With the Boyle Heights fire still burning, restaurants are relying on which way the wind blows

Outside on the windowsill, a silver bucket advertises “FREE MASK. Stay Healthy, Boyle Heights!” Inside there is an empty dining room.

Chef Jonathan Perez hoped World Cup parties, game day specials and a new summer menu would draw diners to Distrito Catorce, a gastropub in Boyle Heights where he oversees an inventive Mexican menu. But due to a disastrous, still-burning campfire that broke out in the neighborhood last Wednesday, the restaurant and bar are almost deserted.

Neighborhood restaurants and bars are reporting a drastic drop in business after thousands of Angelenos sought shelter under a constant cloud of smoke. The decline in customers comes at a crucial time, after years of hardship for local restaurateurs.

“It will set us back,” Perez said of the weeklong fire. “As a business owner, you want to be upset, but you also understand the long-term health concerns. You want everyone to be safe, but you want everyone to have a good experience here.”

On Tuesday, Distrito Catorce opened at 9 a.m. By the afternoon, Perez and his small team had served a total of seven guests. Foot traffic has dwindled to a minimum, and the restaurant's layout — with an almost entirely open wall facing one of Boyle Height's busiest thoroughfares — doesn't help. He can't cover the open windows without appearing closed, and he can't afford to close the restaurant even for a day in the hope that a customer will come in.

Nearby Milpa Kitchen, home to Perez's acclaimed Taqueria Macheen, said business has dropped 60% since the fire began.

On Tuesday, Distrito Catorce's neighboring Mariachi Plaza, a normally bustling landmark, appeared deserted.

Thousands of L.A. residents are being advised to stay indoors, particularly in Boyle Heights and surrounding areas, even as winds continue to change the direction of smoke and toxic air throughout the region. The week-long fire occurred at a cold storage facility operated by Lineage – formerly known as Lineage Logistics – and could take days to extinguish. Both lineage and firefighters said the fire started on the roof of the building, which also has solar panels.

Perez and his business partner in Distrito Catorce, Guillermo Piñon, have distributed masks to customers and passersby to protect them.

“There is no safe level of particulate pollution,” said Will Barrett, assistant vice president for national air quality policy at the American Lung Assn.

At first, Perez said the wind blew smoke away from his restaurants. But on weekends, the smoke and smell of chemicals invaded everything, and he eventually rearranged his team's schedule so that he sometimes cooked alone with Piñon and ran the entire restaurant.

“It almost smelled like burning plastic,” Perez said. “It looked completely sunny, and then it just looked dark, like something was blocking the sun.”

He and Piñon have since ordered a roll-up awning that covers their open wall without appearing closed, and expect to receive and install it by the end of the week. Ordering takeout or delivery from local businesses can help them stay afloat, Perez said.

And until the fire is extinguished, he and Piñon operate depending on where the wind blows.

At legendary taco truck Mariscos Jalisco, chef-owner Raul Ortega still serves crispy, shrimp-filled tacos dorados and will continue to do so, but only because his food truck isn't in the smoke and out of the way of the wind.

“Luckily for us, the wind is blowing in the opposite direction to us,” he said. “We haven't had any problems with it, sometimes not even the smell. We're very lucky, but other people aren't so lucky. We worked every day.”

Ortega, who lives in the neighborhood, regularly passes by stores that were temporarily closed because of the fire. “I see smoke right on the road surface,” he said. When he visited his Monterey Park gym over the weekend, he said the smell of smoke was far more noticeable; At his taco truck on Olympic Boulevard, it's “very little.”

Business has remained steady for him in the area, he said, but if the wind shifts in his truck's direction, he, too, will temporarily close. “Maybe we need to do something about it because we don’t need to be in this situation,” Ortega said.

Another local taquero wasn't so lucky.

Guisados ​​co-owner Armando De La Torre Sr. said pedestrian traffic along his stretch of Cesar E. Chavez Avenue has already been impacted by road construction. Now it's decimated.

“Because of the fires, a lot of people aren’t going outside,” he said. “And they don’t want to be where there’s air conditioning because it just filters the same smoke.”

De La Torre founded the local taco chain in Boyle Heights in 2006 and operates it with his family. Since last Wednesday, there has been at least a 20% drop in sales for both in-person and online ordering at the original location. The Echo Park outpost has also seen a decline in sales, he said, and customers now regularly ask how the Boyle Heights Taqueria is doing.

The family's burger joint – George's Burger Stand – is three blocks away and has seen similar declines in business, according to De La Torre.

His employees now wear masks — especially when they say they feel the effects of the smoke in their throats.

“I don’t know what to tell them, I don’t know what to say, I don’t know when it’s going to be over,” De La Torre said. “I feel pretty helpless, which I am…We're in the hospitality business. We have to be there whenever people want to get out. That's the business we're in.”

Like Perez, he believes the best way to help is to support small businesses, especially restaurants, which are also suffering from rising costs for food, insurance, gas and other necessary business expenses.

“It’s difficult at the moment,” said De La Torre. “I don't like to complain because I'm blessed compared to some people. However, these little things affect us and we just hold on and hope this too passes.”