This New Food Truck Offers a Taste of Los Angeles

Allen Rios, who launched a food truck called A Taste of LA 5280 in April, is from West Covina, a town "about twenty miles east of downtown Los Angeles," he says. His wife, whom he met in Hollywood, used to live in Colorado.

After the two became parents, she suggested a move to the Centennial State. "I came and visited and fell in love with it," Rios notes. "It's super chill. And in March 2018, we decided to move out here."

Rios began cooking meals for himself at home "because my parents were always working," he recalls. "I would come home from school, make a little spaghetti, make a hamburger, and l loved it. I was always in bands and used to deejay — I'm a very artistic person. I just love art, and I love to express myself."

At age nineteen, he landed his first kitchen job at Cal Poly Pomona's cafeteria. "It was my first real gig, my first little white chef coat," Rios says. "I had a really tough chef, and I fell in love with the aggressiveness and the militarization of the kitchen. It all started from there."

Rios went on to work in various kitchens. Young and a bit hot-headed, his next gig was at a West Covina pizzeria, Dalia's, where he made a few improvements to existing dishes that earned the place a feature in the local newspaper.

From there, he went to the chain BJ's Restaurant & Brewhouse, which proved to be a pivotal experience. "That's where I learned speed; that's where I learned the backbone of the restaurant industry," Rios says. "I mastered all seven stations, learned how to handle big parties and complex orders, and worked my way up to kitchen supervisor."
As Rios continued seeking opportunities to enhance his skills and learn the ins and outs of the industry, he took a kitchen-manager position at Umami Burger. "That's where I learned food costs, ordering, scheduling and how to manage a restaurant," he says.

When his now-wife became pregnant, Rios sought a job that paid better so he could support his growing family. "I saw that Katsuya at L.A. Live was hiring, and I got my first experience in a high-casual, semi-fine-dining Japanese restaurant. It's right there at the Staples Center. We were doing 300 covers in three hours during events like the Grammy Awards and Lakers games. ... The chef there kicked my ass," he says.

Next he worked at Wolfgang Puck, where he learned the art of making dishes from scratch, and later the University of Southern California, where he helped open the USC Village as a sous chef before making the move to Colorado, where he had stints at Park Burger, STK Steakhouse and meal delivery service Supper Bell, where he worked out of a commissary kitchen and quickly made friends with local food truck operators.

After Rio landed the job of executive chef at Black Bear Golf Club, he began thinking more seriously about launching a mobile food business of his own. "I'd been making other people money for too long," he says. "I wanted to run my own show. My wife told me, 'If you're always doing inventory and managing food costs, why not do it for yourself?'"
In 2023, with a loan from his wife, Rios reached out to his friends at Ninja Ramen and purchased their old trailer. "I had it in front of my house for over a year," he says. "I was afraid to jump in. For a full year while still working at Black Bear, I would work on various food trucks during the weekends and do events to scope out the market and learn operations." As his confidence grew, Rios finally decided to leave his job at Black Bear and fully commit to launching his own business.

He officially launched A Taste of LA 5280 on April 20 with a focus on fare inspired by his upbringing in southern California. "When I walk around this city, I see a lot of blue hats — Dodgers hats, Angels hats — and I always told my wife, we need to get those bacon-wrapped hot dogs out here from Hollywood. We've got to do California burritos, because I'm looking for the food and I can't find it," Rios says.

Now, three months into operation, he's serving the dishes he missed from back home. His favorites are the carne asada fries and the L.A. dog. "I'm a club kid — I've been going to clubs since I was sixteen, and you know who was always outside ready to feed us? Vendors with hot dog carts. A quarter-pound dog wrapped in bacon with caramelized onions and bell peppers topped with mayo, mustard and ketchup. That's it. They'll fill you up," Rios notes. The menu also includes a burger and a teriyaki chicken sandwich.

As Rios continues to grow his business, he is now accepting orders on DoorDash for delivery within a five-mile radius of his location. He also has plans for a winter soup concept. "We're going to do about six different soups. Nothing's more fun than homemade soups," he says.

For more information, including the truck's schedule, follow it on Instagram @atasteofla5280.