants, same restaurant, different locations in LA. And he always makes the joke that he'd prefer the powers that be and the politicians in LA to just go, no, we hate business. Go away. Instead of jumping through the hoops. Oh no, we want to help. We want to help. But they don't.
A friend of mine is on the city council, Councilwoman Monica Rodriguez. And she was thrilled because we originally tried to do the show from the location. And she had texted me. She goes, if you're going, I'm going. And I said, of course. Yeah. We'll all hang out. She is 100% responsible that the party is open, right? She's real. She loves food and small business and she's the real deal.
And every time we would get stuck, she would pull me out and push it through. And I was just like, LA needs more of this. She is the real deal. And I bust her chops on the daily run for mayor already and straighten this garbage out. Right. Just be honest. I don't, nobody really cares when it comes down to it. If somebody's a moderate on either side, just get stuff done. Get it done.
And that's what she does. Yeah. And she absolutely does. And I, you know, I met her through a food friend and fell in love with her. I'm just like, she speaks the truth. You know, do we always agree? No, of course not. I wouldn't, I don't think anybody agrees across the board, but man, I believe her math. I trust her math and that she's, you know, looking through these things.
She will be mayor one day. Yes. Oh, no. I believe I've said it on the show many times. So much so one time I was joking with somebody about her being mayor that the L.A. Times picked it up and reached out to her saying, are you running? And I'm like, good. Yeah. Get her to do it. But she's one of the few that loves working where she is. Yes.
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Chapter 4: What challenges did Christy Vega face while expanding Casa Vega?
Just enough redness in there to let you know that it was thoughtfully prepared and not overcooked. And well, it's going to go in a taco. We'll just chop it up. It'll be fine. No, they took care of that meat before they put it in that taco. And these chips and salsa, I know it sounds plain Jane, but stop it. No, it's the basics.
If you don't get the basics right, they're not going to get everything else right. One of my favorite sayings of Mo Kelly is get the easy ones right. And I stole that and I run with it because it absolutely is... It's true. If you can't get the easy stuff right, you're not going to get the complicated stuff.
So that's why I like to taste simple things or I like to say simple cocktails, see if they get them right. Because if they're not going to get those right, they're not going to get a Sazerac or something else right that might have a little more nuance to it. All right, stick around.
We'll talk a little bit about, I want to tell you actually some movies that were shot at Casa Vega as well that you may not have known. So go nowhere. You're listening to The Fork Report with Neil Saavedra. On demand from KFI AM640. Oscars are tomorrow, so we're kind of doing an Oscars show. We had Casa Vega in here. What a delight. You know, there's just people and places that you root for.
Christy and her family, we root for here because she speaks her mind, you know. And she's a powerhouse. You know, I follow her. I watch some of the things she does. I've seen stuff in print and social media and in interviews. You know, it took a long time. Not only the three to four years it took to actually get their new patio, which is gorgeous.
But when she told me the story about her father since 1961, trying to buy the property to be able to do something like this, man, you got to stand up and cheer. That's the end of a movie right there. But in addition to them celebrating their 70th year, just like Disneyland, as a matter of fact, 1956 was when they popped up.
But celebrating that on the day before the Oscars, it's nice to talk about the fact that they've been in film. Not only did Marlon Brando put them on the map, back in the day when Casa Vega in Sherman Oaks opened. But Once Upon a Time in Hollywood came out in 2019. It was used for multiple scenes there. The End, 1978 with Burt Reynolds. His character finds a lawyer at the restaurant.
Valley Girl, The Neon Side, that super, super familiar and landmark movie. Sign in the background is in that film. But it's just got this great vibe. It's dark and intimate on the inside. Now they have a different ambiance in the back. But from what Christy Vega was telling us, they still made sure that it was vintage. That it had that old world vibe. Putting in gas lamps and the like.
Celebrities have long been going there. I don't know that I can remember a time that I've been in there on an evening. on a date or with friends or whatever it was back in the day and i didn't see someone famous in there Just enjoying themselves. I mean, oftentimes you'd see them with these big old margaritas hanging out.
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Chapter 5: What features does the new Ray Vega Patio offer?
uh movies like that and it's been in like the real housewives of beverly hills uh another movie called killer's delight in 1978 barnaby jones was there in 1973 uh you know so i i just i love those kind of things that separate places like casa vega and la proper you know that set us apart that way All right, more to come. Go to where? It's the Fork Report. I'm Neil Saavedra.
This is KFI, heard everywhere on the iHeartRadio app. You've been listening to the Fork Report. You can always hear us live on KFI AM 640, 2 to 5 p.m. on Saturday, and anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app.