Danny Trejo Drops Surprise Cantina in the Thick of Pasadena Today

Farley Elliott is the Senior Editor at Eater LA and the author of Los Angeles Street Food: A History From Tamaleros to Taco Trucks. He covers restaurants in every form, from breaking news to the culture, people, and history that surrounds LA's dining landscape.

Actor Danny Trejo doesn’t know when to stop, particularly when it comes to opening restaurants. As if to prove the point, he and partners Ash Shah and Jeff Georgino have surprise opened a second location of Trejo’s Cantina today in Pasadena. The full-service restaurant lands right next door to the Pasadena Playhouse, and opens quietly at 11 a.m.

Keen-eyed passersby will recognize the Trejo’s name hanging from an awning in front of the former Red, White & Bluezz building, but the rest of the restaurant is tucked away a bit inside the courtyard area of the century-old property on Molino Avenue. There are big, wide windows that look out on the street and line one long end of the dining room though, making for a light-filled hideaway for tacos, mezcal, and more.

For now, the restaurant is doing a semi-quiet lunch run, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily. There’s a full bar and some lounge seating up front, and a long dining room with booth seating, communal tables, and two-and four-tops running towards the back glassed-in kitchen. Give it a few weeks and Trejo’s Cantina Pasadena will likely expand into dinner hours (think shrimp diablo and a bone-in ribeye) to offer something up to the playhouse crowd. And, assuming it’s a hit, those same menu items will eventually cross back to the Hollywood cantina location as well. For now, it’s all tacos on deck in Pasadena.

Trejo’s Cantina Pasadena
37 S. El Molino Ave.
Pasadena, CA