Former Elf Cafe Chef Juvenal Rodriguez Looks to Rehab the Spanish Menu at El Cid

Silver Lake’s El Cid is in for a bit of a menu refresh, with today’s announcement of a new executive chef. Juvenal Rodriguez, formerly of Elf Cafe in Echo Park, has officially taken over paella duties for the iconic hillside eatery.

Of course, that doesn’t mean El Cid is losing its Spanish flare. The 52 year-old restaurant obviously doesn’t need to do things very differently in order to stay relevant; their weekend flamenco dancing shows and stellar patio are more than enough to keep guests filing in.

Still, Rodriguez could help to shore up a menu that could use a bit of massaging. With Spanish cuisine flagging across Los Angeles in general, now’s certainly a great time to retool and rethink some of the looser ends of a sometimes yawning menu, without pushing the classics out the door.

The former Elf Cafe chef of course skews vegetarian, so look for less meat-intensive options moving forward, alongside a more local approach to the produce being used. Rodriguez is currently on site, overseeing Sunday paella dinners, the patio-only evening happy hour menu, and more, so expect those menu refreshes to roll out any time.