Fan Theory: Guerrilla Tacos Will Announce Brick and Mortar Location Tonight

[Update: Eater got it right.]

It's been rumored for ages that Guerrilla Tacos, Wes Avila's popular taco cart-turned-truck, has plans to move into a physical location somewhere in the city. True details have been scarce about such things, of course, and Eater certainly doesn't have any insider information, but on the eve of the company's four year anniversary party tonight, we present a fan theory: Avila is opening a standalone taco shop, and it's coming very, very soon — probably to the Arts District.

Here's what we know based solely on publicly-available information and a lot of hypothesizing.

First, there is the most obvious clue: the colorful poster for tonight's anniversary party, which both Avila and the Guerrilla Tacos team proper has been promoting on their social media channels for a while now. As the poster notes: there's a big announcement coming. So what would such a secretive announcement be other than a restaurant space? It's already well-documented that Avila has a cookbook in the works, and they just bought a brand new truck and have already showed it off to the world, so what's left but a physical address?

Speaking of that truck, just last week Guerrilla Tacos uploaded a short video showing off the inside of the new rig while wistfully remembering the start of it all: Avila's days cooking tacos from a small setup in the Arts District. And in the caption to that video are the words "Only one more incarnation to morph into ..." Man, what a cryptic ellipsis.

Of course, the blindingly obvious answer to the riddle is a brick and mortar location. But where?

Check that Instagram post again, the one with the video of the new truck, and you'll see the hashtag #BestTacosInTheArtsDistrict. On its face, maybe that's just a hashtag (and one they use quite often to promo themselves). But maybe it's a clue to the whereabouts of a new possible Guerrilla Tacos location. After all, doesn't it make the most sense that, four years into his incredible run, Avila would want to return to the neighborhood that helped him start it all?

Which brings us to the final piece of the puzzle. Take a look at another of Avila's personal Instagram shots, where this time he's being recorded in some sort of interview. Maybe it's the production work of some other media outlet or something personal the chef is working on his spare time, but more than likely it's a video to be played at tonight's anniversary party. Right? A little history, a little personal journey, something to keep the crowd entertained.

And then look at where the video is being filmed: a brick-walled, under-construction space with exposed beams. That description fits just about every single possible restaurant and/or warehouse space in the Arts District. It's also what seems to be a rather compact site, far from the massive square footage of something like Steve Samson's upcoming Rossoblu in Downtown, and more fitting, perhaps, for a smallish taco operation... There's that cryptic ellipsis again.

So what do we know for sure? Not much, if anything. We know that Avila and the Guerrilla Tacos team have been looking to put down a brick and mortar space somewhere in Los Angeles since at least 2014, and that it's going to be "on the Eastside". Maybe that means Boyle Heights and not Downtown? Who knows.

It's also known that Avila will be announcing something tonight at the Guerrilla Tacos private anniversary party. For the rest of us, we'll just have to wait and see.

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