Ramon Barragan, founder of the Barragans chain Mexican restaurants, dies

When Tony Barragan worked in his family in the Echo Park Mexican Restaurant in the 1970s, long -time customers heard newcomers told about the stories.

How Ramon Barragan came to Los Angeles as a 16-year-old immigrant. How he went from dishwasher to the chef in a restaurant, as Barragan Openad carried in a place with Haydin in 1961 in a former café in a café with a banquet and the terrace.

“Customers would offer a guided tour in a museum because it was not a restaurant for them, it was a human phenomenon,” said Tony. “You would talk about how the food and the point were loved on us. 'Look, that's the latest! That's Ramon!”

Barragan's was part of a group of Mexican restaurants at the Sunset Boulevard in Echo Park and on Silver Lake, which was led by immigrants from Nayarit, the traditional Mexican dishes such as Cocido Ramon and his children finally introduced to Openad Barragan's in Burrank and Glendale, but it was the original that was part of the La -powerful landscape. The ususal Taco-anchilada combinations. “

In his heyday in the 1970s and 1980s, the Echo Park Barragan attracted long snakes, prominent regular guests such as Jackson Browne and even a visit to England's Prince Philip, who came to eat with security securicity one night [sic] With the waiter about Green Cards, ”according to a weekly story from 1984. When the hype and the crowds switched to Ot Steyle's Mexican food, Barragans were still based on Longtimens meals, which were required for freshly made sauces, and restricted the“ ingredients from CANs tomatoes ”, and maybe olives. Carry, Carmens, College.

The patriarch of the Barragan died on April 13 of natural reasons in his house in Duarte, surrounded by the family. He was 94.

Was he a prover in 1930? Barragan inherited her entrepreneurial strip, the cheese in surrounding villages for one Quesero Who he was 12 years old. But life in Tecuala was hard, and Ramon had the efforts to move to the USA to work for Natalia Barraza, a friend of his parer service a successful Mexican restaurant in downtown La named Nayarit.

“He had that this lady came from Nayarit [to the U.S.] And build something, ”said Tony.

Ramon Half Barraza to open a second Nayarit in Echo Park in 1951 and finally became chef. He also convinced a niece, the Mexican restaurant from Herwn am Sunset, La Villa Taxco, who finally became a successful chain and the beloved La Institute. Soon afterwards, Barragan opened only a few blocks of houses from the Nayarit with a seed money from Barraza and the loan against his home, which was a mile away.

Slender, but hard, he slowly changed the menu from a mixture of American and Mexican classics in favor of Guisados ​​(stews) and Soupelad to the growing Mexican and Chicano community of Echo Park. Tony and his siblings remember double layers in a restaurant that was open six days a week in the first years from 7 a.m. until 10 a.m. He remembers a father who has devoted himself to customers and customers.

“When you cooked it, he said.” There was a service mentality for my Fati. He was here to serve humanity and it was to separate delicious hot food. “

“Carmen said.” He triggered perfection to his employees and children. “

But she and all siblings also remember a delicate side of her father, someone who had enrolled at Catholic schools for better training, tried to treat them with donuts every morning or pursued the shopping trips. “According to Carmen. Ramon also encouraged his workers to drive himself up to Barragan or to hire them how to branch out on their own.

The Barragan stories were told by the USC history professor Natalia Molina in every book by the granddaughter of Natalia Barraza, Molina and every family who visited the original Barragan as a child. As an adult, Barragan's was a popular place for drinks before a game in the Dodger Stadium, just a few blocks east. The Macarthur Fellow had Fonda memories to the man she called Tío Ramon, sitting on a stool between the kitchen and the contrast to “Screw [keep watch]“How every grandmother taught him.

Los -anker, said Molina the Times, reference to the table, reference to the table, reference to the table, reference to the table, reference to her stain community in her new country. You and others were the last of the original Mexican restaurants at Sunset from Nayarit Alumni.

“When it came to the food, you would say: 'Ok, I can just go to another Barragan,' said Molina. To make it disappeared, it felt like a real loss.”

The last Barragan's remaining person is in Burank and is run by Ramon's son Armando. In his later years, Ramon concluded to chat with the workers, many who had worked with the family for decades, and enjoy his birds with meals that have the American dream of the earradans.

“We have funomers who ate the original location 40 years ago, and the same food and the same food, and they are just so happy,” said Armando. “And every loan goes to my father, who insists that we never change one of his recipes.”

Ramon Barragan is survived by his second wife Josie; His children Frank, Tony, Armando, Carmen, Grace Douglass and Rita Hiller; 17 grandchildren; And several great -grandchildren. Services were private.