Los Angeles-style birria tacos, molcajete star at a ‘Cal-Mex’ restaurant open late

When Chalio, an east Los Angeles tradition, first came to Texas eight years ago, we had barely heard of birria.

“People didn’t know what it was — they were having a hard time pronouncing the name,” said Raul Luis, Los Angeles’ “El Señor” of birria and owner of restaurants praised by the late Anthony Bourdain for their true-to-tradition spicy lamb or goat stew.

To this day, many Texans think Chalio is a one-of-a-kind restaurant at 308 E. Seminary Drive near La Gran Plaza mall.

They don’t know it’s been a Los Angeles legend since 1987.

But the crowds that now come until 11 p.m. nightly know.

“We tell people [birria] is the Mexican original barbecue, because it’s a slow cooking process,” Luis said on a recent Eats Beat Live streaming show.

“We steam it about 8 to 10 hours, and then we get the broth and make a [consomme] sauce out of it,” Luis said.

He’s the star of his own YouTube show, “Birria World.”

Don’t expect Chalio to be like Texas restaurants.

You might not be greeted with chips and hot sauce, more of a south Texas/northern Mexico tradition that has spread.

The most familiar dish to Tex-Mex customers might be the chile relleno, a well-seasoned Anaheim pepper with a distinctive ranchero sauce and one of Chalio’s oversize chicken enchiladas alongside in a giant, homestyle tortilla.

Use the habanero pepper vinegar sauce on the table to give anything a kick.

Ever since Chalio opened — in a former IHoP that has doubled and tripled in size — the gateway entree is the spicy molcajete.

That’s a sizzling, steaming stone bowl loaded with steak, shrimp, chicken, sausage, jalapenos and cheese in a spicy red sauce. It’s like a giant bowl of sizzling fajitas loaded with peppers.

The menu also offers dishes seen less often here such as queso fundido with chorizo, pork in green chile, spicy shrimp and “wet” burritos with green sauce.

The desserts include not only tres leches cake and flan or chocoflan but also red velvet cheesecake and jericalla, a creme brulee-like dish from Jalisco that often follows birria.

Chalio is open daily for breakfast (until noon).

It stays open for lunch and dinner until 11 p.m., one of the few options for showgoers, moviegoers or for a late-night spicy fix.

“I was out sometimes and I would try to go somewhere, and everything was closed,” Luis said.

“The only thing that was open was Whataburger or the fast-food joints. ... [I said] ‘we’re going to open up,’ and we’ve had great success.”