Culver City’s Cult Favorite Taco Restaurant Takes a Spot in Booming Arts District

Culver City taco favorite Loqui is expanding from its current setup at the Platform development, growing into a new space along busy 3rd Street in the Arts District, not far from Nightshade, Manuela, and even Salt Bae’s eventual LA restaurant.

Loqui’s name is listed as one of several new incoming tenants to the under-construction Third and Traction project, right next door to Wurstkuche in the Arts District. The Loopnet listing for the development shows a full rehab of the 1910-era building, with nearly 50,000 square feet of restaurant, retail, and office space. There are a number of other tenants looking to get in, including a juice shop, and brokers are reportedly still looking for a big tenant to take the rooftop restaurant space being offered by CBRE.

CBRE

Ownership for Loqui confirmed the jump to a second location in the Arts District, saying an opening in August or September of this year is likely. The move will allow them to slightly grow their menu craft Mexican beer and wine while keeping its taco-focused menu intact, and will give diners more space to eat in thanks to a bigger patio. The existing Culver City restaurant opened in 2016 with a focus on big flour tortillas and plenty of grilled and stewed meats, not unlike the off-menu perron taco from street food upstart Tacos 1986.

Loqui’s jump to the Arts District comes at a busy time for the area, when places like Father’s Office and Girl & the Goat are still tracking for arrival down the line. And that’s to say nothing of modern Mexican dining star Enrique Olvera, who is putting his own sit-down restaurant and attached taco restaurant further south, in the same alleyway as Bestia.

Loqui Arts District. 810 W. 3rd St., Los Angeles, CA.

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